Iron Composer 2014 | Iron Composer

Instrumentation:	Low String Trio
Secret Ingredient:	Sound Map of downtown Cleveland (hear)
Performers:	Scott Dixon (bass), Laura Shuster (viola), Heidi Albert (cello), Joe Drew (sound projection)
Judges:	Scott Dixon (performer), Andrew Rindfleisch (composer), Carlton Woods
Emcee:	Mark Satola
Top Prizes:	Jason Thorpe Buchanan, Iron Composer ($1,000) Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Audience Favorite Award

The 2014 battle for the title of Iron Composer was another close one. Just two points separated the top finishers, and the rest were not far behind. The team behind the competition crafted a site-specific challenge in honor of the new venue on the shore of Lake Erie. They made a sound map of downtown Cleveland, within a 1-mile radius of the Great Lakes Science Center, capturing sounds like water lapping against the hull of a ship, exuberant high school students on a field trip, and even the calls of scalpers outside a Cleveland Indians game. The instrumentation was a trio of the lower string instruments that so often get neglected by composers: viola, cello, and double bass. To make extra sure that attention was paid to the lowest of them all, the bassist was also the performer judge.

FINALISTS

		Jason Buchanan (San Mateo, CA) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Eastman School of Music and was selected as Artist in Residence, Bergen (Norway) by USF Verftet and the City Council of Bergen. He is the founder of Melos Music and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg (Germany). [www.jasonthorpebuchanan.com]
		Michelle McQuade Dewhirst (Green Bay, WI) serves as Associate Professor of Music at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She is an active horn player and a founder of a very small consortium, an ensemble devoted to music that lasts one minute or less or that consist of one hundred or fewer notes. Her music has been performed by St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Pacifica String Quartet, and eighth blackbird. [www.michellemcquadedewhirst.com]
		Charles Mason (Coral Gables, FL) is a professor of composition and chair of the composition department at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. He has been awarded the Rome Prize, the National Endowment of the Arts Individual Artist Award, the American Composer Orchestra’s “Playing It Unsafe” award, and the Delius Prize. His work has been commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, Ritz Chamber Players, DUO 46, and the Miami String Quartet. His music is featured on releases by Innova Recordings, Quindecim Recordings, and Capstone Recordings. [www.charlesnormanmason.com]
		Polina Nazaykinskaya (New Haven, CT) is a violinist and composer from Togliatti, Russia. She is currently a doctoral student at City University of New York. Her music has been performed by the Russian National Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Yale Symphony Orchestra, Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Olaf Philharmonia, and Boston Metro Opera. [ymusic.digication.com/polinamusic/Welcome/published]
		Gene Pritsker (New York, NY) is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation; an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble who have released cd’s on Col-legno, Composers Concordance and Innova Records. His music has been performed by Adelaide Symphony, Brooklyn, Shanghai and Berlin Philharmonic, as well as Anne Akiko Meyers, and Simone Dinnerstein. His film credits include orchestration for Cloud Atlas. [www.genepritsker.com]