Adjudication Committee
Dr. Christopher Dietz
Christopher Dietz composes music inspired by a wide variety of sources, both real and conceptual. Poetry, sound as sculpture and color, how toddlers play, deep time and the cosmos, rhythm as geometry, religion and politics, animal behavior, and the music of others are a few of the subjects that have informed his musical imagination.
His music has been performed by contemporary music ensembles including Alarm Will Sound, Decoda, Ensemble Échappé, NODUS, The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Ogni Suono, Duo Scorpio, The McCormick Percussion Group, The East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, The Chicago Ensemble, Trio Kavak, TACTUS Ensemble, as well as traditional ensembles such as L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, The San Jose Chamber Orchestra, The Beau Soir Trio, The Orange County Symphony, The Toledo Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphonic Band and many university ensembles.
Recognition of his work has come from ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, The Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, The Riverside Symphony Composer Reading Project (NYC), The Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Random Access Music, The Utah Arts Festival’s Orchestral Commission Prize as well as several academic awards, grants and scholarships. Christopher's music has been released on New Focus, AMP, Centaur, Navona, American Modern, and Cambria Records.
Christopher holds a Ph.D. in composition and theory from the University of Michigan as well as degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Wisconsin. www.christopher-dietz.com
Kurt Doles has been active in new music for thirty years as a composer, performer, conductor, and curator. He currently serves as the Director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at BGSU.
Kurt Doles
Dr. Piyawat Louilarpprasert
“Young and Gifted, Meet the rebel Thai composer taking music to unheard heights” (CNN News Worlds Report, Karla Cripps)
Originally from Bangkok, Piyawat Louilarpprasert is a Thai composer/artist who works interweave of composition, visual art and technology. Piyawat has been awarded commissions and prizes including Fromm Foundation Commission (USA), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Hellerau Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Commission (Germany), Impuls Composer Commission (Graz), International Coproduction Fund (IKF)—Goethe Institut, ISCM/Asian Composer League Prize (New Zealand), MATA Festival (New York), ASCAP Morton Gould Award 2018-20-21 (USA), Lucerne Festival Commission 2021 (Switzerland), American Composer Orchestra Earshot Reading (USA), KulturKontakt Artist in Residence (Vienna) and many more.
He works with groups: Tacet(i), Arditti, Alarm Will Sound, Arditti, [Switch~ Ensemble], Berlin Philharmonic Horn Section, International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn Wire, Mozaik, Platypus, Meitar, Wet Ink, Lucerne Alumni, Omnibus, Orkest Ereprijs, Vertixe Sonora, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Trickster Orchestra, Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra, University Cincinnati Chamber Players, University of Austin Texas Chamber Ensemble, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, American Composer Orchestra, Elbland Philharmonie etc.
Piyawat Louilarpprasert holds a DMA in composition from Cornell University, Royal College of Music (M.M.), London and College of Music, Mahidol University (B.M.), Bangkok. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at Bowling Green State University (BGSU)
The music of composer Marilyn Shrude is characterized by its warmth and lyricism, rich timbre, multi-layered constructions, and complex blend of tonality and atonality. The result is a bright, shimmering and delicately wrought sound world that is at once both powerful and fragile (Natvig – New Grove).
Shrude earned degrees from Alverno College and Northwestern University. Among her honors are those from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America/ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Sorel Foundation (Medallion Winner for Choral Music 2011), and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was the first woman to receive the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for Orchestral Music and the Cleveland Arts Prize for Music. In 2014 she was given BGSU’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dr. Marilyn Shrude
Active as a composer, pianist, teacher, and contemporary music advocate, Shrude has consistently promoted American music through her many years as founder and director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music (1987-99), as chair of the Department of Musicology/Composition/Theory at BGSU (1998-2011) and as coordinator of the doctoral program in contemporary music (2006-present). Together with saxophonist, John Sampen, she has premiered, recorded and presented hundreds of works by living composers both in the US and abroad.
Dr. Brian Snow
Praised by the Boston Globe for his “…pugnacious, eloquent, self-assurance…”, cellist Brian Snow has earned a reputation as a compelling and versatile performer and a skilled educator. Dr. Snow has performed and recorded with a variety of artists, including Meredith Monk, The National, Max Richter, Björk, and the Emerson String Quartet and has worked closely with composers including Nico Muhly, David T. Little, and Martin Bresnick. In 2013, he and violinist Caroline Chin released a critically acclaimed CD of violin and cello music by Elliott Carter on Centaur Records. He has also appeared on New Amsterdam, Innova, Deutsche Gramophon, Cantaloupe, and Naxos labels. He has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, 92nd St. Y, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, and has performed regularly with many prominent contemporary music ensembles, including ACME, Alarm Will Sound, Da Capo Chamber Players, and Talea Ensemble.
As principal cellist of New York Symphonic Ensemble, Dr. Snow performed in halls throughout Japan on that ensemble's annual tours and has appeared as soloist at halls in Fukuoka and Sendai. Other concerto appearances include Riverside Orchestra in New York, Longy Chamber Orchestra in Boston as winner of the Longy Concerto Soloists Competition, Crescent City Symphony in New Orleans, the Hartt Symphony as first prize winner of the Paranov Competition, and the BGSU Philharmonia.
Dr. Snow has presented recitals and masterclasses nationally and internationally at institutions including Oberlin Conservatory, University of Missouri, Sam Houston State University, and Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China. Dr. Snow received a DMA from Stony Brook University, a MM from Yale, and holds degrees from Hartt and Longy Schools of Music. His teachers have included Aldo Parisot, David Finckel, and Colin Carr. Dr. Snow has previously served in faculty positions at Sarah Lawrence College, Western Connecticut State University, and Brooklyn Conservatory and currently serves as Associate Professor of Cello at Bowling Green State University. In the summers, Dr. Snow serves on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center. He performs on a cello made by master American luthier Jon van Kouwenhowen.