The New Music Champion Award

Composer Richard Brooks (Our 2006-2007 New Music Champion) never had it in mind to start a record label [Capstone] at all. The chairman of the music department at Nassau Community College and an active participant in the Society of Composers, Brooks more than had his hands full already when, in 1985, he and a colleague, composer Reynold Weidenaar, decided to self-release an LP of their music.
(Read more on Richard Brooks here.)

What is the New Music Champion Award?

The NEW MUSIC CHAMPION award has been presented biennially by the New Music Connoisseur to an individual or a closely associated team of practicing participants serving any area of contemporary music (but not necessarily purely musical) who have clearly

  1. demonstrated a regard for and understanding of contemporary music's place in the arts and in our society and has pursued a career devoted to that notion
  2. made very definite contributions to areas of new musical activity that support music’s creation and production and that are necessary for the maintenance of the health and prosperity of the art -- such as leadership, organizational design, administration, technology, education/ mentoring, influential literature and any activity that proves inspirational to and ultimately necessary for the survival of the new music community and those who champion contemporary music
  3. accepted the importance of the music press (including support for the mission of the New Music Connoisseur) and the essential value of criticism and reportage.

Recipients through 2006-07

1998-1999 Francis Thorne
2000-2001 Cheryl Seltzer & Joel Sachs
2000-2001 Otto Luening (special posthumous award)
2002-2003 Paul Sperry
2004-2005 Frances Richard
2006-2007 Richard Brooks

The specific justifications for these particular awards may be elucidated as follows:

Francis Thorne, for his role in the founding and development of the American Composers Orchestra and other significant organizations devoted to fostering new music activities

Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, for their creation of the ensemble Continuum and for their tireless, superior musical efforts on behalf of talented youth, the seeds of the future of musical creativity

Otto Luening, in memoriam, for a lifetime devoted to the formation of many musical institutions, such as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (with Vladimir Ussachevsky), the American Music Center, American Recording Society, Composers Recording, Inc., and a whole host of worthwhile efforts to champion the future of contemporary music

Paul Sperry, for his important work in fostering the art of song along with opportunities for talented singers through the organization the Joy of Singing

Frances Richard, for her untiring devotion to serious contemporary music and its lifetime practitioners in the work she has performed at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)

Richard Brooks, for his energetic enterprise, the establishment and successful realization of Capstone Records, a great medium for the propagation of living compositions, and for his teaching and all of his various activities and offices on behalf of the cause of new music.