Sheila Silver wins 2007 Sackler Prize in Composition
edited from press release: http://www.sacklercompositionprize.uconn.edu/2007%20Prize.html

Sheila Silver is the recipient of the 2007 Sackler Prize in Composition for her opera, The Thief of Love, A Lyric-Comic Opera in Three Acts. The opera was featured in New York City Opera's Showcasing American Composers in May 2000, and received its fully staged world premiere in March 2001 by the Stony Brook Opera with David Lawton, conductor, Ned Canty, director, and sets by Phillip Baldwin. A film of that production will be released shortly by Hummingbird Films.

Sheila Silver is an important and vital voice in American music today. She has written in a wide range of mediums: from solo instrumental works to large orchestral works; from opera to feature film scores. Her musical language is a unique synthesis of the tonal and atonal worlds, coupled with a rhythmic complexity which is both masterful and compelling. Again and again, audiences and critics praise her music as powerful and emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived. "Only a few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary." (Wetterauer Zeitung, Germany, 2004)

The purpose of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize is to provide financial support for the creation of new musical works as a part of the mission of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut. The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize is a part of a broader structure promoting innovation, inventiveness and the creative spirit within the School of Fine Arts. It is an extension of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Master Artists Institute and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Artists in Residence Program. It provides the opportunity for cutting edge creative exploration and productivity. It
will provide the essence of creativity in the artistic program of the School. Somerset Maugham in his book The Summing Up states, "The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down hill." This prize provides an environment for artists to create as a natural part of their artistic growth. It provides the unique and unusual opportunity for the liberation of the soul.

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize, an international award, offers a substantial recognition including public performances, recordings, and a prize of $20,000 (USD). The competition will be an annual event rotating among specific areas of the musical arts. These include: jazz ensemble, choir, opera, wind ensemble, orchestra, children's choir, chamber ensemble, solo instrument, voice, and electronic music.

 STONY BROOK, N.Y., January 22, 2007 - Stony Brook University student Conor Nelson was awarded both the First Prize and the rarely bestowed Grand Prize in the final round of the 51st annual WAMSO Young Artist Competition. held Sunday, January 7 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Nelson, 24,  a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook, where he studies with Carol Wincenc is a flutist from Toronto.

 He received a $1,000 award from the Minnesota Orchestral Association; the $5,000 WAMSO Young Artist Award; the $2,500 WAMSO Achievement Award; a performance in a subscription concert with the Minnesota Orchestra; a taped performance on McGraw Hill's Young Artist Showcase, WQXR in New York City; and the Erma Strachauer First Place medal.