Download two composers receive hoefer prize from san francisco conservatory

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Rik Malone
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SAN FRANCISCO, November 2, 2010
TWO COMPOSERS RECEIVE HOEFER PRIZE FROM
SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
Only one composer should win the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s annual Hoefer
Prize, an award established in 2009 to generate new works from outstanding alumni composers. But this
year, the Hoefer Award Selection Committee saw so much to admire in its top two candidates that it
granted awards to them both. Neil Rolnick (’74) has received the 2011-2012 prize, while Ian Dicke’s
(’04) proposal was selected in advance for the 2012-2013 award.
The Hoefer Prize stems from a bequest by Jacqueline Stanhope Hoefer, a devout San Francisco
arts patron from the 1970s until her death at age 83 in 2006. Hoefer’s estate earmarked $500,000 for an
endowed fund that covers all composer fees to produce a new work. The winning composer visits the
Conservatory for a week-long residency that includes rehearsals, seminars, master classes and other
activities. The residency culminates in a public performance and recording by the Conservatory’s New
Music Ensemble conducted by Nicole Paiement, who also collaborates with the composers during the
composition process.
“This year, the alumni composers solicited for a possible Hoefer Prize were all working at an
extremely high level. However, two stood out from the rest, in completely contrasting ways, both for their
quality and also for what they could contribute to the Conservatory during the one-week residency that
accompanies the prize,” said Dan Becker, chair of composition at the Conservatory and a member of the
Hoefer Prize selection committee. “The panel therefore unanimously decided to award the prize to both
composers, one for the 2011-2012 season and the other for the 2012-2013 season.”
“The Hoefer Prize adds to the ever-growing momentum of the Conservatory’s composition
department,” Becker added. “Unique among its peer institutions, the school now presents two high-profile
world premieres by Conservatory composers each year—the Hoefer Prize and our annual Highsmith
(more)
orchestral composition award. Together with our other programs, this shows a department that cares about
supporting its students both inside our building and once they leave our halls.”
A pioneer in the use of computers in performance since the late 1970s, Rolnick often incorporates
digital sampling, interactive multimedia, and elements of traditional musical theater in his music. As an
educator he brings together the commonality of artistic creation across many disciplines, working with
filmmakers, writers and video and media artists. Despite its heterogeneous focus, Rolnick’s music is
highly melodic and accessible, characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging” and
as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.” He earned a B.A. in English literature from Harvard
College and studied composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, with John Adams and
Andrew Imbrie at the Conservatory and with Richard Felciano and Olly Wilson at the University of
California–Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in composition. He is a professor of music at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, where he was founding director of the iEAR Studios.
The music of composer and singer/songwriter Dicke includes works for orchestra, chorus,
chamber ensembles and electronic media. Heralded by San Francisco Classical Voice as “colorful, welldesigned, and deftly scored,” Dicke’s works explore contemporary social-political culture through a mix
of pungent and triadic harmonies, dance-like rhythms and layered ostinati. Dicke’s works have been
presented by ensembles and festivals around the world, including the ISCM World New Music Days, the
Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop, Music X, the Redshift Ensemble,
Gamma-UT, Vox Novus and the SCI National Conference. In 2007, Dicke was awarded a MetLife
Creative Connections grant from the Meet the Composer Foundation. He holds degrees from the
University of Michigan and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is currently a doctoral student
at The University of Texas–Austin.
Manly Romero, the inaugural Hoefer Award winner in 2009, has just completed his
commissioned piece Doppelgänger for two solo violins, two solo trumpets and double ensemble. He
visits the Conservatory in March 2011 for his residency, with a performance of his work on March 12
with the New Music Ensemble. Of his piece Romero remarks, “Doppelganger, a 25-minute concerto in
two movements, is about pairs of things: pairs of instruments, ensembles, soloists, pitches, formal
sections, etc. What’s interesting is that one partner in the pair is always a shadow of the other in some
way. They are never equal. The hierarchy seems obvious at first, but as time passes, one begins to
question which partner really is the original, which is the copy.”
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About San Francisco Conservatory of Music:
Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is the oldest conservatory in the American West
and has earned an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. Notable alumni
include Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Jeffrey Kahane and Aaron Jay Kernis, among others. The Conservatory
offers its 400 collegiate and graduate students fully accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in
composition and instrumental and vocal performance. Its Preparatory Division provides exceptionally high
standards of musical excellence and personal attention to more than 550 younger students. The Conservatory’s
faculty and students give more than 400 public performances each year, many of which are offered to the
public at no charge. Formerly located at 19th Avenue and Ortega Street in San Francisco’s Sunset District, the
Conservatory moved to its new home in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center in 2006. The new school is
an architectural and acoustical masterwork for the Conservatory’s second century. Its Caroline H. Hume
Concert Hall was lauded by the New York Times as the “most enticing classical-music setting” in the San
Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit www.sfcm.edu.