Paola Prestini

Paola Prestini is a composer of classical music.

Biography

Prestini graduated from the Juilliard School, where she "had already developed a reputation as a formidable impresario even before she graduated".[1] She studied there under Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. She was also a PD Soros Fellow.[2]

In 1999, while still a student, Prestini founded VisionIntoArt, an interdisciplinary arts company that established the annual 21c Liederabend festival, the Colorado Project at MASS MoCA, and a variety of multimedia collaborations. She is also the creative designer for the Original Music Workshop and the director of National Sawdust. Her programming endeavors earned her :large stores of gratitude in the new-music world".[3]

She sits on the strategy committee for Prototype Festival.[4] Some of the musical compositions she has writing or is working on include: Gilgamesh, Laybyrinth, Aging Magician, Epiphany, The Colorado, Oceanic Verses, Two Oars, and The Ribbon Project for Mass Re-Imaginings.[5]

She has taught at various New York inner city schools and at academic institutions around Africa, Italy and Mexico.

Prestini's music has been commissioned by and performed at the following institutes: Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera and the Kronos Quartet, and in non-U.S. venues. Recordings of her music have been released on VIA Records, Innova, and Tzadik Records and her compositions published in the Arcana series by Hips Road.

She is the editor of the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composer handbook.

Recognition and awards

The New York Times referred to Prestini as "the enterprising composer and impresario" and a "human resources alchemist".[6] In 2011, she was named one of the Top 100 Composers in the World under 40 by National Public Radio.[7] In 2001 Pretini was one of eight of America's “most promising composers in the early stages of their professional careers [to be] selected out of nearly 200 submissions received from around the country."[8] Excerpts from The Hubble Cantata were praised as "the high point of the evening visually as well as musically” at Liederabend, OP. L.A. in April 2016.[9]

Prestini received the Victor Herbert Award (ASCAP in 2014[10] and the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for double string quartet and double bass (in 2002).[11] She has also been the recipient of the: NEFA grant Award of $75,000 in 2015,[12] the New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant in both 2006 and 2009.

In 2009, Prestini received first prize for her work Nightsong: For Solo Marimba in the Marimba/Cello Duo Category Classical Marimba League Composition, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant Award.[13] She also received an American Music Center CAP Grant in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010; the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust for New Music Grant in 2008; the Trust for Mutual Understanding Grant in 2008;[14] the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant/Swing Space Award in 2006; and the Monumental Brass Quintet Women's Commissioning Award in 2003. She also received the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and other fellowships from Carnegie Hall and the Sundance Institute, among others.

Prestini has held residencies at Florida's Hermitage Artist Retreat, LMCC Governor’s Island, MASS MoCA, The Park Avenue Armory, The Watermill Center and Wyoming's Ucross Foundation.

References

  1. Davidson, Justin. "Can This Start-up With Cellos Shake Up Classical Music's Business-As-Usual?". Vulture. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  2. Wellington, Hope. "Globally Acclaimed Composer Paola Prestini Is Turning National Sawdust into an Incubator for the Music World". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  3. "Paola Prestini's 'Visionary' Playlist Spans Anna Clyne to John Zorn". WPXR. May 14, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  4. "Prototype Founders and Artistic Directors". Prototype Festival. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  5. "Bio". Paolo Prestini. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  6. Smith, Steve. "8 Strings, More Hands 'The Violin' at Federal Hall in River to River Festival". New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  7. Ambrose, Alex. "The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40". NPR Music. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  8. "American Composers Orchestra Selects Nation's Top Emerging Composers for 10th Annual Whitaker New Music Readings". American Composers Orchestra. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  9. Black, Ezrha. "A Little Night Music: 21c Liederabend, Op. L.A.". Artillery Mag. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  10. Marcus, Bobbi. "ASCAP Honors Maria Schneider, Paola Prestini, James M. Kendrick, the American Composers Forum and John Nuechterlein at 15th Annual Concert Music Awards". ASCAP. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  11. "The 2002 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards". ASCAP. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  12. "Grant Recipient". Nefa/VisionArt. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  13. "Minimalrimba : For Solo Marimba". tfront.com. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  14. "2008 Grants". TMU. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
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