Juneau Empire: Web posted Sunday, February 17, 2002

Music Festival Wins Recognition

By ANN CHANDONNET
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

CrossSound, a local festival of chamber music, recently won a first prize for adventurous programming from Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. CrossSound received the 2000/2001 award in the presenter's category of nine or fewer concerts a year.

The CMA/ASCAP award is one of the most highly regarded honors in the world of chamber music, said codirector Jocelyn Clark.

"We were really surprised and extremely excited," Clark said. "This is a big national award. We thought what we were doing was interesting, but we are brand new and we are in Juneau, Alaska, and don't use exclusively professional players. However, they liked the aspect of professionals and amateurs working together."

Clark and CrossSound codirector Stefan Hakenberg were given tickets to New York City to accept the award Jan. 19. "As far as I could tell from meeting other winners, we are the only one in the nation doing what we are doing," Clark said.

When ASCAP's vice president Frances Richard presented the award in front of a standing-room-only crowd, she commented that the adventurous programming award saluted "those whose great performances of music composed by contemporaries of your audience remind us all that we are engaged in a living art form."

Other recipients of the award have included Bang on a Can, the Kronos Quartet, Merkin Concert Hall, the Cavani String Quartet and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to giving concerts of chamber music, CrossSound affords musicians and audiences access to composers and soloists through its 10-day residencies that include rehearsals with local musicians, school assemblies and public panel discussions in several locations in Southeast Alaska. All told, CrossSound has commissioned 27 eclectic pieces for local musicians and their national and international guests.

In accepting the award, Hakenberg and Clark expressed gratitude for the financial support received from the Ishiyama Foundation of California and Japan, the Sitka Alaska Permanent Charitable Trust, the Gaudeamus Foundation of Amsterdam and individual donors.

Ann Chandonnet can be reached at achandonnet@juneauempire.com. Snippets of performances can be heard at the Web site, http://CrossSound.com.