Swiss Society of New York

The Swiss Society of New York is very proud to have introduced the annual Swiss Society Prize in 2008.

Each year the Prize goes to an individual in the professional field of study of the Guest of Honor or the theme of the Swiss Ball. The purpose of the grant program is to foster the professional development of Swiss expatriates or persons with proven Swiss roots of exceptional talent and quality in their field. The program offers financial support towards continuing education or special projects that will further the professional development of such established or emerging professionals.

Since we have just initiated the Swiss Society Prize, we will have two awards in the first calendar sequence. The application cycle coincides with the Swiss Ball at the beginning of the year.

Prize 1
We are proud to say that the initial award of 2008 will be granted in the amount of $10,000. Our admiration of the Guest of Honor of the Swiss Ball 2008 Henry Haller, Chef to five Presidents of the United States, will be expressed through the prize to an individual expanding their career in the culinary arts. 

Prize 2
At the Swiss Ball 2009 the Guest of Honor was Dieter Meier. Accomplished in many fields, he is best known as a founding member of the famed electronic music group Yello. The second Prize will be awarded in his honor in the amount of $10,000. These applicants must in the music field as composer of modern classical music. (A helpful definition is posted below.)

Details: The Prize guidelines and Prize Application are found in the related tabs of the Swiss Society of New York website. Applicants are requested to submit applications as instructed and have additional supporting documentation available to the Grant Committee.

Deadline: Submissions are welcome for both Prizes. All completed entries must arrive at our offices by Friday, October 30, 2009.

We wish to thank all of our sponsors, but in particular those that contribute to the Silent Auction held at the Swiss Ball. The Silent Auction is the source of funding which sustains our ability to award the Swiss Society Prize.

Modern Classical Composer - defined

A member of the Brightcecilia Classical Music Forums (www.BrightCecilia.com) gives the following definition of modern classical composer.

From about 1900 composers started devising ways in which the music they wrote became more than just expressions of their own personal state but the expression of different social or ethnic groups, expressions of cultural opinions held not only by themselves but by larger and not necessarily artistic bodies. After the inception of this kind of thinking it became possible to see composers as reacting to almost anything, and quite often each other but I think that the most enduring characteristic of a modern composer is his willingness to experiment in order to achieve his goal. It is this that separates Charles Ives, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, Witold Penderwski, John Cage and other 'Modern' composers and not so much a musical common characteristic.

Today most composers have reigned in this desire to experiment rather than perfect, but that is common to all periods of musical history. There are the innovators and then come the perfectionists. Stamitz was the innovator and Mozart the perfectionist, Schubert and Brahms were the innovators for Wagner and Mahler to build upon. So in today's music we find Modern composers who experiment and break new ground while they are followed by composers who examine these experiments and divine form them what is truly useful. Such composers as John Adams and Louis Andreissen of the minimalist school have done this, Nestor Taylor and John Taverner of the 'Ecstatic Religious' school have done this too, but their music would hardly seem to fit the term 'Modern' music as we use it in any historical context. It is, however, very much in style today and music historians wait with baited breath to give it a new (old, borrowed, and changed in meaning) name.

For the entire text, please visit http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=234.