Small Ensemble Division

1st Place
Gianluca Verlingieri, Ghedini State Conservatory, Cuneo, Italy
Schubert Fragmente (violin, cello, and piano)

Born in Italy in 1976, Gianluca Verlingieri received degrees in piano and electronic music with first-class honors from “Ghedini” State Conservatory, where he’s about to obtain a degree in experimental composition under the guide of Paolo Minetti. He’s also currently pursuing a degree in musicology at Turin University (working on a dissertation on Mauricio Kagel’s music with his support) and he’s attending to Master’s courses in composition held by Azio Corghi at “Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia” (Rome) and by Fabio Vacchi and Alberto Colla at “Ca’ Zenobio” and “Lorenzo Perosi” International Academies. He also studied at “Accademia Chigiana” (Siena), obtaining a “Diploma with merit”, and he was shortlisted to attend composers programs and workshops (EarLab 2007 in Stresa (Italy) and Bergen (Norway), Genoa Musical Meetings (winning the Garrone Foundation scholarship), Campus Giovani Artisti d’Europa, OuterLimits international project, Compositori a Confronto, Archart project of the European Commission for Culture etc.),and masterclasses with Klangforum Wien (at Venice Biennale), Luca Francesconi, Michel Pascal, Claude Cadoz, Mauro Lanza, Philip Samartzis, Luigi Verdi, The Hub Ensemble, Colette Hochain, Gilberto Bosco, Håkon Austbø and others. As a perfomer he took part in contemporary music festivals as “Manca” (Nice), “La costruzione del suono” (Venice), Elettrosensi (Como), Sala Tartini di Trieste etc., also in the role of sound projectionist and live-electronics performer. Within the space of a few years Verlingieri’s music has been selected and received awards, recognitions or performance from, among others, the Ciani Prize, the International Competition City of Pescara, the Caffa-Righetti International Competition, the Franco Evangelisti International Competition, The Musica Nuova Festival International Competition, the Italian Ministry of University and Research Prize, the Cincinnati Camerata International Competition (finalist), the IBLA Foundation Grand Prix (New York, admitted to the final round, summer 2007) and is performed throughout Italy (e. g. at Nuova Consonanza Festival, Rome; Lingotto Musica, Turin; GAM, Genoa; Settimane musicali di Stresa International Festival; Estate Musicale Chigiana; Siena), Denmark (Aarhus University), Mexico (Musica y escena Festival, Mexico City, in collaboration with the bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood and the composer Stefano Bassanese), USA (INsideOUT, Florida and Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, Memphis) and Australia (Melbourne, RMIT Gallery and School of Arts) by renowned musicians, like the pianist Massimiliano Damerini, to name one. The flutist Robert Dick has recently selected Gianluca Verlingieri as associated composer in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida). As a first place winner of the 2007 Beethoven Club Composition Contest of Memphis he has also been awarded a full scholarship to attend the 2007 ISAM conference for composers to be held in August in Michelstadt, Germany, featuring Jan Jirásek and Ofer Ben-Amots among the faculty composers.

Organ Division

Tom Peterson, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Ballade

Tom Peterson is a composer, conductor, and performer from Phoenix, Arizona studying at Arizona State University. His musical interests and writings are diverse harmonically and stylistically, stretching from concert music to jazz and musical theatre in composition and performance, including more than a half-dozen film scores. The ASU Symphony Orchestra premiered his work, Monolith, in February 2007 as the winner of the ASU Orchestral Competition, and during the summer of 2007 he will study at the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival in Italy. His choral piece, A Gentle Whisper, was recently performed at the SCI National Conference in San Antonio, and his work has thrice been selected for AMEA’s Young Composers Concerts. In addition to his primary composition teachers, Jody Rockmaker, Rodney Rogers, and James DeMars, Tom has taken private lessons with guest-composers John Mackey and John Corigliano. For more information, including audio samples, please visit TomPetersonMusic.com.