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Finalist: String Quartet No. 3 , by Fred Lerdahl

Premiered on December 8, 2009, in Cleveland, Ohio, a remarkable work that displays impeccable technical facility and palpable emotion.

Winners

Prize Winner in Music in 2010:

Jennifer Higdon

Premiered on February 6, 2009, in Indianapolis, IN, a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity (Lawdon Press). Music

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Music in 2010:

Julia Wolfe

Premiered on November 13, 2009, in Gainesville, FL, an innovative composition that, with voices and old-time instruments, turns the old folk tune "John Henry" into an epic distillation of Appalachia.

The Jury

Delta David Gier

music director

Chuck Owen

composer and professor of jazz studies

John Rockwell

author and music critic

Maria Schneider

composer and orchestra leader

Winners in Music

Steve Reich

A major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear.

David Lang

Co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and The Perth Theater and Concert Hall, and premiered October 25, 2007 in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City (G. Schirmer, Inc.).

Yehudi Wyner

Premiered February 17, 2005 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Associated Music Publishers, Inc.)

2010 Prize Winners

Paul Harding

A powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality.

Hank Williams

For his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.

Liaquat Ahamed

A compelling account of how four powerful bankers played crucial roles in triggering the Great Depression and ultimately transforming the United States into the world's financial leader.

Rae Armantrout

A book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading.