Two Shepherd School Faculty Each Earn Prestigious ASCAP Award

Two Shepherd School Faculty Each Earn Prestigious ASCAP Award

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
Sept. 17, 1998

Shepherd School faculty members Arthur Gottschalk and Ellsworth Milburn are both
gifted composers of concert and symphonic music. They are prolific as well.

Once again, each has been honored as a recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award.
Gottschalk has received the award annually since 1980; Milburn since 1974.

Gottschalk is an associate professor and director of electronic and computer music
laboratories. Milburn is professor and chair of the Shepherd School’s composition
and theory department.

The cash awards, presented by the American Society of Composers and Publishers
(ASCAP), are granted by an independent panel and based upon the unique prestige
value of each writer’s catalog of original compositions. They are also meant to
compensate the composers for their performances, which were not measured in ASCAP
surveys. Members of the ASCAP selection panel are different each year.

Works of Gottschalk performed last year included: "Blue Fantasy," with
Professor of Violin Kenneth Goldsmith performing with the Shepherd School Chamber
Orchestra; "Quartet in One Movement," played by a string quartet of
Rice students; "Persephone," performed for the Galveston Artists Guild;
"Roulades," performed by the University of Colorado Symphonic Wind Ensemble,
Alan McMury conducting; and "High Noon," a ballet choreographed by Michele
Brangwen and premiered at the Montgomery County Regional Arts Center.

Among the works by Gottschalk that are scheduled to be performed: On Dec. 6, "Leyenda,"
for symphonic wind ensemble, trombone choir and electronic tape, will be performed
by the Eastman Wind Ensemble in Rochester, N.Y. Gottschalk’s orchestra work "Empire
of the Sun" will be performed by the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra,
under the direction of Larry Rachleff, in April 1999.

Gottschalk has just completed several pieces, including "Shall We Gather,"
a work for alto saxophone and tape featuring the last recordings of jazz legend
Arnett Cobb. He is working on a piece for solo cello and tape, tentatively titled
"Todesband."

Among Milburn’s works performed last year were: "Toys in the Audience,"
for horn, piano and toy instruments; "Menage," a one-act opera; "Character
Pieces for Cello and Piano"; "Menil Antiphons," for chamber ensemble;
and "Entendre III," for violin and piano, a piece written for the Shepherd
School’s Goldsmith in honor of his 60th birthday and performed on Feb. 20 in Duncan
Hall. His compact disc "Music of Ellsworth Milburn" was also released
last year.

Milburn is currently working on his third string quartet.