Patrick Holcomb Receives ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize for 'Persephone'

Paul Williams, President of The ASCAP Foundation, has announced that Patrick Holcomb is named recipient of the 42nd ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize. The prize is awarded for Persephone, a seven and a half-minute work for orchestra. Selected by a panel of conductors, Holcomb is awarded a prize of $5,000.

Patrick Holcomb is a composer who seeks to write music that is both intellectually and emotionally engaging.

Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Holcomb is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Rochester Eastman School of Music as a recipient of the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull University Fellowship. His compositional honors include a 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, a 2021 American Prize in Composition, a 2020 BMI Student Composer Award, the 2019/2021 Jon Vickers Film Scoring Award, and the 2019 Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Award, among others. He has attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival (as a composition teaching assistant) and Connecticut Summerfest.

Holcomb completed his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College, from which he graduated top of his class in the School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. He also earned a Master of Music in Composition and a Master of Music in Music Scoring for Visual Media from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2021. At the Jacobs School, Holcomb served as an associate instructor of music theory and the composition department graduate assistant, the assistant director of the New Music Ensemble and co-coordinator of music composition.

As the ethnomusicology lab assistant at Ithaca College, Holcomb also studied Hindustani (North Indian) music and performed tabla and Indian harmonium under the guidance of Denise Nuttall (a student of Zakir Hussain), and cites this as one of his largest compositional influences. For more information, visit: http://patrickholcombcomposer.com

The jury also awarded Special Distinction to Bobby Ge for Metastable State, JP Merz for gun, fire, and Karalyn Schubring for Piano Concerto No.1. For more information visit: https://www.bobbygemusic.com, http://www.jpmerz.com, https://www.karalynschubring.com/about

Dr. Rudolf Nissim, former head of ASCAP's International Department and a devoted friend of contemporary composers, established this prize through a bequest to The ASCAP Foundation. The prize is presented to an ASCAP concert composer for a work requiring a conductor that has not been performed professionally. A jury of three conductors selects the winning score.

The judges for this year's Nissim Prize were: Peter Askim, Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University; Teresa Cheung, distinguished conductor for colleges and universities, All State/All County orchestra festivals and former Music Director of Pennsylvania's Altoona Symphony Orchestra; and Julius P. Williams, President of the International Conductors Guild, Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music, Artistic Director/Conductor Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra (Boston), and Conductor of Trilogy Opera Company.

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