On December 8, 2016, the American Pianists Awards at the 56th annual Musical America Awards as the evening's top sponsor.
On December 8, 2016, the American Pianists Awards joined the 56th annual Musical America Awards at Carnegie Hall as the evening's top sponsor.
For over 100 years, Musical America has been the voice of the performing arts industry.
For more than half a century, Musical America has recognized classical music’s stellar performers with its annual awards. Categories for the awards are Conductor, Instrumentalist, Composer, Vocalist and Musician of the Year, which is given for overall achievement. By invitation only, this iconic evening offers opportunities for networking with industry leaders and the honor of hearing from each of the illustrious artists who have been selected for recognition. Over the years, the event has come to be regarded as the industry’s unofficial holiday party, a chance to both congratulate the winners and catch up with a gathering of over 200 high-profile performing arts executives, world-renowned presenters, record producers, artist managers, public relations professionals, music publishers, music critics, arts journalists and more.
The American Pianists Awards served as the top sponsor for this year's event which was held in the Weill Terrace Room at Carnegie Hall. American Pianists Association President/CEO and Artistic Director Joel Harrison and APA Director of Marketing Lee Clifford attended the event and were joined by 2006 Awards winner Spencer Myer and 2007 Awards winner Dan Tepfer.
As Musical America's Susan Elliott notes:
This year's event...seemed particularly festive, because many of the winners were collaborators and many of their supporters and well-wishers overlapped. Ensemble of the Year Eighth Blackbird is currently on tour with a piece by Composer of the Year Andrew Norman; Conductor of the Year Susanna Mälkki is presiding over L'Amour de Loin at the Metropolitan Opera, starring Vocalist of the Year Eric Owens. The famed bass-baritone is an alumnus of the Curtis Institute, a contingent of which was there to cheer him on, including onetime president pianist Gary Graffman, longtime teacher and special mentor to Artist of the Year Yuja Wang. And Eighth Blackbird was the school's Ensemble in Residence, from 2012-2015.
Pianist Yuja Wang received the night's top honor as Artist of the Year. Music writer and 2013 American Pianists Awards jury member Stuart Isacoff contributed a piece on Yuja for the program.
Many thanks to Musical America Publisher Stephanie Challener, News Editor Susan Elliott, and Senior Account Manager Joyce Wasserman for welcoming the American Pianists Association to the festivities. We hope to see everyone again this April in Indy for the Gala Finals of the 2017 American Pianists Awards!