Dr. Bruce MacIntyre writes: This afternoon, at Faculty Day’s Award Ceremony, President Karen Gould announced the following four winners of this year’s Tow Professorships of $25,000 each toward expenses of research and creative work over the next two years, 2013–15: Professor. Luigi Bonaffini, Modern Languages and Literatures Professor Patricia Cronin, Art Associate Professor Jason Eckardt, Conservatory of Music Professor Aaron Kozbelt, Psychology We can certainly be pleased and proud that Jay has won this special award. As I wrote in my nominating letter: “Jay is an outstanding composer on our faculty who has been developing a most distinguished reputation, both nationally and internationally. His many commissions (now including his second Serge Koussevitzky Foundation commission, as well as ones from Carnegie Hall and Tanglewood), a dozen commercially released recordings, and the publication of all his scores by the eminent music publishing house of Carl Fischer Music attest to the excellence of his music. Our department is also very proud that Jay is among the faculty of Brooklyn College who have, in the past, received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. In addition, Jay’s compositions in the “New Complexity” style of today have been and are continuing to be played in major cities across the country (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Sacramento, Washington, D.C., et al.) as well as abroad (Paris, Stuttgart, Zürich, Basel, Sydney, Melbourne) and at major festivals (Tanglewood; Music Nova Festival in Helsinki). Jay’s invited lectures at distinguished universities (Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, Carnegie Melon, et al.) and conservatories (Peabody, Oberlin, Manhattan School of Music) also speak to peers’ high regard for his output and his significant place in American music today…” “Jason has a most viable plan for his Tow Professorship application, one that would definitely help advance his already notable reputation in composition. The Tow support could allow the following tasks: Recording by the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble of five of his compositions; Travel to Paris and Strasbourg for research on contemporary instrumental performance techniques with flutist Mario Caroli and Ensemble Linea (for his new flute concerto); His ongoing scholarly research and empirical testing of accuracy in human realization of complex musical rhythms; Travel to Teatro Manzoni, Milan, to supervise performances of his work for the festival Aperitivo in Concerto.”
