The Kennedy Center Friedheim Award was an annual award given for instrumental

music composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

by the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It was established in 1978 and ended in 1995. The award was given only to American composers. The award was established by Eric Friedheim (1910–2002), the publisher of ''Travel Agent'' magazine and a patron of the arts, and funded by the Eric Friedheim Foundation and the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund. He endowed the award in honor of his father, the pianist Arthur Friedheim (1859–1932), who had studied with

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

. The first prize was US$5,000, the second prize was $2,500 (originally $2,000), the third prize was $1,000, and the fourth prize was $500. There was no fourth prize until 1984, and the third prize was originally $500. The winners were narrowed down from often over 100 entries, to four or five finalists. The works were performed and the awards were given at an awards ceremony, which was held each year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The award alternated every other year between orchestral and chamber music. From 1978 to 1995, 18 Friedheim Awards concerts were performed, drawn from 1,883 submissions, and a total of $158,500 in cash prizes was distributed to 70 American composers. The awards came to an end following the last ceremony in 1995, when Eric Friedheim decided to withdraw his financial support, choosing to instead donate his remaining financial assets to the

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a Private university, private music and dance music school, conservatory and College-preparatory school, preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1857, it became affiliat ...

Winners

1978

Vincent Persichetti Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work ...

(first place) * Aurelio de la Vega (second place) *

Stanisław Skrowaczewski Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (; October 3, 1923 – February 21, 2017) was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer. Biography Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). His pa ...

(third place)

1979

George Rochberg George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serialism, serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the technique after his teenage son died in 1964, saying it had proved inadequate to expres ...

(first place) * Claude Baker (second place) * Claus Adams (third place)

1980

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer and academic. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbison and Janet German Harbison. The Harbisons ...

(first place) *

Jacob Druckman Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 an ...

(second place) * Ramon Zupko (third place)

1981

Joseph Schwantner Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943) is an American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize. Schwantner is prolific, with many works to his cred ...

(first place) * Peter Tod Lewis (second place, tie) *

Ezra Laderman Ezra Laderman (29 June 1924 – 28 February 2015) was an American composer of classical music. He was born in Brooklyn. Biography Laderman was of Jewish heritage. His parents, Isidor and Leah, both emigrated to the United States from Poland. Thou ...

(second place, tie) * Dan Locklair (honorable mention)

1982

* Gundaris Pone (first place) * David Del Tredici (second place) * Thomas Ludwig (third place)

1983

* Thomas Oboe Lee (first place) *

George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theory, music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonality, atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. Th ...

(second place) *

Karel Husa Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to ...

(third place)

1984

* Edward Applebaum (first place) *

William Kraft William Kraft (September 6, 1923 – February 12, 2022) was an American composer, conductor, teacher, timpanist, and percussionist. Biography Early life and education (1923–1954) Kraft was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was awarded two Anton Seid ...

(second place) * Marilyn Shrude (third place) *

Donald Erb Donald Erb (January 17, 1927 – August 12, 2008) was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and ''Ritual Observances''. Early years Erb was born in Youngstown, Ohio, graduate ...

(fourth place, tie) * Claude Baker (fourth place, tie)

1985

Robert Erickson Robert Erickson (March 7, 1917 – April 24, 1997) was an American modernist composer and influential music teacher. He was one of the first American composers to explore the twelve tone technique and to compose tape music. Education Erickson ...

(first place, tie) *

Donald Martino Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Biography Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and ...

(first place, tie) *

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

(second place) *

Stephen Hartke Stephen Paul Hartke (born July 6, 1952) is an American composer. Hartke is best known as the composer of ''Meanwhile – Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays,'' winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2013 ...

(third place) *No fourth place awarded

1986

Richard Wernick Richard Wernick (January 16, 1934 – April 25, 2025) was an American composer. He is best known for his chamber and vocal works. His composition ''Visions of Terror and Wonder'' won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Life and career Wernick be ...

(first place, tie) *

Bernard Rands Bernard Rands (born 2 March 1934 in Sheffield, England) is a British and American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna ...

(first place, tie) *

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

(second place) *

(third place) *No fourth place awarded

1987

(first place) *

Barbara Kolb Barbara Kolb (February 10, 1938 – October 21, 2024) was an American composer and educator, the first woman to win the Rome Prize in musical composition. Her music features sound masses of colorful textures, impressionistic sounds and atonal vo ...

(second place) *

Steven Mackey Steven "Steve" Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Biography As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions a ...

(third place) *

Tod Machover Tod Machover (born November 24, 1953, in Mount Vernon, New York), is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a piano, pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist. He was named ...

(fourth place)

1988

* Christopher Rouse (first place) *

(second place) * Stephen Paulus (third place) * Joan Tower (fourth place)

1989

George Tsontakis George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor. Early life and education He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and ...

(first place, tie) * Chinary Ung (first place, tie) *No second place was awarded * David Lang (third place) *

Michael Daugherty Michael Kevin Daugherty (born April 28, 1954) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic b ...

(fourth place)

1990

* Ralph Shapey (first place, tie) *

(first place, tie) * Daron Aric Hagen (second place) *

Frederick Bianchi Frederick Bianchi is an American-born composer and music technologist (born 1954). Central to his work is the integration of acoustic instruments with electronic/computer-generated sound. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, honors, a ...

(third place) *No fourth place awarded

1991

(first place) * Donald Crockett (second place) *

Sebastian Currier Sebastian Currier (born March 16, 1959) is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007. Life Currier was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was ra ...

(third place) *

Stephen Jaffe Stephen Jaffe (born December 30, 1954, in Washington, D.C.newsobserver.com
< ...

(fourth place)

1992

Shulamit Ran Shulamit Ran (; born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize ...

(first place) *

(second place) *

(third place) * Emma Lou Diemer (fourth place)

1993

* David Froom (first place, tie) *

Osvaldo Golijov Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work. Biography Osvaldo Golijov was born in and raised in La Plata, Argentina, to a Jewish family ...

(first place, tie) * Dean Drummond (second place, tie) *

(second place, tie) *No third or fourth place awarded

1994

Leon Kirchner Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Pr ...

(first place) *

Tison Street Tison C. Street aka Curry Tison Street (born May 20, 1943 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a graduate of Harvard College ‘65 and an American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist. He studied violin with Einar Hansen, of the Boston ...

(second place) * John Anthony Lennon (third place, tie) *

Jay Alan Yim Jay Alan Yim (born April 24, 1958) is an American composer of Chinese descent and recipient of a 1994 Guggenheim Fellowship. Early life and education Yim was born into a Chinese family in St. Louis, Missouri on April 24, 1958. He attended the U ...

(third place, tie) *No fourth place awarded

1995

(first place) *

Ezequiel Viñao Ezequiel Viñao (born July 21, 1960 in Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la ...

(second place) *

Bright Sheng Bright Sheng (; born December 6, 1955) is a Chinese-born American composer, pianist and conductor. Sheng has earned many honors for his music and compositions, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001; he also was a two-time Pulitzer Prize final ...

(third place) *

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (, ; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, c ...

(fourth place) *

Miguel del Aguila --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disam ...

(fifth place)

References

{{reflist

External links

Article from ''The New York Times''
1985

1987 * ttps://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFD81030F933A1575BC0A96F948260 Article from ''The New York Times'' 1989
Article from ''The New York Times''
1990

1991 * ttps://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6D91E3DF934A3575AC0A964958260&sec=&spon=&&scp=10&sq=friedheim%20composers&st=cse Article from ''The New York Times'' 1992
Article from ''The New York Times''
1993

1994 * ttps://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E5DF123EF935A3575AC0A9649C8B63 Eric Friedheim obituaryfrom ''The New York Times'', 2002 American music awards Awards established in 1978 Awards disestablished in 1995 Music of Washington, D.C. Contemporary classical music 1978 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1995 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.