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The MacDowell Colony
Medal Day |
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Front row, left to right: Board President Susan Davenport Austin, Medalist Sonny Rollins, Executive Director Cheryl Young. Back row, left to right: Resident Director David Macy, presentation speaker Gary Giddins, and Chairman Robert MacNeil.
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The MacDowell Colony, the nation’s leading artist residency program, presented its 51st Edward MacDowell Medal to jazz composer Sonny Rollins on Sunday, August 15, 2010. Since 1960, The MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to his/her field, and this year marks the first time the Colony has recognized the field of jazz. Rollins joins an impressive list of past recipients, including Leonard Bernstein, Alice Munro, I.M. Pei., Merce Cunningham, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Beginning at 12:15 p.m., the award ceremony took place on The MacDowell Colony grounds, which was open to the public for the festivities and celebration. Robert MacNeil, chairman of The MacDowell Colony, awarded the Medal, along with Susan Davenport Austin, president of the board, and Cheryl Young, executive director. MacDowell Fellow and pre-eminent jazz writer and critic Gary Giddins, this year’s presentation speaker, introduced Rollins and described his life and work to the audience.
In naming Rollins the 2010 Medalist, Giddins, also the chairman of this year’s Medalist Selection Committee, said, “Much as The MacDowell Colony represents to countless artists a matchless paradise for inspired, uninterrupted creativity, this year's Medalist represents the zenith of his art. Perhaps more than any other artist since World War II, Sonny Rollins has personified the fearless adventure, soul, wit, stubborn individuality, and relentless originality that is jazz at its finest. From the time he began recording, at 19, he was recognized as a major talent; his innovative approach to the tenor saxophone was endlessly copied, and his original compositions frequently adapted. But in jazz, composer and performer are often one and the same, and perhaps his key achievement has been the forging of an improvisational method that has given the idea of theme-and-variations a renewed vitality. His singular music is at once reassuring in its fortitude and daring in its detours. Incapable of faking emotion or settling for rote answers to the challenges of creating music in the moment, he keeps us ever-alert to the power of the present.”
Joining Giddins on the committee were composer and founder of the Skymusic Ensemble, Carman Moore; composer, musician, and noted professor Dr. Valerie Capers; and Dan Morgenstern, GRAMMY award-winning jazz historian, critic, and current director of Rutgers University’s Institute of Jazz Studies.
Since the inception of the Edward MacDowell Medal, the Colony has rotated it among its seven artistic disciplines. Rollins is the 14th Medalist in music composition, but the very first in the field of jazz. He follows such luminaries as Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, and Lou Harrison.
Also of note, Robert MacNeil announced a new major fundraising initiative: a $13 million capital campaign, The Campaign for the Second Century. Declaring that the campaign will “raise funds to make what is already the most successful artists’ colony anywhere better still for our second century,” MacNeil reported that more than $10 million has already been raised toward this unparalleled investment of resources aimed at sustaining and enhancing MacDowell’s mission of giving artists the freedom to create.
Following this year’s Medal Day ceremony, guests enjoyed picnic lunches on Colony grounds by bringing their own or by pre-ordering lunch baskets. MacDowell artists-in-residence then opened their studios to the public from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. The MacDowell Colony is grateful for the support of Lincoln Financial Foundation, our Medal Day corporate partner.
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MacDowell Colony Chairman Robert MacNeil and 2010 Edward MacDowell Medalist Sonny Rollins.
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Susan Davenport Austin delivers her first Medal Day speech as president of MacDowell’s board of directors.
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Colony Fellow Alvin Singleton and his wife, Lisa Singleton.
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Medalist Sonny Rollins, presentation speaker Gary Giddins, and Donna MacNeil.
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The Fred Hersch Trio gives a free jazz concert under the Medal Day tent in honor of Sonny Rollins. Left to right: Colony Fellow Fred Hersch, bassist John Hebert, and drummer Eric McPherson.
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Photographer Lorna Bieber shares her work with Medal Day visitors in Firth Studio.
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French composer-in-residence Richard Dubugnon opens Chapman Studio to the public during Medal Day.
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| Photos:
Joanna Eldredge Morrissey |
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