Carlos Carrillo Wins BMI Foundation Surinach Commission Award

American Composers Orchestra to Present Premiere Ralph N. Jackson, President of the BMI Foundation, Inc., announced today that Carlos Carrillo has been named the winner of a Carlos Surinach Commission Award. Carrillo was selected for the honor by the artistic staff of the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) from a pool of BMI affiliated composers who were recent winners of the BMI Student Composer Award. The new work, “Algunas metáforas que aluden al tormento, a la angustia y a la Guerra,” will be premiered by the ACO at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 21, 2005.Carlos Carrillo studied at the Eastman School of Music, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2003. Mr. Carrillo is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a BMI Student Composer Award, a First Music Commission from the New York Youth Symphony, the Bearns Prize, and the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His music has been performed previously by the ACO, Casals Festival, Young Musician Foundation’s Debut Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he is currently on the faculty of DePauw University. The Carlos Surinach Commissioning Program is made possible by a generous legacy from Carlos Surinach, the late composer and conductor, who left his entire estate to the BMI Foundation to be used to support young classical composers. According to Jackson, “This is a unique program in which the judges are choosing a composer to write a work which they will premiere.” The new Carrillo work will be the second commission created for the ACO through this program. Works have previously been commissioned for David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra and marimba virtuoso Makoto Nakura. Composers who have previously received the award include Kevin Puts, Gordon Beeferman and David Schober. The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music, through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 97% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.