Robert Owens Ensemble earns finalist judges’ citation in The American Prize competition

calendar icon19 Aug 2021    

Lincoln, Neb.--The Robert Owens Ensemble was awarded a Finalist Judges’ Citation for “Championing the Music of Robert Owens” in the 2020 American Prize Competition.

The ensemble includes three Glenn Korff School of Music faculty: Jamie Reimer Seaman, soprano; Karen Becker, cello; and Clark Potter, viola. The ensemble also includes pianist Stacie Haneline.

The American Prize is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the classical arts. It is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles, composers and administrators in the U.S. based on submitted recordings. The American Prize has been recognizing and rewarding American excellence in the performing arts since 2010.

Earlier this summer, Reimer Seaman earned a special Judges’ Citation from The American Prize for the project.

Reimer Seaman's interest in contemporary American art song focuses on the life and work of composer Robert Owens. In 2012, she gave the world premiere of Owens’ 4 Sonnets to Eleonora Duse, composed for her voice, and performed the role of Ursula in the North American premiere of his opera Culture! Culture! in 2015. Her CD, The Last Songs of Robert Owens, was recently released by Centaur Records (https://go.unl.edu/348o).

Owens was born in the U.S. in 1925 and grew up in California. After serving in the military, he continued his musical studies in Paris at L’Ecole Normale de Musique under renowned pianist Alfred Cortot. After teaching in the U.S. for two years, he returned to Europe to live and work in Germany, where he was a composer, pianist and stage actor. He died on Jan. 5, 2017.

Reimer Seaman has been researching and performing Owens’ works since 2007.