For the 2025 National Convention, the competition sought works for Percussion ensemble between 7-10 minutes in length.
2025 IAMA Winner Dimitri Volkov
“Chorale for Percussion”
Premiered by the Minnesota Percussion Collective
Dmitri Volkov’s work in music has been described as “interesting,” which he considers better than the alternative. As an award-winning composer, Dmitri aims to develop and apply experimental techniques, bringing forward the boundaries of music. He is also an accomplished violinist and multi-instrumentalist. Besides music, Dmitri is active in computer science, and has presented at conferences, contributed to textbooks, and produced successful commercial apps and plugins.
Dmitri’s music composition awards include: NYC Contemporary Music Symposium finalist; RIOCC Organ Composition Competition Young Artist Division 1st Prize; and ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Competition finalist. His pieces have been performed by members of major U.S. orchestras (including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), and chamber groups including the Neave Trio. His computer music work has been presented at the International Symposium for Quantum Computer Music, the Tui St. George Tucker Symposium, and the MOXsonic, SPLICE, and REF Resilience music festivals. Dmitri is a co-author of the first chapter of Advances in Quantum Computer Music, published by World Scientific. He develops Pivotuner, an audio plugin enabling adaptive pure intonation for virtual instruments, and the practice tool 2in1 Drone Metronome, alongside other apps and plugins.
Dmitri holds degrees in music composition and computer science, with honors and high distinction, from the Jacobs School of Music and Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. He has also studied at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music (IRCAM) in Paris. Please visit dmitrivolkov.com for recordings and additional information.
Chorale for Percussion, as one might expect, seeks to be a chorale written for
percussion instruments rather than voice. It consists of four sections in which the
players largely share the same rhythms, separated by two solos and one duet. Each of
the four sections features a timbrally-similar subset of the full instrumentation (drums,
“clicks”, grains, and metals), and the duet and solos transition between these subinstrumentations.
The large-scale structure of the piece is derived from a single rhythmic phrase, which itself is featured at the climax of the piece. Many of my compositions derive structure and interest from pitch and harmony, so I deliberately challenged myself to avoid this tendency with Chorale for Percussion by using only indefinitely-pitched instruments (such as cymbals). Rather, timbre and rhythm are emphasized as the core structural elements (although some aspects of relative pitch do remain).
It is an honor to have Chorale for Percussion performed live for the Sigma Alpha Iota
National Convention. Thank you for listening! — Dimitri Volkov, 2025
2025 IAMA Composer-Judge Libby Larsen
Commission Piece:
Embracés - Reverie Rousseau
Premiered by the Ancia Saxophone Quartet
Libby Larsen (https://libbylarsen.com/) is one of America’s most performed living composers. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2024), she has composed over 500 works including orchestra, opera, vocal and chamber music, symphonic winds, and band. Her work is widely recorded. An advocate for the music and musicians of our time, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum in 1973, now the American Composer’s Forum. Former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, Larsen has also held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. As Artistic Director of the John Duffy Institute for New Opera (2014–2020), she guided a faculty of practicing professional artists in nurturing and production of new opera by American Composers.
Larsen was recipient of the Distinguished Composer Award in 2014. Created in 1986, this award is presented biennially to outstanding composers of organ and choral music in the United States. She has received numerous other awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award as producer of the The Art of Arlene Augér, an acclaimed recording that features Larsen’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. Her opera Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus was selected as one of the eight best classical music events of 1990 by USA Today. Larsen was the first woman to serve as resident composer with a major orchestra. Her many commissions and recordings are a testament to her fruitful collaborations with a long list of world-renowned artists, including The King’s Singers, SAI Honorary Member Benita Valente, and Frederica von Stade. Her works are recorded on such labels as Angel/EMI, Nonesuch, Decca, and Koch International. Larsen’s biography—Libby Larsen: Composing an American Life, by Denise Von Glahn—is available from the University of Illinois Press. She is an initiate of the Sigma Sigma Chapter at the University of Minnesota and was designated a Member Laureate in 1995. She has been a member of the SAI Composers Bureau since 1993.
Embracés - Reverie Rousseau, for saxophone quartet, is a tribute to my friend Eugene Rousseau(1932-2024),colleague, mentor, teacher and artistic collaborator. He is recognized as one of the great saxophonists of the world. His performances, pedagogy and musical citizenship as co-organizer of the World Saxophone Congress are foundational world-wide. I am fortunate to count Eugene and Norma, his life partner, as close family friends. My husband Jim and I spent many happy hours enjoying their company. A true gentleman with a wicked sense of humor, Eugene would regale us with jokes as the four of us met for dinner and camaraderie.
My composition, Embracés - Reverie Rousseau, draws upon family memories, as told to me by his daughter Lisa Marie. I think of this piece as a water-color portrait of Eugene, made of echoes of Stardust and Reveille. When I asked Lisa Marie if for family stories of her Dad, she offered me two favorite memories: Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust, treasured by Eugene and his wife Norma throughout their life together and Reveille. She laughingly offers this story from her childhood: “(When) Joe and I were in late grade school through middle school Dad would wake us up in the morning by coming into each of our bedrooms and playing 'Reveille' on his saxophone.”
P.S. Cards and letters from Norma and Eugene are always signed “Embracés, Norma and Gene”. We sign our cards to them “Love, Libby and Jim”. — Libby Larsen, 2025
