St. Cecilia Music Center, Mackinaw Harvest Music and financial sponsors doled out cash awards Thursday to first-time ArtPrize song contest winners. And that had them whistling a happy tune.
“Show me the money.”
Grand Rapids producer-musician Michael Crittenden couldn’t help but utter that famous line from “Jerry Maguire” when jokingly describing the value to musicians of offering cash prizes to winners of the ArtPrize song contest this year.
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On Thursday evening, St. Cecilia Music Center, Crittenden’s Mackinaw Harvest Music studio and a group of financial sponsors did just that.
For the first time ever, they presented $2,000 checks to the five winners of the 2012 ArtPrize music competition.
As St. Cecilia executive director Cathy Holbrook put it, creating a separate competition with its own awards upped the ante for musicians and – in the second year of songs as ArtPrize entries – added credibility to “the wild idea of music” being part of the much-ballyhooed international competition, which wrapped up in Grand Rapids last weekend.
“Being able to be recognized financially as well is huge,” Crittenden said on Thursday inside the control room of his West Side Grand Rapids studio during a special reception for winners of the 2012 song competition.
With the help of financial sponsors – Joan Buchanan, Becky and Andy Anderson, Compucraft, Grand Rapids Community College and an anonymous donor – St. Cecilia and Mackinaw Harvest (which hosted a four-day music showcase at St. Cecilia the first weekend of ArtPrize) were able to make that a reality, offering prizes for songwriters and musicians who collected the most ArtPrize votes out of 79 entries in five different categories.
And clearly, the winners – first announced Sept. 30 – are awfully glad they did.
“I was floored,” said a grinning Shannon Wood, principal timpanist for the Grand Rapids Symphony whose “Concerto for Section Percussion and Orchestra” won the classical category. “I was thrilled.”
And like many of the musicians and songwriters who entered this year’s competition, Wood appreciates the official recognition music now gets at ArtPrize. “Why not? It’s creative and it’s artistic,” he told me.
Many of the winners said they were genuinely surprised to win their categories.
Pianist Roger MacNaughton of Ada, who won the jazz category for his “Grand Traverse Bay” composition, said he didn’t vote and his wife, Megan, didn’t even register as an ArtPrize voter.
Bassist and singer Delilah DeWylde, who won the rock/blues category with her West Michigan band, Delilah DeWylde & the Lost Boys,” for the song, “Win My Love,” couldn’t perform during the ArtPrize Musicians’ Showcase because she was out of town that weekend and said she didn’t even get a chance to really lobby for the song.
And Dan Rickabus, drummer for Grand Rapids’ The Crane Wives, which won the folk/country category for the song “Easier” from its most recent album, “The Fool in Her Wedding Song,” said band members were tickled by the honor because “we’re sort of like the new kids. We’re very grateful to be a part of it all.”
Composer/musician Michael Cohen, who makes his home in Columbus, Ohio, won the pop/electronic category for his Kirtan song “Shakti Gayatri.”
With the continued support of sponsors and ArtPrize organizers such as Todd Herring, a musician himself who was on hand for Thursday’s reception, Crittenden and Holbrook insisted the song competition and showcase opportunities are likely to grow, attracting more entries from outside the region.
“We’re glad we could do it,” Holbrook said, “and I hope we can even make it bigger and better.”
To listen to the winning tunes, here are the links:
Pop/Electronic – “Shakti Gayatri,” Michael Cohen (Click here to listen to song.)
Rock/Blues – “Win My Love,” Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys (Click here to listen to song.)
Folk/Country – “Easier,” The Crane Wives (Click here to listen to song.)
Jazz – “Grand Traverse Bay,” Roger MacNaughton (Click here to listen to song.)
Classical – “Concerto for Section Percussion and Orchestra,” Shannon Wood (Click here to listen to concerto.)
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
Thanks for coming to cover this John! It was a great night and so gratifying to award the first ArtPrize music prize money to our winners. SCMC is really proud to have brought new exposure to music in ArtPrize. Thanks to all who entered, to Michael Crittenden and Mackinaw Harvest Music Studios who partnered with SCMC in this endeavor again this year and to ArtPrize for letting us give music it’s own stage. – Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia Music Center