Sonny Rollins Named 2010 Edward MacDowell Medalist

The MacDowell Colony, the nation's leading artist residency program, will present its 51st Edward MacDowell Medal to jazz composer and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins on Sunday, August 15. The MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually since 1960 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 pm, the award ceremony will take place on The MacDowell Colony grounds, which will be open to the public for the festivities and celebration. Robert MacNeil, chairman of The MacDowell Colony, will award the Medal, along with Cheryl Young, executive director. MacDowell Fellow and preeminent jazz writer and critic Gary Giddins, this year's presentation speaker, will introduce Rollins and describe his life and work to the audience.

"I'm proud and pleased to be selected to receive this very special prize," Rollins said. "Edward MacDowell's spirit engaged me many years ago when, as a child, I was inspired by his composition 'To a Wild Rose.' Later, I had the opportunity to make it a part of my repertoire, performing it on many occasions and eventually recording it. Somehow I feel I'm getting to meet him again."

In naming Rollins the 2010 Medalist, Giddins, also 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-variation

s a renewed vitality. His singular music is at once reassuring in its fortitude and daring in its detou rs. 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."

 

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