Janelle McCoy earns prestigious award

Janelle McCoy Janelle McCoy, mezzo-soprano and artistic director for The Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida was named recipient of the American Composers Forum Encore Program Award for multiple performances of new music.

Encore, the Composers Forum's Performance Incentive Fund, encourages performers to add newly created works by living composers to their repertoires. Encore acts as an incentive to build new partnerships between performers and composers.

The award is a partial sponsorship for multiple performances by McCoy of composer Lori Laitman's "The Seed of Dream." The work is scored for mezzo-soprano, piano and cello and premiered in Seattle in 2004. Based on poems by Holocaust survivor and noted Israeli poet-laureate Avraham Sutzkever, its performance was in conjunction with the United Nations observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day in January.

Noted for her musical and dramatic versatility, McCoy has performed with worldclass orchestras and artists such as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; conductors Robert Spano, Donald Runnicles and the late Robert Shaw; bass James Morris; sopranos, Dawn Upshaw, Andrea Gruber and Christine Brewer; cellist Andrés Diaz; members of the American String Quartet. She made her Kimmel Center debut as Maddalena (Rigoletto) and her Aix-en-Provence debut accompanied by Robin Bowman. As a 2002 and 2003 Orpheus Competition semi-finalist, 2003 Austin Lyric Opera Young Artist Competition semi-finalist and 2003 Redlands Young Artist Competition finalist, Ms. McCoy was named a Classical Singer Magazine National Vocal Competition finalist for 2004. She also has been named as distinguished juror for the 2008 Philadelphia Orchestra Concerto Competition.

McCoy will feature "The Seed of Dream" in the inaugural performance of the Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida's at the Alliance for the Arts Foulds Theatre on Jan. 28. Tickets are on sale now at the Chamber Music Society Web site at www. chambersociety.org.

"'The Seed of Dream' is one of the most poignant and powerful song cycles in new vocal chamber music repertoire," said McCoy. "Ms. Laitman possesses a rare gift for setting words to music and a keen understanding for instrumentation. This work is indeed a treasure."