After a year-long process of adjudication, the Pan Pacific Ensemble has been named the winner of the 2022 American Prize in Professional Chamber Music.
The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the musical and theater arts, unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. The American Prize was founded in 2009 and is awarded annually in many areas of the performing arts.
Established in 2016, the Pan Pacific Ensemble is a collection of soloists committed to performing music by composers from Asia and the Americas. The ensemble is comprised of bassoonist Michael Garza and WSU School of Music faculty members Sophia Tegart, Keri McCarthy, Shannon Scott, and Martin King.
The group is passionate about commissioning, promoting, and recording new music, and providing experiential opportunities for audiences across the globe.
The quintet has performed at the China-ASEAN Contemporary Music Festival, the International Composition Festival in Thailand, and across the United States. The Pan Pacific Ensemble has commissioned numerous works for wind quintet by composers P.Q. Phan, Narong Prangcharoen, Asha Srinivasan, Kenji Bunch, and Nick Omiccioli.
These new works have been received by audiences across the United States and express influences ranging from Thai traditional music to rock and roll.
