Ictus International Music Competition Announces the 2017 Band and Orchestra Prizewinners

  PHILADELPHIA, PA - 09/01/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

Ictus Music, Inc. is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Ictus International Music Competition for bands and orchestras.  The inaugural year of this annual competition drew applicants from Washington State in the United States all the way to Bloemfontein, Free State in South Africa. Video submissions were judged and narrowed down to a final round from which prize winners were selected. The prize winners are as follows:

• 1st Place Community Orchestra – The Denver Philharmonic | Conductor, Dr. Lawrence Golan | Denver, Colorado | United States
• 1^st Place Community Band – The Timberline Winds | Conductor, Dr. Martin Behnke | Medford, Oregon | United States
• 1^st Place University/Conservatory Orchestra – The OSM Camerata | Conductors, Xavier Cloete and Gerhard De Jager | Odeion School of Music | University of the Free State | Bloemfontein, Free State | South Africa
• 1^st Place High School Band – Lebanon Trail High School Symphonic Band | Conductor, Christian Holzer | Frisco, Texas | United States
• 1^st Place Middle School Orchestra – Odle Symphony Orchestra | Conductor, Barney Blough | Odle Middle School | Bellevue, Washington | United States

The jury consisted of the following members:

• Dr. Mark Davis Scatterday, conductor of the renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble;
• Stilian Kirov, recipient of a Georg Solti Career Assistance Grant, conductor of Symphony in C in New Jersey and the Bakersfield Symphony in California, former Associate Conductor at the Seattle Symphony, and past assistant/cover conductor at the Chicago Symphony and Boston Symphony;
• Jan Wagner, winner of the 1994 Leopold Stokowski Competition and 1995 Malko Competition, former conductor of the Odense Symphony in Denmark, a former assistant/cover to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic;
• James M Stephenson, award-winning composer whose music has been performed by the Boston Pops, St. Louis Symphony and President's Own Marine Band, and has been praised by the Boston Herald as "straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds," suggesting "Stephenson deserves to be heard again and again!"
• Dr. Scott Nelson, 2^nd Trumpet at the Maryland Symphony, Principal Trumpet in the Ocala Symphony (FL), and former conductor of the Shenandoah Conservatory Wind Ensemble (VA) for 21 years.

For more information, contact Alex Serio, director of the Ictus International Music Competition at Alex@ictuscompetition.com or visit www.ictusmusiccompetition.com.