MacDowell, the nation’s oldest artist residency program, is pleased to announce that composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton is the recipient of the 66th Annual Edward MacDowell Medal. Braxton will be awarded this summer for his immeasurable contribution to fields of music composition, pedagogy and writing. Over the past 50 years, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement—innovation, spirituality and intellectual investigation. Braxton will be celebrated during a free public outdoor celebration on Sunday, June 28th featuring performances of his work and open studios with MacDowell’s artists-in-residence.
Anthony Braxton shared, “I am honored that there are people who are open to my music and the world it creates and I am grateful to MacDowell for its recognition. I look forward to celebrating with friends, peers and the broader community that MacDowell has nurtured over its long history.”
“It is an honor to recognize Anthony Braxton for his extraordinary contributions to the field of music composition,” said Chiwoniso Kaitano, Executive Director of MacDowell. “Through a body of work that bridges improvisation, structural experimentation and a range of global influences, Braxton has expanded the possibilities of contemporary music and inspired generations of composers and performers.”
The Edward MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually since 1960 to giants of the art world, whose body of work has profoundly influenced generations of other artists as well as the public. This year’s selection panel was led by Tyshawn Sorey and included MacDowell Fellow and board member Du Yun, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross and composers Marcos Balter, Miya Masaoka and Fay Victor. Past honorees include luminaries such as: Thornton Wilder, Toni Morrison, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Joan Didion, David Lynch, Nan Goldin, Robert Frank, Sonny Rollins and Yoko Ono, among others. The artistic discipline in which the award is given rotates in order to celebrate all of the creative fields practiced at MacDowell. The Medal Day ceremony features not only the honoree but also a well-known presentation speaker who is familiar with the Medalist's work. Past speakers include visual artist Richard Serra, writer William Styron and Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Robert Campbell.
While the Medal Day ceremony and open studios take place on Sunday, June 28, the Medal Day festivities take place throughout the whole week leading up to Sunday. Visitors are invited to participate in a full week of celebration of the arts, including soon to be announced public programming events in collaboration with Historic Harrisville, taking place the week before Medal Day and on Saturday, June 27. These events will expand on Medal Day’s tradition of bringing high quality performance and creative conversations to the community.
As part of the weekend, MacDowell will be hosting its annual Medal Day Benefit, held on the evening of Saturday, June 27. The Benefit features a cocktail hour, dinner from MacDowell's Chef Erik Johansen and his team, speeches, live music and dancing, all under the Medal Day tent. Funds raised at the Benefit will go towards supporting MacDowell’s year-round mission of supporting art and artists. Information about Benefit tickets and sponsorship levels and ways to support will be available on the event website.
About Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton (born 1945), the Chicago-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators and creative thinkers of the past 50 years. He is highly esteemed in the experimental music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement—innovation, spirituality and intellectual investigation.
From his early work as a pioneering solo performer in the late 1960s through to his eclectic experiments on Arista Records in the 1970s, his landmark quartet of the 1980s and more recent endeavors, such as his cycle of Trillium operas and the day-long, installation-based Sonic Genome Project, his vast body of work is unparalleled. His small ensembles of the 1970s through to the present day are considered among the most innovative groups of their respective eras, while his Creative Orchestra Music has brought together the varying streams of American jazz orchestras, marching bands and experimental practices with the traditions of European concert music in a wholly individual compositional voice. His continuing and evolving current systems of the past 15 years, including Ghost Trance Music, Diamond Curtain Wall Music, Falling River Music, Echo Echo Mirror House Music and ZIM Music, have served as the artistic incubators for some of the most exciting artists of the current generation. Braxton’s many awards include a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award and honorary doctorates from Université de Liège (Belgium), New England Conservatory (USA) and the 2020 United States Artists Fellowship.
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About MacDowell
Founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and pianist Marian MacDowell, MacDowell is the nation’s first artist residency program. It was established to nurture the arts by providing exceptional creative individuals with an inspiring environment to produce enduring works of the imagination. Honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1997, MacDowell hosts 300 artists annually—including architects, composers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, theatre artists, visual artists and writers—from across the U.S. and around the world. Over the past 119 years, more than 16,500 residencies have been awarded to distinguished artists such as James Baldwin, Charlie Kaufman, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Louise Erdrich, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ayad Akhtar, Laura Poitras, Faith Ringgold, Meredith Monk, Osvaldo Golijov, Sam Grabiner, Ersela Kripa, Alyson Shotz, Maya Ciarrocchi and jaamil olawale kosoko.
