Graduate composer Dayton Kinney has been selected as a semi-finalist by The American Prize for the 2020 Composition - Instrumental Chamber Music (student division) competition for her piece "Hand Carved Names and Railroad Tracks." Her piece will in the running for the finalist and winner rounds.
Listen to "Hand Carved Names and Railroad Tracks"
Follow the results of the competition on Facebook or Twitter.
The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the classical arts. The American Prize is nonprofit, unique in scope and structure, and is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. There is no live competition. The American Prize has attracted hundreds of qualified contestants from all fifty states since its founding, has awarded more than $60,000 in prizes in all categories since 2010, and is presented annually in many areas of the performing arts.
Dayton Kinney creates music that has won and has been recognized for numerous competitions. Performed in the U.S. and abroad, Dayton’s music has had notable performances by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Juventas New Music Ensemble, F-Plus, the Durham Medical Orchestra, Rela Percussion, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Zodiac Trio, and at Pittsburgh Opera. Dayton’s eclectic style is inspired from neo-romantic-ideals, juxtapositions, and accessibility. Her compositional obsession explores ambiguity within harmonic projections and formal development through patterns, juxtaposition, and repetition.
Dayton is a doctoral candidate for a Ph.D. in Music - Composition at Duke University with John Supko as her dissertation adviser. Dayton earned her Master of Music in Composition at Carnegie Mellon University and was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda. Dayton also holds a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude with Honors in Music from Smith College. Her previous composition teachers include Leonardo Balada, Salvatore Macchia, Melinda Wagner, and Alla Elana Cohen.
Department of Music
