The AVS congratulations our most recent Dalton Research Competition winners, along with all the entrants who have made valued contributions to viola scholarship since the inception of the competition. Winning authors are honored by the competition by having their winning articles published in the Journal of the American Viola Society.
Please seek out and enjoy the worthy contributions listed below!
First Prize: Sachin Shukla, “To Christabel: Exploring the Origins of William Walton’s Viola Concerto”
– to be published in JAVS, vol. 38, no. 2, Fall 2022
Bio:
Award winning artist-scholar of the viola Sachin Shukla is based in Boston, MA. His competition awards include first place in the 2021 Northwestern Viola Prize as well as prizes from the Society of American Musicians and the Illinois ASTA. Festival appearances include the Bowdoin International Music Festival and as a recitalist and composer at the Cazenovia Counterpoint Festival, and he has played in masterclasses for Steven Dann and Mimi Zweig, among others. Performances with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and other ensembles have led him to venues such as NEC’s Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston.
Sachin’s prize winning article, “To Christabel: Exploring the Origins of William Walton’s Viola Concerto,” is forthcoming in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Viola Society, after garnering first place in the 2021 David Dalton Research Competition. He is currently working on a project applying the insights of music theory to performance in the Bach cello suites.
Sachin is currently on the viola faculty of the Powers Music School in Belmont, MA and also teaches with the Village Music School and Traveling Music Lessons in Boston. He is pursuing graduate studies at the New England Conservatory with Mai Motobuchi and is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied with Helen Callus. He also studied violin and viola pedagogy there with Stacia Spencer, a disciple of renowned pedagogue Mimi Zweig.
In addition to his musical activities, Sachin is also a public policy enthusiast. He has served as research assistant to noted labor economist Diane Schanzenbach and Ajay K. Mehrotra, Executive Director of the American Bar Foundation. At Northwestern, he also served on the executive board of the university’s Political Union for three years, culminating in a term as co-president. https://sachinshukla.com/
First Prize: Angela Kratschmer, “The Widmann Viola Concerto: Harold in Italy for the Postmodern Age”
– published in JAVS, vol. 37, no. 1, Spring 2021
Second Prize: Christopher Jenkins , “African-American Violists: A Retrospective”
– published in JAVS, vol. 36, no. 2, Fall 2020
Third Prize: Kasey Calebaugh, “Color in Music: An Analysis of Joan Tower’s Purple Works for Viola”
– published in JAVS, vol. 37, no. 1, Spring 2021
Honorable Mention: Chelsea Wimmer, “Heinrich Biber, Harmonia Artificiosa-Ariosa, Partia VII: An Edition for Modern Violas with Critical Commentary”
– published in JAVS, vol. 37, no. 2, Summer 2021
First Prize: Alice Sprinkle, “Bach Slurs, Abandoned by the Editors”
– published in JAVS, vol. 36, no. 1, Spring 2020
First Prize: Lanson Wells, “The Viola d’amore in Baroque Opera, Oratorio, and Cantata”
– published in JAVS, vol. 35, no. 2, Fall 2019
Second Prize: Joshua Dieringer, “A New Perspective on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante”
– published in JAVS, vol. 35, no. 2, Fall 2019
First Prize: Alexander Trygstad, “Ritornello Form and the Dynamics of Performance in Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G Major”
– published in JAVS, vol. 31, no. 2, Fall 2015
First Prize: Alicia Marie Valoti, “Bartolomeo Campagnoli and His 41 Capricci: The Ever-Changing Role of the Virtuosic Viola and Its Technique”
– published in JAVS, vol. 32, no. 1, Spring 2016
First Prize: Julie Michael, “Zen in the Art of Viola Playing: Takemitsu’s A Bird Came Down the Walk”
– published in JAVS, vol. 30, no. 1, Spring 2014
First Prize: Joyce Y. Chan, “Forward Motion: Teaching Phrasing using Marcel Tabuteau’s Number System”
– published in JAVS, vol. 29, no. 1, Spring 2013
Second Prize: Amanda Wilton, “The Viola in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy”
– published in JAVS, vol. 29, no. 1, Spring 2013
First Prize: Jennifer Reed Mueller, “Finding Emotion in Bartók’s Viola Concerto”
– published in JAVS, vol. 25, no. 2, Fall 2009
First Prize: Andrew Filmer, “Power-Plays in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante: A Question of Philosophies on the Genre”
– published in JAVS, vol. 24, no. 2, Fall 2008
First Prize: Christina Placilla, “The Englishman and His Mistress: A Study of Arnold Bax’s Concert Piece for Viola and Piano”
– published in JAVS, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2007
First Prize: Linda Shaver-Gleason, “Ritter’s Viola Alta: The Viola’s Nineteenth Century Identity Crisis”
– published in JAVS, vol. 21, no. 2, Fall 2005
First Prize: Jeffrey Levenberg, “Introducing Zelter’s Viola Concerto”
– published in JAVS, vol. 19, no. 2, Fall 2003
First Prize: Edward M. Klorman, “From Theory to Performance in Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata”
– published in JAVS, vol. 18, no. 1, 2002
First Prize: Charletta Taylor, “The Real Thing: A Study of the Walton Viola Concerto”
– published in JAVS, vol. 17, no. 1, 2001
Second Prize: Christina Placilla, “The Romanian Nationalist Influences on the Viola Works of Stan Golestan and George Enescu”
– published in JAVS, vol. 17, no. 1, 2001