Gardner Laureates

Christopher Lowry, First Prize Winner – Zenith, for viola and tape
Composer website

A two-time prizewinner in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Grand  Prizewinner of the 2015 Lewisville Lake International String Competition, winner of the  2017 Sousa/ABA/Ostwald Composition Award, and winner of Cuarteto Jose White’s 2018  “Nuestra America” Composition Award, Dr. Christopher Lowry has emerged as one of  the leading violists and composers of his generation. His music has been performed in such  venues as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy  Center by ensembles such as the Nashville, Alabama, Baton Rouge, and Amarillo  Symphony Orchestras, the West Point Band, and Central Band of the Royal Air Force,  among many others.  For the last two seasons, Dr. Lowry has served as principal violist of the Alabama  Symphony Orchestra; previously, he held the principal position with the Amarillo, Baton  Rouge, and Acadiana Symphony Orchestras. He is also the violist of the Lagniappe Trio  and an in-demand session musician in Nashville. His self-engineered and -produced debut solo CD, Milestones: New Music for Viola from the Third Millennium, released April 2021 on  Centaur Records. His work Romanza for Four Violas (an American Viola Society commission)  has been recorded by the Seoul Philharmonic’s Baltika Quartet on Decca and by the ALIAS  Chamber Ensemble (available on Spotify). 

Ethan Chaves, Second Prize Winner – into deep eternity, for viola alone
Composer website

Ethan Chaves (b. 2003) is a student at Harvard College (Psychology and Music) and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studies with Michael Gandolfi. His music has been read and performed by ensembles and performers around the world, including the New York Youth Symphony, Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, Harvard Pops Orchestra, Trio Immersio, Kenichiro Aiso (violin), Jessica Meyer (viola), and Thomas Kraines (cello). Awards include a 2022 National YoungArts Finalist in Classical Music, winner of the Harvard Pops Orchestra Composition Competition, Finalist in the 2022 New Music on the Bluff Festival (including a radio broadcast of his solo violin work, Despair Says), National Young Composers Challenge (Orchestral Division) and a Jack Kent Cooke Award from NPR’s From The Top. He has attended numerous summer festivals for both violin and composition, including Heifetz International Music Institute, Boston University Tanglewood Institute (ASCAP Foundation scholarship recipient), Curtis Summerfest, and the 2023 ICEBERG New Music Institute in Vienna, Austria. At Harvard College, he serves as concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Orchestra Manager for the Harvard College Opera, and Video Executive at The Harvard Crimson. Previous teachers include John Harbison and Eric Ewazen in composition, and Malcolm Lowe, Li Lin, Naoko Tanaka, and Joel Smirnoff for violin.

Peter Dayton, Honorable Mention – Beyond the Last Thought: Third Fantasy for Viola and Piano
Composer website

Peter Dayton, described as “a composer whose heart and care are palpable” (American Record Guide), is a composer specializing in lyrical instrumental and vocal chamber music. His releases, All in the Sound: New Vocal Music by Peter Dayton (Navona Records, 2023) and Stories Out of Cherry Stems: Katie Procell sings works by Peter Dayton (2022) were both nominated for Critic’s Choice by Opera News, which praised Dayton’s “fresh and interesting sounds.” Dayton’s works for viola have been performed at conferences such as the Intimacy of Creativity Conference in Hong Kong (2019) and the New Music DC conference (2019), and in recitals in North America and Mexico. His Fantasy for Viola and Piano (2009) was featured on Christopher Lowry’s Milestones: New Music for Viola from the Third Millennium (Centaur, 2021) and will be performed by members of The Pacific Symphony in May 2024. Dayton holds a Master’s of Music from The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s of Music from the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music. He is the Director of Operations at Arts Education in Maryland Schools (AEMS), a statewide education advocacy nonprofit in Maryland.

Evan Guttormson, Honorable Mention – Autumn Prelude
Composer website

Evan Guttormson (b. 2000) is a composer, violist, and visual artist based in northeast Florida. Originally from Colorado, he comes from an artistically rich family including several generations of visual artists and musicians. Evan completed his bachelor’s degree in Music Performance for Viola with a minor in Art History at the University of North Florida, studying viola with DJ Cheek and Dr. Renate Falkner and composition with Dr. Gary Smart, as well as serving as section leader for the University of North Florida Orchestra for several years. As a composer, his atmospheric music draws on a wide range of influences including folk music traditions from around the world, visual art history, and the world of film, including cinematic arts and film scoring. Evan’s original compositions have been included in various projects including a second- place winning entry in MediaSound Hamburg’s Young Talent Competition 2022, The Talon Review, and scores for multiple student films from around the U.S.

Daniel Sabzghabaei, First Prize Winner – …under this blue of my land, for viola and voice
Score
Recording (Ledah Finck, viola, Emma Nicholson, voice)
Project page
Composer website

Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei ( دانیال†رضا†سبزقبایی†) is a creator who aims to emphasize the malleability of time and how we experience it, not just in the concert hall but in everyday life as well. His work has been presented and commissioned by organizations including: the JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the New York Youth Symphony, National Sawdust, Intimacy of Creativity Festival, TAK Ensemble, Beth Morrison Projects, the New York Festival of Song, loadbang, bassist Robert Black, the Banff Centre, Contemporaneous, Guerilla Opera, the Moab Music Festival, [Switch~] Ensemble, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, Pro Coro Canada, The Esoterics, OPERA America, and VocalEssence among others. Daniel’s current research focuses on time and form within Persian moosiqi sonnati. He holds degrees from the University of North Texas and the Peabody Conservatory and is currently a doctoral candidate and Sage Fellow at Cornell University. Outside of music and sound-based projects, Daniel also translates Persian poetry, most recently exploring the works of Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi. 

Deniz Çağlarcan, Second Prize Winner – Void, for viola and electronic media
Score
Recording (Deniz Çağlarcan, viola)
Project page
Composer website

Deniz Çağlarcan is a Los Angeles-based composer, violist, and conductor initially from Istanbul, Turkey. He investigates the sonic quality of electronic music by any means and realizes this idealized environment as a model for his musical language. Çağlarcan’s music explores the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronic sounds within their sonic morphology. Besides, he is intrigued to create an environment by utilizing various immersive audio technique as well as visuals and spatial elements that surround the audience. He performs interdisciplinary works collaborating with media artists, computer graphics developers, and machine learning engineers. His works include solo instrumental pieces, chamber music, large ensembles, tape/electroacoustic works, live-electronic, mixed works, audio/visual compositions, site-specific sound installations, arrangements as well as film and video games scores.

Besides his composition career as a violist, he performs in solo concerts, chamber music, new music ensembles, and popular music. He is a co-founder of the ADE Duo ensemble, where he released the rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley in 2021. He studied orchestral conducting for over eight years, and at Central Michigan University, he continued very in-depth study with José-Luis Maúrtua. He holds degrees in Master of Music in Viola Performance from Central Michigan University and a Master of Arts in Composition from Bilkent University.

Çağlarcan is currently a Ph.D. student in Composition at the University of California Santa Barbara, studying with Professors João Pedro Oliveira and Curtis Roads. He has studied with notable composers and performers; Mark Andre, Beat Furrer, Bruno Mantovani, Ken Ueno, Pierluigi Billone, Clara Iannotta, Alberto Posadas, Isabel Mundry, UlrichmKreppein, Laura San Martin, Jay C. Batzner, Alicia Valoti, Sheila Browne, Scott Woolweaver, Yuri Gandelsman, Tatjana Masurenko, Walter Küssner, Hartmut Rohde, AlexanderZemtsov, Ulrich Mertin, Christine Rutledge.

Wajdi Abou Diab, Honorable Mention – The Moraba’ Dance, for solo viola
Recording (Noemi Chemaly, viola)
Composer website

Devin Cholodenko, Honorable Mention – Duo for Viola and Piano
Score
Recording
Composer website

Daniel Temkin, Honorable Mention – Unspoken, for solo viola
Recording (Ayane Kozasa, viola)
Composer website