Awarded the American Prize in Conducting for Orchestras, 2022—college/university division.
"The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation's most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts. The American Prize is unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States at professional, college/university, community and high school levels, based on submitted recordings. Now in its twelfth year, The American Prize has awarded more than $100,000 since its founding and is offered annually in many areas of the performing arts. Thousands of artists from all fifty states have derived benefit from their participation in the contests of The American Prize, representing literally hundreds of communities and arts organizations across the nation."
"The award I received was for the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 9, which the BYU Philharmonic performed April 9, 2019. This piece is very rarely attempted by a university orchestra because of its complexity and difficulty, but the orchestra did a remarkable job. It was, in fact, the culmination of a year-long study by the orchestra to comprehend and mount this extraordinary masterpiece, the last symphony of Mahler. I should add, as well, that without the expertise of our recording engineer, Jeff Carter, however well we play would go unnoticed outside our concert hall. But thanks to him, and Troy Sales, who also assists me in mastering the finished product, we have concert audio of true professional quality to submit for critical review, and we can be judged in the most favorable circumstances possible.
I am gratified that something for which we labored so long to accomplish was recognized by peers around the country, and that finally, BYU has cracked the listings for the first time and can get a little visibility amongst other prestigious orchestras and universities."
-Kory Katseanes
