1956: J. Clifton Williams, Fanfare and AllegroJames Clifton Williams, Jr. (1923–1976), was one of America's leading wind ensemble composers and a virtuoso hornist with the San Antonio and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras.
Williams received his BM from Louisiana State University in 1947, where he studied with Helen M. Gunderson, and his MM from the Eastman School of Music in 1949, where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He then served as composition faculty at the University of Texas School of Music and at the University of Miami School of Music, where he was chair of the theory and composition department until his death in 1976.
Williams won the first ABA Ostwald Award in 1956 for his Fanfare and Allegro and won the award the following year for his Symphonic Suite. Both pieces remain staples in the concert band repertoire.
Fanfare and Allegro
Symphonic Suite
1958: James Mark Quinn, Portrait of the LandJames Mark Quinn (1936-2021) is an award-winning composer of works for theater, television, and the concert stage. His chamber music, songs, and other works in various media have earned him over 44 consecutive awards from the Popular Awards Panel of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Quinn worked as composer/librettist on the Emmy Award–winning and Blue Ribbon Citation Award–winning opera-ballet Requiem for a Slave and as the principal composer and associate lyricist of the musical Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, which holds performance records in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
Quinn remains the youngest composer ever to have won the ABA Ostwald Award, which he received for Portrait of the Land in 1958, written when he was just 21.
1959: Maurice Weed, Introduction and Scherzo for BandMaurice Weed (1912–2005) received a bachelor of arts in composition from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where he studied with H. Owen Reed, and an MM and PhD in composition from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Edward Royce, Burrill Phillips, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson.
Weed taught music and served as supervisor of instrumental music for the public schools of Iona, Michigan, from 1934 to 1936, and for Three Rivers, Michigan, from 1937 to 1943. He served as faculty at Ripon College, the Eastman School of Music, Northern Illinois University (where he was head of the music department until 1974), and Western Carolina University.
His compositions have been performed in many notable venues including the concert hall of the Eastman School of Music, Carnegie Hall in New York, and Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. Weed has won many notable awards including the National Symphony Orchestra's 25th anniversary award in 1956, first prize in the competition MacDowell Fellowship in 1961, the J. Fisher & Bro. Centennial Award in 1964, and the Pedro Paz Award in 1966.
Weed won the ABA Ostwald Award in 1959 for his Introduction and Scherzo for Band.
