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CSUN Music Professor and Student Receive National Honors

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Dec. 6, 2006) -- The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has honored two composers from Cal State Northridge’s Music Department: one well established and the other in the early stages of his career.

Music professor Liviu Marinescu and Kentaro Sato, a graduate student pursuing studies in music conducting, have received separate recognitions from the organization.

Marinescu’s ASCAPLUS Award was granted in fall 2006 by an independent panel of experts including Judith Clurman, director of choral activities at The Julliard School; University of Michigan professor emeritus H. Robert Reynolds, and classical music editor Steve Smith. The ASCAPLUS Award is based on "the unique prestige value of each writer’s catalog of original compositions, as well as recent performances in areas not surveyed by the Society."

Honored three times previously by ASCAP, Marinescu has composed works recognized in major new music festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Africa. World class orchestras--among them the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Bucharest’s National Radio and Music Academy orchestras--have performed his music.

Sato in summer 2006 was selected as a participant in the annual ASCAP Television and Film Scoring Workshop, an intensive month-long workshop program known as a "major educational and networking opportunity for aspiring composers."

The young composer--whose "How Do I Love You?" premiered in November 2005 at the Ithaca College Chorale Festival, and whose "Kyrie" sacred music earned a prestigious American Choral Directors Association award--was selected by a jury of leading film composers after consideration of nearly 250 submissions from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Israel.

Led by Emmy Award-winning composer Richard Bellis, the workshop gave participants the opportunity to record an original composition on a major studio scoring stage with "A list" Hollywood professionals.