CMA’s 2025 Awards Recognize Vanguards of Innovation

Chamber Music America, the national network for small ensemble music professionals, announced today the recipients of its annual awards, including the prestigious Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award; the Michael Jaffee Visionary Award; and the new CMA Executive Award, recognizing those who have made a profound impact on the field through leadership, creativity, and mentorship. The presentation for these honors and others will take place during the CMA Awards Luncheon on February 15, during the 2025 National Conference in Houston, Texas.

“I am pleased to announce this year’s awards cohort, representing distinguished leadership and artistic excellence in our field,” says cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, a member of CMA’s Board of Directors who serves as the Awards Committee Chair. “It’s an honor to celebrate extraordinary achievements of the small ensemble music community across style and discipline, reflecting the breadth and magnitude of chamber music. This group of recipients represents individuals working to expand musical boundaries, stewards of tradition, as well as mentors for the next generation.”

In 2007, Zeigler, received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award as part of Kronos Quartet, alongside the Quartet’s founding member David Harrington. This year, the CMA Board of Directors voted that Harrington alone would receive the Michael Jaffee Visionary Award, which celebrates remarkable artistry and a commitment to advancing the boundaries of chamber music through innovation, exploration, and experimentation. While Harrington’s 50-plus year career at the core of Kronos Quartet incontestably fits this description, it is Harrington’s vision for Kronos’ future—preserving and securing its legacy—that propels this honor.

The founders of Bang on a Can—Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julie Wolfe—will receive the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award. Named in recognition of former CMA Board Chairman Richard Bogomolny, the National Service Award honors those whose career represents historic service on a national level—those who have made significant and lasting contributions to enrich and foster a greater appreciation for chamber music. Previous recipients include Herbie Hancock, Lucy Shelton, The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM); Billy Taylor; Elliott Carter; the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Emerson Quartets; Chick Corea; and Paquito D’Rivera.

In the organization’s nearly 40-year history, Bang on a Can has been fearless in its broad range of collaborations, commissioning hundreds of composers and mentoring many young musicians who have become trailblazers themselves. Since its first marathon concert in 1987, the collective has grown into a multi-faceted performing arts organization with a broad range of year-round international activities. Projects include the LONG PLAY and LOUD Weekend festivals; the People’s Commissioning Fund; the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival; the Asphalt Orchestra; and Found Sound Nation; as well as collaborations with DJs, visual artists, choreographers, and filmmakers.

An inaugural member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell is one of the great innovators in creative music. For more than 40 years, he has been a restless explorer of new forms, ideas, and concepts. He has collaborated with many classical artists, including Pauline Oliveros and Thomas Buckner, and has experimented with such concepts as circular breathing and improvisation with computer technology. In 2020, Mitchell was named an NEA Jazz Master, and he continues to work as a creator and mentor to emerging artists. On Friday, February 14, 2025, Houston’s DACAMERA will present the world premiere of Metropolis Trilogy, a new piece written by Mitchell for flutist Emi Ferguson, the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, and the baroque band, Ruckus. The program is produced by New York’s Metropolis Ensemble and co-commissioned by DACAMERA. A panel about the work will take place Friday morning during CMA’s National Conference.

A vanguard of jazz and its intersection with other musical traditions, Mitchell is the perfect recipient of the inaugural CMA Executive Award. Designated specifically by CMA’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Kwan Loucks, the Executive Award is presented to an individual or organization in recognition of their profound impact on the field of chamber music, inspiring others and paving the way for future generations through leadership, mentorship, or creative contributions.

In 2024, CMA initiated a new awards program to honor artists, advocates and change-makers in the chamber music field, especially those across the country who are deserving of special recognition on a national level. The following award recipients were nominated by CMA Members, then reviewed and selected by independent panelists.

Ensemble of the Year: Apollo Chamber Players
This award celebrates an ensemble or ensemble project that has demonstrated exceptional artistry, musicality, and groundbreaking impact on the chamber music landscape. Based in Houston, Texas, and founded in 2008, Apollo Chamber Players is a passionate advocate of contemporary music, underrepresented composers, and music reflecting the times in which we live. Apollo counts an expanding catalogue of more than 50 commissioned works featuring a diverse roster of leading creators including Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Pamela Z, Leo Brouwer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Vanessa Võ, and Tracy Silverman. This award recognizes the ensemble’s curation of timely and groundbreaking programs that tackle controversial yet critical issues, including censorship, democracy, history, and immigration.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year: Meeting of Minds, Musiqa
Musiqa’s Meeting of Minds combined artistic performance—music and dance—with science that explores the neural dynamics of social interaction by tracing a relationship’s transformation from polarization to mutual understanding. The work features music by Anthony Brandt, choreography by Andy and Dionne Noble, and brain-computer interface technology by Jose Contreras-Vidal and the University of Houston’s BRAIN Center. Based in Houston, Musiqa is led by four composers with a mission to enrich and inspire their community through programs that integrate new music with other modern art forms. Through innovative collaborations and educational programming, Musiqa strives to make modern repertoire accessible and vital to a wide range of audiences.

Commission/New Work of the Year of the Year: Something Golden by Andrew Yee
Recognizing exceptional compositional talent, this award serves as a catalyst for the advancement of small-ensemble composition as a vibrant and evolving art form. In 2025, this award recognizes Andrew Yee’s Something Golden, written for the Thalea Quartet and described as “a deep work that explores the gritty parts of our soul.” A founding member of the Attacca Quartet, two-time Grammy Award winning artist is also a co-founder of ChamberQUEER, an organization highlighting LGBTQ+ voices in contemporary and historical music.

Community Impact Award / Presenter of the Year: William Ransom
Previously titled the CMAcclaim Award, this award recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to their community through the presentation of chamber music performances, educational outreach initiatives, collaborations with local musicians and organizations, or audience development programs. In more than three decades, Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta has enriched the lives of the greater Atlanta area and created a new generation of chamber music enthusiasts and advocates. Under the helm of Artistic Director William Ransom, ECMSA has grown into one of the largest chamber music organizations in the Southeast and presents over 60 concerts, masterclasses, and events each season that are all free to attend.

Arts Advocate of the Year: Thomas Rosenberg
As Artistic Director of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association since 1981, Thomas Rosenberg has exemplified consummate leadership and a commitment to advancing the arts on a national scale. He has been an essential piece to Fischoff’s impact on professional development, education, and outreach, and was the leading factor in the organization’s growth over 40 years. A dynamic teacher, performer, and chamber coach, Rosenberg teaches cello and chamber music at Carleton and MacAlester Colleges and maintains an award-winning pre-college home studio. Describes one nominator, “his nurturing of countless ensembles, including those in the junior division, has been an incredible boon for small ensemble growth,” and his work developing extensive community engagement programs has greatly contributed to chamber music’s proliferation.

Album of the Year: Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung, by Jasper String Quartet
Released in October 2023, The Jasper String Quartet’s Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung will receive the Album of the Year Award. Celebrated as one of the preeminent American string quartets of the 21st-century, the Jasper String Quartet is known for evocatively connecting the music of underrepresented and living composers to the canonical repertoire. The Quartet received CMA’s Cleveland Quartet Award in 2012, and since the ensemble’s launch in 2006, has commissioned more than 20 works in its nearly 20-year history. Insects and Machines is Jasper Quartet’s eighth album and the first commercial release of Fung’s first four quartets. It received notable critical acclaim, including from Strings Magazine that praised the album for its “intensely dramatic energy… demonstrating both their advocacy of new music and their transcendent mastery.”

The 2025 Awards Luncheon and ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 15, during CMA’s National Conference at the InterContinental Houston hotel, beginning at 1:00pm. Tickets for the Awards Luncheon are included with conference registrations for Saturday attendees. Single-day and multi-day conference passes are available on the conference website. Tickets will not be available at the door.

Chamber Music America, the national network of ensemble music professionals, was founded in 1977 to develop, strengthen, and support the chamber music community. With a membership including musicians, ensembles, presenters, artists’ managers, educators, music businesses, and advocates of ensemble music, CMA welcomes members representing a wide range of musical styles and traditions. In addition to its funding programs, CMA provides its members with consulting services, access to instrument and other insurances, conferences, seminars, and its quarterly publication, Chamber Music magazine.