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A Rome
sabbatical
Kilstofte receives prestigious Rome Prize fellowship
This summer, Mark Kilstofte will begin to sample a life that most composers can only dream of.
For 11 months he will live at the American Academy in Rome, which is situated atop the Janiculum, the city's highest point. With the backdrop of Rome and the park-like surroundings of the academy serving as inspiration, Kilstofte will have just one responsibility: to write music.
"This is an incredible opportunity for me to focus on my writing in a very intense way," says Kilstofte, who joined the Furman faculty in 1992. "I have never had this much time or such a window of opportunity to compose in my life."
Kilstofte learned that he had received the prestigious 2002-03 Rome Prize in late March. The American Academy, one of the leading American overseas centers for independent study and research in the fine arts and humanities, awards fellowships to two composers annually.
The academy is tight-lipped about the number of applicants, but each year hundreds of hopefuls apply. A jury of leading artists and scholars selects the winners. Other composers who have received the prize include Samuel Barber, Randall Thompson and Howard Hanson.
The academy
awards similar fellowships for American artists and scholars in the fields
of architecture, design, literature and medieval studies.
On a more personal note, Kilstofte will marry Leslie Nash, principal cellist
with the Greenville Symphony, this June. The newlyweds will depart for Rome
in mid-September.
The Rome Prize is just the latest honor for Kilstofte. He was also recently selected as one of four finalists for The Dale Warland Singers' 2002 Choral Ventures, a program that encourages the creation of new choral works by emerging composers. And he has received grants and fellowships from the Copland Heritage Association and the MacDowell Colony. Most recently, he received the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
But Kilstofte anticipates that the Rome Prize will have the biggest impact on his music career. "This experience will change my life," he says. "I think it will change the way I think about the world and those things will impact my music."
Kilstofte
says he will use his time in Rome to complete work on a symphony and write
the libretto and short score of a chamber opera.
And, of course, the romantic allure of the city will beckon the newlyweds.