2008 Woodie Awards
Conservatory professor receives national honor
Nick Kepley
Issue date: 12/5/05 Section: Culture
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Mobberley learned he had been awarded one of the top honors in new American music. He was chosen for one of the 2005 Fromm Music Foundation's commissions for the creation of new work.
The $10,000 grant is given annually to new or existing composers throughout the United States to be used in the completion of a brand new composition.
Mobberley, who has been on faculty for over 22 years, couldn't feel more honored by the recognition.
"It is one of the top five competitive commissions in the United States," Mobberley said. "Anybody of consequence in the new music industry has won it."
The Foundation, presently located at Harvard University, was created by Paul Fromm, a legendary patron in the contemporary American music scene.
Since its inception in 1972, the Foundation has commissioned over 300 new compositions and sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series, including Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music and the Fromm Concert Series at Harvard University.
Mobberley has given his proposed composition the working title of "Phenomena." It will consist of short, one- to five-minute segments totaling 15 to 20 minutes. "Phenomena" will be written for solo piano and live as well as recorded vocals, including those of his colleagues, his children and even himself.
"My initial spark for this piece came in a dream," Mobberley said. "I dreamed that I was at the Ford plant and there were these bright sparks flying out the top that were making these huge parabola shapes in the sky. I began to ask myself, 'What do those sparks feel like? How would I give sound to them?' That's what I want to bring out in the work."
Mobberley, born in Des Moines, Iowa, received his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and his doctorate from the Cleveland Institute. He never dreamed he would end up in Kansas City. Now that he is here he couldn't be happier.
