JULY 30, 2020 — Steven Parker, a music lecturer in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at UTSA, has been named a winner of the 2021 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships by the American Academy in Rome.
Parker, also curator of SoundSpace at the Blanton Museum of Art Futurist Opera, was one of 22 Americans selected for the highly competitive prize, which supports advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities.
“I’m incredibly grateful to receive the Rome Prize,” Parker said. “This opportunity will provide me with the space and time to work on an opera that invites viewers to engage in new modes of listening through sonic sculpture, wearable sound suits and tactile compositions.”
The Rome Prize includes a stipend, workspace, and room and board for four to seven months at the academy’s campus in Rome. Two Italian artists and scholars were also awarded a Rome Prize.
“On another level, it will be a time to reflect on how my practice can serve my community more deeply and support social progress,” Parker said. “Upon my return I look forward to sharing what I have learned with my students and colleagues so that I can continue to grow as a teacher and collaborator.”
“The music department at UTSA includes a very accomplished group of faculty who are creative and entrepreneurial,” said Department of Music Chair Tracy Cowden. “Having a Rome Prize awarded to Steve Parker is an acknowledgement of this, and a very prestigious honor for him and for the department.”
All winners are selected through a national competition that includes a jury of distinguished artists and scholars. Disciplines supported by the academy are literature, music composition, visual arts, architecture, landscape architecture, design, and historic preservation and conservation as well as ancient studies, medieval studies, Renaissance and early modern studies, and modern Italian studies.
“The fact that Dr. Parker has received this fellowship to support his work as a designer is even more significant. His groundbreaking work boldly defies categorization and draws audiences in as enthusiastic participators in his art,” Cowden said. “We are proud of Dr. Parker and grateful that our students—in performance and music technology courses—have a chance to work with him.”
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