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Performing Arts Library Special Collections in Performing Arts ABA Research Center 
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Ostwald Award Archives
Winner 1974: James Sclater, Visions [Listen]
Biography:
James Sclater (b. 1943) is professor of music and coordinator of music theory at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. He teaches courses in theory, orchestration, composition, arranging and applied clarinet. Sclater received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi (1962-1967) and a doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin (1967-1970). He began teaching at Mississippi College in 1970, and he has been a clarinetist in the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Mississippi Opera since 1971.Sclater has composed approximately 90 works. These include songs, operas, solo piano music, woodwind and brass chamber music and works for chorus, orchestra, band and educational television. He has received numerous commissions from organizations such as the Mississippi Music Educators Association, the Mississippi Music Teachers Association, the 8th Air Force Band, Mississippi College and the city of Mobile, Alabama. Some of the highlights of his career include a performance of his Piano Sonata at the Kennedy Center in 1976, a commission for his Concerto for Orchestra (1989) to celebrate the 80th birthday of Eudora Welty, a performance of his Three Psalms on Texts of Mark VanDoren at Carnegie Hall in 1995 and nine performances of his opera The Christmas Gift, 1983-1997. He is a three-time winner of Mississippi Arts and Letters composition award and has won several ASCAP awards.
Sclater has been a member of several professional organizations including ASCAP, College Music Society, AFM, Pi Kappa Lambda, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Mu Alpha and Kappa Kappa Psi. He served three terms as Union Representative for the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, was chairman of theory and composition for the Mississippi Music Teachers Association and is State Chairman of the International Clarinet Society.
Source:
Correspondence with the composer.
