Wisconsin Arts Board

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Composer Patty Darling Awarded Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship

Patty Darling, director of the Lawrence University Jazz Band and lecturer in music, has been named one of nine recipients of an $8,000 fellowship through the Wisconsin Arts Board’s 2011 Individual Artists Program.

The fellowship recognizes Wisconsin artists for significant contributions to the fields of literary arts, music composition and dance choreography.

Patty Darling

Selected from among 141 applicants state-wide, Darling, a 1985 Lawrence graduate, was the only composer awarded a fellowship. She submitted original compositions scored for symphonic band, percussion ensemble and jazz ensemble with her application. She has been a member of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty since 2007.

The fellowship is designed to support the creation of new work, complete work in progress and/or pursue activities that contribute to the recipient’s artistic growth. Darling will use her fellowship to prepare a dozen of her existing original works for publication, to compose four new educational compositions for middle school and high school jazz ensemble that will be performed in December by several local schools and develop a personal website to bring her compositions and recordings to a larger audience.

Awards were determined by three panels of arts professionals, based primarily on the artistic quality of the applicants’ work samples.

The Wisconsin Arts Board is a state agency that nurtures creativity, cultivates expression, promotes the arts, supports the arts in education, stimulates community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage. Since 1973, the Arts Board has supported state artists and arts organizations with funds from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.