King of Prussia, PA – Theodore Presser Company is delighted to announce that James Matheson has been honored with the esteemed Charles Ives Living award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Charles Ives Living award, inaugurated by the Academy in 1998, consists of a generous stipend for a period of two years with the aim of allowing the composer the freedom to concentrate on composition. Matheson’s term begins in July, 2012. His latest work, Violin Concerto, premieres on December 15th, 16th and 17th, 2011, when Baird Dodge is soloist in with the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. The Concerto is a joint commission with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who give their performances on March 2nd, 3rd & 4th with soloist Martin Chalifour and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

Brooklyn-based composer James Matheson has rapidly emerged as one of the most distinctive, vital, and creative musical voices of his generation. Among his commissions are works for the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Chicago and Albany Symphony Orchestras, Carnegie Hall and the Borromeo String Quartet. In September of 2009, James joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Director of the Philharmonic's innovative Composer Fellowship Program. In addition to the Violin Concerto, recent projects include True South, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Four Fanfares, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Borromean Rings, commissioned by the Cheswatyr Foundation for the Borromeo String Quartet and pianist Judith Gordon.

Matheson has also received the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and the Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and awards from the Bogliasco and Sage Foundations, ASCAP, and the Robbins Prize. From 2005-2007, Matheson was Executive Director of the MATA Festival of New Music in New York, which commissions and performs the work of young composers who are making their entry into professional musical life. Matheson has held residencies at Yaddo and the Liguria Study Center, and has been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

To learn more about James Matheson, visit the Composer Gallery at www.presser.com or his website at www.jamesmatheson.com.

Offering music by today’s greatest composers and teachers, Theodore Presser Company is the leader in publishing educational and recital music. Theodore Presser Company is a full-range music publisher and distributes the music of over 30 publishers from around the globe, with a combined sales catalog that features over 60,000 available works. For more information about new publications from Theodore Presser Company or to locate a dealer near you, log on to www.presser.com or e-mail us at sales@presser.com. For review copies of the publication listed in this release, please contact Heidi Vanderlee at (212) 777-0900, ext. 230 or send an e-mail to hvanderlee@presser.com.