Conservatory lands multiple semifinalist nods for 2023 American Prize 

Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music has been named a national semifinalist in multiple categories for the 2023 The American Prize.

The American Prize annually hands out awards of excellence in the performing arts among nonprofit arts organizations and schools across the country. Award recipients are announced in the fall.

Lawrence has been selected as a semifinalist in the Collegiate Opera Performance Division for two Opera Theatre productions: Suor Angelica/Curlew River and The Nefarious, Immoral, but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare.

Copeland Woodruff, director of opera studies, is a semifinalist for the Charles Nelson Reilly Prize for Stage Directors.

Kristin Roach, music director, is a semifinalist in the Conductor (opera and musical theater) Division.

Lawrence has fared well in The American Prize in recent years. In 2022, faculty and students who were part of the Lawrence University New Music Ensemble (LUNME) during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic won an American Prize in Virtual Performance for a music video recorded mostly on cell phones while scattered across the country.

In 2021, Mark Dupere, director of orchestral studies, received a third-place honor for the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra in the College Orchestral category, and Woodruff received a third-place honor in the College Opera category for the 2020 production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Opera Theatre, meanwhile, has had a history of success with The American Prize. In 2017-18, two Lawrence productions tied for first place: The Beggar’s Opera and Hydrogen Jukebox; and Woodruff won the first Charles Nelson Reilly Prize in Stage Directing. In 2018-19, Count Ory won a Special Judges’ Citation.