The Mile High Freedom Bands is pleased to announce the winner of our second commission project. A wide variety of composers from around the world submitted applications. After a rigorous review of those submissions, the artistic review panel is pleased to award the commission to composer Ian Evans Guthrie.

Ian Evans Guthrie, an emerging composer, performer, and researcher, has received a nomination for a 2020 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1st prize for the Arcady Composition Competition, 2nd prize for the American Prize, and other accolades for his compositions. Many of his works have been performed publicly around the world by fEARnoMUSIC, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, the Moore Philharmonic Orchestra, VIPA, the highSCORE Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Charlotte New Music Festival, and others. He has served on various committees, including the Society of Composers, Inc., where he has served as the Region VI Student Representative from 2015 to 2017 before serving as Assistant Marketer and Marketer. His most recent works include Voices of the Earth for band, Shuksan Storm for orchestra, tracks for the permanent collection and a special exhibition at the Venvi Art Gallery, and the score for the story ballet The Queen of Nori. As a pianist, Guthrie has won awards from MTNA, the Great Composer Competition, and others. He also actively researches and analyzes the relationship between harmony and rhythmic cells, and his paper Rhythm as Function has been featured at several past and upcoming conferences across the continent.

Derek Hebert, Artistic Director of the Mile High Freedom Bands, said, “We are thrilled to continue our annual program to commission new works for concert band. This submission demonstrated exciting and broad use of the wind ensemble and his entry impressed each of our panel members. We are thrilled to collaborate with him on the creation of this new work!”

MHFB is proud to support new music, new composers, and collaborative efforts to expand the concert band
repertoire. Through this project, the band has set out to engage with composers who are relatively unknown and/or have been historically marginalized or otherwise have had difficulty having their voice expressed.

The commissioned work is scheduled to be premiered at MHFB’s “Soar!” performance on May 8, 2021 at The Studio Loft in Denver, Colorado.