American Academy of Arts and Letters music winners. (Items of Interest).

The American Academy of Arts and Letters recently announced the seventeen recipients of this year's awards in music, which total $175,000.

The $7,500 Academy Award in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement, was given to composers Claude Baker, Daniel Becker, David Liptak and Cindy McTee. Each of them also will receive $7,500 toward the recording of one work.

The $5,000 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award, inaugurated in 1993, was presented to composer Eric Moe. Other award winners include Alia Borzova and Steven Stucky, who each received a $15,000 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, given to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts; James Matheson, who received the Walter Hinrichsen Award for the publication of a work by a gifted composer; Mason Bates and Leslie Hogan, who each received a $15,000 Charles Ives Fellowship, given to a composer in mid-career; and Kati Agocs, Nancy Kho, Nathan Michel, David Schober, Gregory Spears and Dmitri Tymoczko, who each received a $7,500 Charles Ives Scholarship, given to composition students of great promise.

The winners were selected by a committee of Academy members: Jack Beeson, chair, Samuel Adler, Andrew Imbrie, Ezra Laderman, George Perle, Ned Rorem, Joan Tower and George Walker. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the Academy's membership of 250. The Academy was founded in 1898 to "foster, assist, and sustain an interest in literature, music, and the fine arts."