John Ness Beck Foundation

In this video, filmed at the 2007 National ACDA Convention, David Thomas talks about the John Ness Beck Foundation.



More about the John Ness Beck Foundation, from their website:

John Ness Beck established the John Ness Beck Foundation in 1987, only a few months before he passed away from cancer. The Foundation was established in memory of Randall Thompson and Joseph Clokey and is tax exempt. It recognizes outstanding achievement in choral composition and arrangement of traditional church music, enhances and furthers the careers, study, education and experience of promising composers and arrangers, and promotes and stimulates the learning of choral composition and traditional church music.

John Beck's desire was simple: to encourage and promote the writing of traditional sacred music. The Foundation has sought to honor this goal in several ways. For several years, scholarships were awarded to students from the Westminster Choir College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who exhibited promise in the writing of sacred choral music. At present, the Foundation has embarked on a program which recognizes current composers of traditional sacred choral music by selecting two compositions yearly which best exemplify the type of writing that fit the criteria set forth by John Beck. Compositions are nominated by a panel of seven judges comprised of composers, music store retailers and university music instructors, each panelist suggesting one to five compositions for consideration. (No composer May nominate or vote on their own composition.) The first place award is $5,000.00 and the second place recipient receives $3,000.00.