Brooklyn-based Pakistani musician Arooj Aftab receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her evocative songs that blend ancient Urdu poetry and jazz sensibilities.
Press Release –
Mar 7, 2023 08:45 EST
NEW YORK, March 7, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Arooj Aftab receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music for her evocative songs and compositions that incorporate influences ranging from semi-classical Pakistani music and Urdu poetry to jazz harmonies and experimental music. Aftab’s blend of ancient traditions and contemporary style has earned the artist important recognition, including the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Global Performance for the track Mohabbat.
The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise is a $50,000 prize awarded by the Vilcek Foundation as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes Program. The Vilcek Foundation prizes are awarded annually to immigrant artists and scientists whose work has had a profound impact on culture and society. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise specifically acknowledge artists and scientists at a pivotal point in their careers, and celebrate artists whose work demonstrates a unique insight or contribution to their field.
Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Aftab spent her earliest years in Saudi Arabia before her family moved to her parents’ hometown of Lahore, Pakistan, when she was 11. At the age of 20, Aftab moved to the United States to pursue studies in music and music engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2009, Aftab has made New York City her home, excited about the opportunities the city presents to see and collaborate with other artists who come to the city from around the globe.
Aftab’s music bridges and transcends borders, cultures, and language. Each of her three albums to date—Bird Under Water (2014), Siren Islands (2018), and Vulture Prince (2021)—immerse listeners in soundscapes that deftly convey fundamental aspects of the human experience: love, grief, longing, and solace.
In recognition of Aftab’s powerful voice and work, the Vilcek Foundation has published a video biography and in-depth profile of the artist on the foundation’s website: Arooj Aftab: “My music is world-building”
In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation is awarding a total of $600,000 in prizes: $350,000 to immigrant musicians, and $250,000 to immigrant scientists. Aftab receives a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music alongside composer and conductor Juan Pablo Contreras (b. Mexico) and songwriter and producer Ruby Ibarra (b. Philippines). Two $100,000 Vilcek Prizes in Music are also awarded in recognition of outstanding career achievement to composer Du Yun (b. China) and singer and songwriter Angélique Kidjo (b. Benin).
The purpose of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes is twofold: to provide direct support to immigrant artists and scientists, and to build public awareness of the importance of immigration for intellectual and cultural life in the United States.
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Born in Venezuela, developmental and molecular biologist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado receives the $100,000 prize for his contributions to the field of regeneration.
Press Release –
Feb 22, 2023 10:45 EST
NEW YORK, February 22, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– For his contributions to the field of regeneration, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science. The Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science is a $100,000 prize awarded annually by the Vilcek Foundation as part of its prizes program.
Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation prizes recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery, and to artistic and cultural advancement in the United States. The prizes provide direct support to individual immigrant scientists and artists and help to raise greater public awareness of the value of immigration for a robust society. In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation awards four prizes in Biomedical Science, comprising the $100,000 Vilcek Prize and three $50,000 prizes—the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, molecular and developmental biologist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado grew up using the scientific method to understand the things that fascinated him in the natural world. As a budding scientist, Sánchez Alvarado moved to the United States to pursue studies in molecular biology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Now a leader in the field of regeneration, he is the executive director and chief scientific officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri.
“Through the combination of rigorous research and new tools and technologies, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado has worked to illuminate the important functions that epigenetics and signaling have on the process of regeneration,” says Vilcek Foundation Chairman and CEO Jan Vilcek. “His work has important implications on the understanding of cellular and organismal regeneration, and holds enormous promise for our further understanding of core biological concepts.”
Says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel, “Research Institutions in the United States have drawn scientists from around the globe, and many groundbreaking discoveries in research and development in biology, physics, and medicine have been by immigrant scientists. The perspective and insight that foreign-born scientists bring to research and development, and the value of diversity in seeking answers to science and medicine’s most perplexing questions, cannot be overstated.”
Sánchez Alvarado credits being an immigrant and being bilingual as having a profound impact on his work as a scientist, noting how the syntax interpretations of problems or ideas in two different languages—English and Spanish—help him to form more nuanced ideas and hypotheses. “Because every language is an interpretation of the universe, the more interpretations one has access to, the richer our comprehension of the world becomes,” he says.
He also reflects on the sacrifices that immigrants make to pursue the subjects and work they are passionate about in the United States. “We left everything behind to pursue an idea,” he says. “[We were] not looking for fame or fortune. [We] are looking for answers to questions.”
As part of the Vilcek Foundation’s prizes campaign, the foundation has published a biographical profile and video highlighting Sánchez Alvarado’s life and work on the Vilcek Foundation website, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado: “Making the improbable possible.”
The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Born in China, composer, performer, and advocate Du Yun defies expectations or categorization.
Press Release –
Feb 14, 2023 09:45 EST
NEW YORK, February 14, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Du Yun receives a 2023 Vilcek Prize in Music for her open approach to composition, which stretches the boundaries of traditional classical music by incorporating influences from punk, electronic, experimental music, and spoken word traditions. The composer, performer, and advocate is renowned for her artistic leadership as a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and for her groundbreaking operas Zolle and Angel’s Bone.
“Du Yun’s phenomenal range is apparent in the span of her work—from her operas to her electrifying postmodern compositions,” says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. “From the atonal jazz of her band OK MISS to the haunting movements of A Cockroach’s Tarantella, her work bridges sound art and classical composition.”
The Vilcek Prize in Music is a $100,000 prize awarded by the Vilcek Foundation as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes. The prizes are awarded annually in recognition and celebration of immigrant vanguards in the arts and in biomedical science whose work has had a profound impact on culture and society. In addition to providing direct support to immigrant artists and scientists, the purpose of the prizes is to raise awareness of the importance of immigration to intellectual and cultural life in the United States.
At the age of 4, Du Yun asked for a piano, and for music lessons. Her parents—both factory workers in Shanghai—let her know they would be willing to make the financial sacrifices necessary to support her pursuit of music, but that such sacrifice would require Du Yun’s commitment and dedication. Du Yun didn’t hesitate. This tenacity has characterized Du Yun’s career. She insists that her talent is not innate but has come from years of work—her own, and that of her family.
“To be an artist is such a privilege,” she says. “So many people worked so that you can do the thing you want to do.”
Du Yun receives the Vilcek Prize in Music, as does Benin-born singer and songwriter Angélique Kidjo. In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation is also awarding three smaller prizes of $50,000 each—the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music—to young immigrant musicians whose work demonstrates a unique perspective and represents an important contribution to their genre. The 2023 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music are awarded to Arooj Aftab (b. Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents), Juan Pablo Contreras (b. Mexico), and Ruby Ibarra (b. Philippines).
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Born in Benin, Angélique Kidjo is as widely known for her cultural and humanitarian leadership as she is for her powerful music
Press Release –
Feb 7, 2023 10:45 EST
NEW YORK, February 7, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Angélique Kidjo receives a 2023 Vilcek Prize in Music in recognition of her exceptional range as a singer-songwriter, and for her creative leadership in bringing African music to the global stage through her performances, albums, and collaborations.
“Angélique Kidjo is known for the resonant power of her voice—both as a lyrical storyteller and as an advocate for women and girls in Africa,” says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. “From captivating audiences at Carnegie Hall and the Grammy Awards to her establishment of the Batonga Foundation to provide African women and girls with access to education, employment, and economic independence, she has forged a path over the past four decades that has inspired generations of performers and advocates.”
In recognition of Kidjo’s leadership, the foundation has published a video biography and in-depth profile of the artist and humanitarian available on the foundation’s website: Angélique Kidjo: “The power of music exceeds us.”
The Vilcek Prize in Music is a $100,000 prize awarded by the Vilcek Foundation as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes. The prizes are awarded annually in recognition and celebration of immigrant vanguards in the arts and in biomedical science whose work has had a profound impact on culture and society. In addition to providing direct support to immigrant artists and scientists, the purpose of the prizes is to build greater awareness of the importance of immigration for intellectual and cultural life in the United States.
In 2023, the Vilcek Foundation is awarding two Vilcek Prizes in Music—one to Angélique Kidjo, and one to Chinese-born composer and performer Du Yun. The foundation is also awarding three smaller prizes of $50,000 each—the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music—to young immigrant musicians whose work demonstrates a unique perspective and represents an important contribution to their genre. The recipients of the 2023 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Music are Arooj Aftab (b. Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents), Juan Pablo Contreras (b. Mexico), and Ruby Ibarra (b. Philippines).
The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters an appreciation for the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and has supported organizations with over $6 million in grants.
The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org.
Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer flanked by their children, all members of the singing Von … [+] Trapp family, in this publicity handout from the 1965 film adaption of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music.
Bettmann Archive
The Trapp family’s history is an immigrant success story filled with overcoming hardship and adapting to the realities of a new land and culture. While the outlines of the Trapp family’s real-life story matched The Sound of Music, the movieended when the family’s immigration journey to America began.
Maria von Trapp, played by Julie Andrews in the film, worked with and fell in love with the children, married the captain and the family left Austria. However, Hollywood movies and real life are not the same. The family did not like the portrayal of Georg, the father/captain, who, according to Maria and the children, was loving and outgoing, not stern and reclusive as portrayed in the movie.
Maria was religious, as the movie showed. “The only important thing on earth for us is to find out what is the will of God and to do it,” she wrote in her memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Maria recalled saying those words to the Reverend Mother shortly before being assigned as a tutor for Baron von Trapp, who would become her future husband. Contrary to the depiction in the movie, Maria was not the governess to all the children, and she married Georg more than a decade before World War II. She writes in her memoir that her love of the children inspired her to marry Georg. There were 10 children, rather than the seven portrayed in the movie.
The family became singers and toured Paris, London, Brussels and elsewhere, even once singing for the Pope. The war interrupted their musical ambitions in Austria.
On March 11, 1938, the family celebrated daughter Agatha’s birthday. Over the radio, they heard Austria’s chancellor say, “I am yielding to force. My Austria—God bless you!” The next morning, Maria saw German soldiers “on every street corner.”
The Trapp children felt the impact of the Nazi takeover of Austria. Children were forbidden to sing songs in school with the word Christ or Christmas in the name. Soon after the takeover, daughter Lorli told Maria her first-grade teacher wanted to speak with her. The teacher told Maria: “When we learned our new anthem yesterday Lorli didn’t open her mouth. When I asked her why she didn’t sing with us, she announced in front of the whole class that her father had said he’d put ground glass in his tea or finish his life on a dung heap before he would ever sing that song. Next time I will have to report this.” Lorli also refused to raise her hand in a “Heil Hitler” salute. Maria feared the family would be placed in a concentration camp.
Austria’s Navy Department asked Georg to come out of retirement and command a submarine. Soon after, the Trapp family was asked to sing at a celebration for Adolf Hitler’s birthday. In both cases, Georg’s answer was “No.”
After these refusals, Georg gathered the family together for a pivotal moment in their lives. “Children, we have the choice now: Do we want to keep the material goods we still have, our home with the ancient furniture, our friends, and all the things we’re fond of?—Then we shall have to give up the spiritual goods: Our faith and our honor. We can’t have both anymore. We could all make a lot of money now, but I doubt very much whether it would make us happy. I’d rather see you poor but honest. If we choose this, then we have to leave. Do you agree?”
The children answered, “Yes, father.”
“Then, let’s get out of here soon,” said Georg. “You can’t say no three times to Hitler.”
Real life diverged from the film The Sound of Music. “The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, carrying their suitcases and musical instruments,” writes Joan Gearin, an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration. “As daughter Maria said in a 2003 interview printed in Opera News, ‘We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing.’”
Gearin notes the family traveled to Italy, not Switzerland. Georg, Maria’s husband, was an Italian citizen by birth. “The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria,” writes Gearin. “They contacted the agent from Italy and requested fare to America.”
Maria describes their first impressions of America. “Bewildered—completely bewildered—that’s what we all were when three taxis spilled us out on Seventh Avenue at 55th Street . . . All the instruments in their cases . . . the big trunks with the concert costumes and our private belongings . . . the tallest houses in Vienna have five or six stories. When the elevator took us to the 19th floor, we simply couldn’t believe it.”
The family began a series of concerts, but their agent, Mr. Wagner, canceled the remaining tour events when he found out Maria was eight months pregnant. “What a blow! Fewer concerts meant less money, and we needed every cent,” writes Maria. She gave birth to a son, Johannes, around Christmas.
Money became an issue since what the family earned mostly went to repaying Mr. Wagner the cost of the boat tickets, which he had advanced. Their visitor visa expired in March. The visa stipulated they could only earn money by performing concerts. Fortunately, the family’s agent had lined up more concert dates. However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) thwarted those plans.
“One morning came the fatal letter,” writes Maria. “The Immigration and Naturalization Service informed us that our application for an extension of temporary stay was not granted, and we had to leave the United States at the latest March 4. This was a cruel blow. We had burned all our bridges behind us, and would never dare go back home again, and now America would not allow us to stay here. . . . One thing was certain: We had to leave.”
The family traveled by boat to Europe and performed small concerts in Sweden and elsewhere. Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 cut short their concert plans.
Their agent, Mr. Wagner, provided another advance for tickets to the United States, which meant the family was headed once more to America. After arriving at the dock in Brooklyn, Maria made a mistake that almost cost the family their sanctuary. When an immigration officer asked Maria how long she intended to stay in America, instead of saying “six months,” Maria said, “I’m so glad to be here—I want to never to leave again!”
This mistake landed the family in an immigration detention facility. Reporters and photographers came to Ellis Island and published articles about the Trapp family being held in detention. After the fourth day, the family was questioned at an immigration court hearing, focusing on whether they planned to leave. Given the judge’s tone, Maria was pessimistic after the hearing. Perhaps only due to the outside pressure and publicity, the family was released from detention.
During their second tour in America, the family learned the hard facts of show business. Their agent, Mr. Wagner, scheduled them in large concert halls but did a poor job publicizing the events. Wagner told the family he didn’t think they had sufficient appeal to American audiences and decided not to renew his contract to represent them. Without representation, the Trapp family had no chance of success and no way to remain in America. The family had reached another moment of crisis.
With much effort, they found another potential agent. However, he said his representation was contingent on changing the family’s act to appeal to a wider American audience, not just those primarily interested in choral or classical music. He told them he would need $5,000 in advance for publicity and advertising. At the time, the family had only $250 in their bank account. The entrepreneurial family got to work. They met with a wealthy couple who, after hearing their story and listening to them sing, promised to lend them half the money. The Trapp family found another sponsor for the other $2,500. They were back in business.
Their new agent changed the name from the Trapp Family Choir, which he considered sounded “too churchy,” to the Trapp Family Singers. To earn money before the new tour would start, the family made handicrafts, such as children’s furniture, wooden bowls and leather works.
The family’s entrepreneurial streak continued when they bought a farm in Vermont and added a music camp on the grounds. During World War II, the family ran afoul of government regulators at the War Production Board, who said the family had used “new” rather than “second-hand” lumber in violation of the law. Maria thought she would be put in prison until the regulators relented after she showed them the lumber had been purchased 18 months before. Vermont’s governor attended the camp’s grand opening, which featured the Trapp family singing the Star-Spangled Banner. Today, the farm and lodgings remain a tourist attraction.
Two of the Trapp family returned to Europe—fighting as soldiers for the U.S. Army during World War II. It was an ironic twist. Rather than their father being pressed into service as a submarine commander for the German war effort, the sons fought against Germany in Western Europe. After the war, the family regained ownership of their Austrian home, which had been confiscated to serve as a headquarters for (SS Reich Leader) Heinrich Himmler. The family sold the home to a church group and raised money to help Austrians impoverished by the war and Germany’s occupation.
The Trapp family overcame tragedy in America. In 1947, Maria’s husband, Georg, passed away. He died of pneumonia surrounded by his family.
The Trapp family continued to perform, and eventually took on outside performers to replace some of the children who had gone on to other careers in America, including in medicine. The great-grandchildren of Maria and Georg continue to sing in America.
Maria von Trapp’s proudest day in America came in 1948, when she became a U.S. citizen. “Then came the big day in May when we were summoned to the courthouse in Montpelier—the five years of waiting for over,” writes Maria. “What a mixed group it was, waiting there in the courtroom: Italians, Croatian, Syrians, English, Irish, Polish, and we Austrians. The clerk called the roll. Then the judge entered the room. We all rose from our seats. Then we were asked to raise our right hand and repeat the solemn oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America. After we had ended, ‘So help me God,’ the judge bade us sit down, looked at us all, and said: ‘Fellow citizens.’ He meant us—now we were Americans.”
