2012 Man of Music – Carlisle Floyd
The Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award is the highest honor Phi Mu Alpha can give one of its members. The award is given once every three years to a Sinfonian who, through performance, composition, or any other significant musical activity, has distinguished himself and thus furthered the cause of music in America and brought honor to the Fraternity. Sinfonia’s Men of Music are: Thor Johnson (1952), Howard Hanson (1954), Earl Moore (1956), Sigmund Spaeth (1958), Joseph Maddy (1960), Van Cliburn (1962), Archie Jones (1964), Price Doyle (1967), Aaron Copland (1970), Pablo Cassals (1973), William Warfield (1976), James Levine (1979), Sherill Milnes (1982), Clark Terry (1985), W. Francis McBeth (1988), Dave Grusin (1991), William Revelli (1994), Leonard Slatkin (1997), Col. John R. Bourgeois (2000), Frederick Fennell (2003), Maynard Ferguson (2006), and Jamey Aebersold (2009).
At the 2012 National Convention, the Fraternity will be honored to include Brother Carlisle Floyd, Epsilon Iota (Florida State) ’57, among these distinguished Men of Music.
Born in 1926, Floyd earned degrees in piano and composition at Syracuse University. He began his teaching career in 1947 at Florida State University, remaining there until 1976, when he accepted the prestigious M. D. Anderson Professorship at the University of Houston. He is also the co-founder of the Houston Opera Studio, a training program for young singers and accompanists. Floyd also received an honorary doctorate from FSU in 2005.
Brother Floyd is one of the most admired and widely performed opera composers and librettists of the last century. He is credited with helping to create an American idiom in opera. His works are often drawn from novels, and many are set in the south, including settings such as Louisiana and South Carolina.
Floyd’s most popular work, Susannah, has become one of the most performed American operas in history. Having debuted in 1956, in 1957 it won the New York Music Critic’s Circle Award and subsequently was chosen to be America’s official operatic entry at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. It has gone to achieve fame both in the United States and internationally.
Floyd’s other popular works include Of Mice and Men, based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, and Cold Sassy Tree, Floyd’s most recent work, written in 2000.
Among numerous others prominent distinctions, Floyd has been honored with The Citation of Merit by the National Association of American Conductors and Composers, the National Opera Institute’s Award for Service to American Opera, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the White House National Medal of Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts as an honoree for lifetime contribution. These honors and awards span decades, from the 1950s to 2008. Much like the Man of Music Award, many of these distinctions are the highest granted by their respective organizations.
Join us in celebration of this great award, and the continuance of musical excellence within Phi Mu Alpha through the contributions of men like Brother Floyd. We hope to see you in Orlando this summer, where this award will be presented to Carlisle Floyd, and where we can all enjoy and experience The Power of Music.
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Below is a video of an interview of Floyd by the National Endowment for the Arts. In it, Floyd discusses many of his influences, as well as his major works in the context of his career.
Some of the biographical information is reprinted by the kind permission of Boosey and Hawkes, Floyd’s exclusive publisher. A full biography can be found at the publisher’s website by clicking here.
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