Tyshawn Sorey performs at the Ceremony with his former teacher by his side. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Joan Hanley, Jaffrey artist, and Amelia Dunlop, member of the MacDowell board of directors, annually attend Medal Day together. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Liann J. Kang’s composition can be heard outside of her studio, Irving Fine. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
One of Shayna Strype’s interactive creations in Adams Studio. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Shayna Strype creates visual art in Adams Studio with a walking girl in the fireplace. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Medal Day participants enjoy their picnic baskets in the sun. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript
Anthony Braxton, renowned composer and educator, received the MacDowell Medal at the 66th annual Medal Day ceremony on Sunday, June 28.
Hundreds of residents and visitors attended the anticipated event to learn about Braxton’s accomplishments and tour the 31 studios across the MacDowell acreage featuring artists from around the nation.
Participants also enjoyed a picnic basket lunch provided by Fiddleheads.
History of the Medal Ceremony
MacDowell’s history traces back to 1896, when composer Edward MacDowell and pianist Marian MacDowell bought a farm in Peterborough. The town became an escape and inspired Edward’s work. Once he passed, his wife started the MacDowell Colony to bring other artists to the region to improve or work through their own art.
Thousands of writers, painters, visual artists and composers have now stayed in the studios provided by MacDowell.
First awarded in 1960, the MacDowell Medal celebrates the many creative mediums exercised at MacDowell.
Past recipients include: Leonard Bernstein, John Updike, Georgia O’Keeffe and Toni Morrison.
‘Hope for change’
Braxton’s former student, Tyshawn Sorey, composer and instrumentalist, introduced him to the stage.
In his remarks about Braxton’s impact, Sorey said, “From 1966, we could not have imagined the music that has come forth, the ideas that we set in motion as a result of Professor Braxton’s way of thinking about music, how that music is received, how that music is transmitted, who performs [and] who defines it.”
Braxton was welcomed to the podium with a standing ovation.
He said he feels grateful for this honor and a push to continue his work. He had lots of lessons to share with the crowd.
“The most important thing for me is, if you fall down on the ground, get back up. You can’t do any music if you’re on the ground,” he said.
While this was his first time traveling north of Boston, he said he will definitely come back to the area and plans to donate books to the James Baldwin Library at MacDowell.
“I come into this incredible space and immediately there’s a vibration in the air that gives a signal, there’s hope for change,” he said.
‘Peterborough idea’
Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and 2019 residency fellow, was introduced as the new chair of the board of directors of MacDowell at the ceremony.
In his speech, he referenced American Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson’s creation of the “Peterborough idea”.
Robinson, who stayed at MacDowell for 24 consecutive years, wrote about a “mystical touch that cannot be explained” in town. Diaz explained this is the power of MacDowell and its important placement in Peterborough.
“Artists who strive to understand the past to better imagine the future for the rest of us who are stranded in the present. Supporting that kind of artist, as I see it, is the Peterborough idea,” Diaz said.