Three CIM composers receive 2025 Awards in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Composers affiliated with CIM fared exceptionally well this year at the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters.   

Earlier this week, the New York-based cultural honors society announced the recipients of its 2025 Awards in Music and the group included no fewer than three CIM alumni.  

Among the 17 winners were Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (MM ’00, Erb/Pastor), Gabriel Novak (BM ’18, Fitch), and Arseniy Gusev (BM ’21, Fitch/Babayan). 

“I am thrilled for my dear friend, Jerod, and I remain incredibly proud of both Arseniy and Gabriel, who are continuing the great work they did as CIM students into the next chapters of their careers,” said Keith Fitch, Head of Composition at CIM and himself a two-time winner of awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

Founded in 1898 as the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society dedicated to the advancement of literature and the arts.  

Every year since 1942, a group of specially nominated members grants awards in various disciplines in support of fellow artists. This year, the music award committee included composers Christopher Theofanidis, Libby Larsen, Annea Lockwood, Shulamit Ran, David Sanford, Wadada Leo Smith, and Melinda Wagner.  

Of the three awards granted to CIM alumni in 2025, the largest went to Gusev. He won a Charles Ives Fellowship, a prize of $15,000 granted regularly since 1970. 

Novak, meanwhile, was one of several composers to win a $7,500 Charles Ives Scholarship, and Tate won the Wise-Hinrichsen Award, a $5,000 prize supporting publication of a work established by the C.F. Peters Corporation and Wise Music. 

“The successes of these two generations of CIM composers demonstrates that CIM remains one of the leading centers for the study of composition in the country,” Fitch said. 

The 2025 Music Awards will be presented to Gusev, Novak, and Tate along with awards in architecture, art, and literature at the American Academy of Arts and Letters annual Ceremonial in May.  

About Arseniy Gusev 

Composer and pianist Arseniy Gusev was born in St. Petersburg in 1998 and has been studying music since age 5. In 2017, he graduated with honors from the Specialized Music School of the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory and afterwards studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 2018, he moved to the US to study at CIM. In 2024, he finished his master's program at the Yale School of Music.  Gusev’s compositions present a colorful variety of styles and genres, some of which are solo, collaborative, symphonic, ballet, and opera. His music is performed all over Europe and Russia in collaboration with major conductors and soloists.   

About Gabriel Novak 

Gabriel Novak is a composer, performer, and educator whose work synthesizes elements from jazz, blues, rock, and American vernacular traditions with classical and contemporary music. His compositions explore the intersection of improvisation, form, groove, and expectation, pushing the boundaries of musical genre while also preserving a distinct connection to tradition. As an educator, Novak has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at CIM and The University of Chicago. He is currently finishing his PhD in Music Composition at The University of Chicago under the mentorship of Augusta Read Thomas. 

About Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate 

Composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. He is a 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee and a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from CIM. In 2021, he was appointed a Cultural Ambassador for the U. S. Department of State. He is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum, a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program recipient, a Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma, and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary The Science of Composing. His music was also featured in the HBO series Westworld.