Jazz composer Sonny Rollins, called the greatest living tenor saxophone player by The New York Times, will be this year’s Edward MacDowell Medal recipient.

“Perhaps more than any other artist since World War II, Sonny Rollins has personified the fearless adventure, soul, wit, stubborn individuality, and relentless originality that is jazz at its finest,” says jazz writer and critic Gary Giddins, who chaired this year’s Medalist Selection Committee. “Incapable of faking emotion or settling for rote answers to the challenges of creating music in the moment, he keeps us ever-alert to the power of the present.”

Now a 51-year tradition, the Edward MacDowell Medal has been awarded for exactly half of the MacDowell Colony’s 102-year history. That history includes providing a quiet, uninterrupted work environment for more than 6,500 artists, nearly 1,000 of who were composers, in Peterborough.

“I’m proud and pleased to be selected to receive this very special prize,” Rollins says. “Edward MacDowell’s spirit engaged me many years ago when, as a child, I was inspired by his composition ‘To a Wild Rose.’ Later, I had the opportunity to make it a part of my repertoire, performing it on many occasions and eventually recording it. Somehow I feel I’m getting to meet him again.”

Rollins will receive his award on Medal Day at the colony, which will be on Aug. 15. The ceremony will begin at 12:15, consisting of speeches by Rollins, Giddins and MacDowell Colony staff, including chairman Robert MacNeil, formerly of the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.
While Rollins is the 14th composer to receive the MacDowell Medal, he will be the first in the field of jazz.

Born in 1930, Rollins played tenor saxophone in high school, inspired by the work of Coleman Hawkins. By the time he graduated, he was already working with well-known musicians like Bud Powell, Fats Navarro and Roy Haynes. Rollins debuted in 1951 with record label Prestige, which produced “Worktime” and “Tenor Madness.”

Five years later, he went off on his own, producing the records “A Night at the Village Vanguard,” “Way Out West” and “Freedom Suite.”

Rollins’ first Grammy nomination came in 1966 for the score he composed for the film “Alfie.” His first win came in 2000 for “This Is What I Do” and a second followed in 2004 for “Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert).”

Rollins has been honored with a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and in 2007, he was given the Polar Prize in Music, one of the most prestigious music awards in the world. In 2009, Rollins was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, only one of three Americans to receive the honor, the other two being Frank Sinatra and Jessye Norman.

“I am convinced that all art has the desire to leave the ordinary,” Rollins says. “But jazz, the world of improvisation, is perhaps the highest, because we do not have the opportunity to make changes. It’s as if we were painting before the public, and the following morning we cannot go back and correct that blue color or change that red. We have to have the blues and reds very well placed before going out to play. So for me, jazz is probably the most demanding art. I believe that jazz is the music which best expresses the stirrings of the human soul.”

Following the awards ceremony, MacDowell Colonists will open their studios for visitors, allowing outsiders to view their creative process as they are at the colony.