The Classical Music Composition award goes to James S. Sclater for Angels. This is his ninth award from MIAL. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Sclater has been a resident of Clinton, Mississippi, for over fifty years. Sclater earned BA and MM degrees in Composition from the University of Southern Mississippi and a DMA in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. He began teaching music theory and composition at Mississippi College in 1970 and taught there for forty years. Upon his retirement he was honored by a special concert on the Mississippi College campus. Sclater often writes the texts for his vocal music, combining a love of music and poetry. From 1971 to 2000 he was a member of the clarinet section of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. He played in the chamber duo LYRICAS throughout the Southeast and in London, England. He plays clarinet in the Brick Street Quartet and the New Bourbon St. Jazz Band. He is a member of American Society of composers, Authors, and Publishers and the Mississippi Musician’s Hall of Fame. A band work, Visions, won the Ostwald Prize in 1974. Among his many commissioned works was his Concerto for Orchestra for the 80th birthday celebration of Eudora Welty. In 1998 he was chosen Mississippi College’s Humanities Professor of the Year. He won a 1994 Emmy nomination for musical score for the Mississippi ETV production The Mad Potter of Biloxi: George E. Ohr. According to his Mississippi College colleague, Angela Willoughby, Sclater “has been a mentor, fellow performing colleague and friend to virtually hundreds of Mississippi musicians.”