HOUSTON, Sept. 20, 2021—Moores School of Music is pleased to announce that Moores Opera Center has been selected as the 2021 winner of the American Prize in Opera Performance in the large university division for the 2019 production of William Bolcom and Mark Campbell’s opera Dinner at Eight.  
 
The Opera was selected from a field of submissions by university opera programs across the nation. Dinner at Eight was directed by Moores Opera Center founder, Buck Ross, and conducted by Raymond Harvey, with set design by Thom Guthrie and costume design by Richard Walsh.  
 
This production also won second place in the National Opera Association production competition in 2019. 
 
The American Prize has been recognizing and rewarding excellence in the performing arts since 2010 and is the nation's most comprehensive series of contests in the classical arts. The competition is unique in scope and structure, and is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles, composers, directors and administrators in the United States, based on submitted recordings. It has attracted thousands of qualified contestants from all fifty states since its founding and has awarded nearly $100,000 in prizes since 2010.