2012 Arts Blogger Challenge Judges

Katrine Ames is an award-winning writer and editor based in New York. She was formerly a Senior Editor at Newsweek, where her specialty was the Arts, a regular music commentator on NPR’s Performance Today and the Features Editor at Conde Nast House & Garden. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Opera News, The Magazine Antiques, Real Simple, This Old House and many other publications. She edited and was a coauthor of the book House of Worship: Sacred Spaces in America.

Douglas McLennan is the founder and editor of ArtsJournal. AJ was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. Doug is a journalist and critic, and a frequent speaker and writer about arts and culture and technology.

The music of New York–based composer Nico Muhly has been played by such ensembles as eighth blackbird, the Britten Sinfonia, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and sung by soloists including David Daniels, Mark Padmore, and Jessica Rivera. In addition to numerous recordings of his own music (available on Decca and Bedroom Community Records), he has collaborated on projects with Antony and the Johnsons, Björk, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Grizzly Bear, Jónsi of Sigur Rós, and Teitur Lassen. His first opera, Two Boys, premiered at the English National Opera in June 2011. 2012 premieres include commissions from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britten and a new collaboration with choreographer Benjamin Millepied for New York City Ballet.