Sametz was recently named a candidate to the prestigious  United States Fulbright Specialist program, which send mentor-teachers in their fields abroad to partner with  academic institutions. Sametz is  the first Lehigh University faculty member to be named a Fulbright Specialist.

The Fulbright Specialist Program (FSP) promotes linkages between U.S. scholars and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions overseas.  The program awards grants to qualified U.S. faculty and professionals, in select disciplines, to engage in short-term collaborative two- to six-week projects at eligible institutions in over 140 countries worldwide.  Shorter grant lengths give Specialists greater flexibility to pursue projects that work best with their current academic or professional commitments.

Find out more about the Fulbright Specialist program here.

Sametz has been named the recipient of the 2013 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize presented by the University of Connecticut.  The prize is awarded based on past works and a proposal to create new work for chorus and orchestra to be premiered by the University of Connecticut Chorus.  The proposed work, A Child’s Requiem,  will set the writings of young children to create a response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton Connecticut in 2012.   The work will be premiered in 2015 in Connecticut and will be accompanied by an exhibition of drawings by children expressing their response to loss.

Read the official press release here.