March 26, 2007. Composer Jesse Ayers has been awarded a 2007 Individual Creativity Excellence Award by the Ohio Arts Council.  According to the Council, the cash awards are "peer recognition of [Ohio's] creative artists for the exceptional merit of a body of work that advances or exemplifies the discipline and the larger artistic community."  

Artists' work was evaluated through an anonymous peer review process by an panel of out-of-state experts. The Council says that the highly competitive awards are only made to 8%-10% of applicants.

Of the forty or so applications received in the field of music compostion, only three awards were made. According to observers at the adjudication deliberations, which are open to the public, Ayers' music was the only music composition application to receive the maximum possible score from all judges on the music panel.