Orchestra Underground Series – Tenth Anniversary Season

During the 2013-14 season, ACO celebrates 10 years of Orchestra Underground, its exploration of the orchestra as an elastic ensemble that can respond to composers’ unhindered creativity. For a decade, Orchestra Underground has challenged notions about what an orchestra is, embracing new technology, eclectic instruments and influences, altered spatial orientation, new experiments in concert format, and multimedia and multi-disciplinary collaborations. Since the opening of Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall’s subterranean state-of-the-art auditorium, Orchestra Underground has played to sold-out audiences, bringing to life nearly 100 world premieres and newly commissioned works.

This season’s Orchestra Underground concerts include four world premieres and five New York premieres by emerging and established composers including Marcos Balter, Derek Bermel, Lisa Coons, Peter Fahey, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ted Hearne, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Lang, and Fred Lerdahl. ACO will also showcase Julia Wolfe’s Fuel with film by Bill Morrison, Christopher Theofanidis’ Bassoon Concerto with master bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, Steve Reich’s landmark work Eight Lines, Gunther Schuller’s jazz-classical fusion Contours, and rarely heard Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’ Alcancias.