Professional Development Panels:
March 13, 2020 – 10:00am – 3:00pm | $10 Tickets>>
Featuring composers:
Dai Wei, Samsaric Dance
Anthony R. Green, Peace Til We Meet Again
Paul Novak, as the light begins to drift
Christian Quiñones, Trigueño o moreno
Gity Razaz, And the brightest rivers glide…
Keane Southard, Symphony No. 2 – Movement I
Program:
American Composers Orchestra seeks to identify and celebrate emerging American composers through its Underwood New Music Readings program.
The Readings include two sessions with American Composers Orchestra, a working-rehearsal and a run-through performance. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes. Composers also participate in a series of professional development workshops covering such topics as promotion, score preparation, publishing, copyright agreements, and other career essentials.
The Underwood New Music Readings participant composers will work closely with mentor composers Melinda Wagner, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and ACO Artistic Director, Derek Bermel, as well as conductor George Manahan.
Six composers participate and at the conclusion of the program, one participating composer will receive a $15,000 commission and future performance by ACO. Female participant composers are also eligible to apply for the Women Composers Commission Program, which, in partnership with the League of American Orchestras, provides three women with a $15,000 commission and world premiere with a professional orchestra.
SELECTED COMPOSERS
Dai Wei (Guangdong, China)
Dai Wei (she/her) is originally from China. Her musical journey navigates in the spaces between east and west, classical and pop, electronic and acoustic, innovation and tradition. She often draws from eastern philosophy and aesthetics to create works with contemporary resonance, and reflect an introspection on how these multidimensional conflict and tension can create and inhabit worlds of their own. Her artistry is nourished by the Asian and Chinese Ethnic culture in many different ways. Being an experi-mental vocalist, she performs herself as a Khoomei throat singer in her recent compositions, through which are filtered by different experiences and background as a calling that transcends genres, races, and labels. She recently served as Young Artist Composer-in-Residence at Music from Angel Fire and Composer Fellow at Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong. She has received commissions and collaborations with Utah Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Bang on a Can, Curtis 20/21 Ensem-ble, Merz Trio, and the Rock School of Ballet in Philadelphia.
Her compositions were broadcast by WHYY, Performance Today, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Qinghai Television. Wei is currently pursuing a doctorate in composition at Princeton University as a Naumburg Doctoral Fellow. She is working on a piece called Partial Men for string quartet, live electronics, and voice where she will perform with Aizuri String Quartet. The piece is dedicating to two deceased men who donated their kidneys to her mother, and to many other deceased organ donors who extended other people’s life. Photo Credit: Cristina Cutt
About Samsaric Dance
The piece was inspired by a book I was reading called The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which is written by Sogyal Rinpoche. He says:
The successive existences in a series of rebirths are not like the pearls in a pearl necklace, held together by a string, the “soul,” which passes through all the pearls; rather they are like dice piled one on top of the other. Each die is separate, but it supports the one above it, with which it is functionally connected. Between the dice there is no identity, but conditionality.
The title came from the Sanskrit word Samsara, which is often defined as the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. In this piece, you will hear three different characters that represent three different lifetimes. They are being reincarnated and intersected by each other and more. It’s like a musical hotpot filled with diverse ingredients, and diversity is something we have since day one in our history. At the end of the piece, the orchestra evolves into only one pitch which represents the oneness of everything. As if we can finally rest. And yet, another journey is just about to start.
Anthony R. Green (Providence, RI)
The creative output of composer, performer, and social justice worker Anthony R. Green (he/him) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His work has been presented in 20+ countries by Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, Eunmi Ko, the McCormick Percussion Group, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, counter)induction, Tenth Intervention, NOISE-BRIDGE, Access Contemporary Music, the Playground Ensemble, Ossia New Music Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound, to name a few. His work has been presented at the ACA festival, the Grachten Festival (Amsterdam), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht), Fulcrum Point New Music Discoveries (Chicago), and Ft. Worth Opera Frontiers (Texas), amongst others. A McKnight Visiting Composer, he has received support from numerous foundations and residencies in the US and Europe, including Kimmel Harding Nelson, VCCA, VICC (Sweden), Space/Time (Scotland), atelier:performance (Germany), and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art.
As a performer, he has appeared at venues across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, presenting piano and chamber music recitals, interdisciplinary and experimental performances, and lecture-recitals that fuse performance with research. Green’s most important social justice work has been with Castle of our Skins, celebrating Black artistry through music. Photo Credit: Colin Conces
About Peace Till We Meet Again
Peace Till We Meet Again is at once a dedication to Black people who were killed by cops. However, during the composition process of this work, the story of Black people in the United States throughout history was in my head, heart, and soul. This incredible journey from surviving the transatlantic journey in chains all the way to the present uncomfortable mix of success and failures is a history with which I sit every day of my life. When taking that into consideration, Peace Till We Meet Again can then extend its dedication to every Black person who has died because of racism, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, and other reasons beyond their control. This piece originally is the third movement of a large chamber work entitled Oh, Freedom! for flute, viola, and cello, which was commissioned by the Boston-based concert and education series Castle of our Skins. With this work, I wish to express the following: to all Black victims of legal brutalization and otherism, past, present, and future, I extend peace … till we meet again.
Paul Novak (Reno, NV)
Paul Novak (he/him) writes music that is lyrical but fragmented, exploring the subtleties of instrumental color and drawing influence from literature, art, and poetry. He has received numerous national awards, most recently from the ASCAP/SCI Commission, Tribeca New Music, Webster University, and YoungArts Foundation, and has participated in festivals across the country, including the first-ever National Youth Orchestra of the United States Composer Apprenticeship. Novak has collaborated with ensembles including the Austin Symphony, Orlando Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, NYO-USA, the Amaranth and Rosco Quartets, Sō Percussion, Texas New Music Ensemble, NODUS Ensemble, MotoContrario Ensemble, Ensemble Ibis, Blackbox Collective, Face the Music, and Worcester Chamber Music Society; he has worked on interdisciplinary projects with Rice Dance Theatre, poets Ming Li Wu and Erica Cheung, and the Bowdoin Museum. Originally from Reno, NV, Novak is an undergraduate student at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he has studied with Kurt Stallman, Pierre Jalbert, Anthony Brandt, and Karim Al-Zand. Upcoming projects in Spring 2020 include a commission from the Texas New Music Ensemble, a soprano/contrabass duo for LIGAMENT, and work for viola and ensemble for violist Sebastian Stefanovic.
About as the light begins to drift
As a student at Rice, I’ve become familiar with the unusual and beautiful cloud formations that appear in East Texas skies. as the light begins to drift was inspired by their subtle interplay of light and shadow and their flowing, hazy geometries. The work opens with a burst of swirling texture, with spiraling runs and swells entangling in a chaotic sound world. The brass interjects with jagged, syncopated hits as different instruments emerge from and then vanish into the ensemble. After a spiraling downward run, a plaintive English horn melody is accompanied by a canopy of string harmonics and trills. In the second section, crystalline percussion instruments merge with subtle orchestral textures. A clarinet solo leads into a pulsing triplet ostinato, which is passed throughout the ensemble, growing in intensity until it reaches a furious climax. The work closes gently with the return of the English horn, fading to nothing in a halo of shimmering sounds.
Christian Quiñones (Camuy, Puerto Rico)
Christian Quiñones (he/him) is a Puerto Rican composer whose music explores concepts like cultural identity and minorities within society, literature, and poetry. He was the 1st prize winner of the 2019 Boston New Music Initiative Young Composer Competition and the Pro Arte 2015 Composition Competition. His music has been performed by the Trio Sanromá, Victory Players, Cuban virtuoso René Izquierdo, Boston New Music Initiative, Orquesta del Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, Young Artist Concert Orchestra (YACO), emerging talents such as Daniela Santos Colón. Christian has also been commissioned by The Association of professional dancers (APRODANZA), Young Artist Concert Series, and The Zodiac Festival in France where he was awarded the Distinguished Composer award.From 2018 to 2019 he was the composer in residence for the Mt. Holyoke MIFA Festival where he was commissioned by the Victory Players and worked on outreach programs bringing new music talks and performances to public schools in Massachusetts. Apart from his work as a composer, Christian has done research on the commissions of “Ballets de San Juan” to Puerto Rican composers, and an analysis of the sustainability of independent music in Puerto Rico during an economic crisis published by Musiké.
He obtained his BM in Music Composition at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, studying composition and orchestration with Alfonso Fuentes and in 2019 Christian was a recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is studying with composer Carlos Carrillo.
About Trigueño o moreno
The title of the piece is not an idea that can be translated easily from Spanish to other languages. It comes from a study from 1992 where they would ask second-generation Puerto Ricans that were living in the United States if they identify as either black, white, or other. Most of them did not respond in a binary form of black and white but identify themselves as either trigueño or moreno. In Spanish, depending on the cultural context, when you describe a person as trigueño or moreno it means that this person as color skin is not “black enough” to be considered black (the person do not have strong African factions), but also not “white enough” to be considered white. So for the majority of these second generation of Puerto Ricans, there is an identity crisis because of the rich mix of heritage in Puerto Rico. In a way, this piece is a comment on that confusion of who we are, and how as a Puerto Rican I can’t describe myself in a binary form. And also, how the same identity crisis happens in music. In a certain way this piece it’s representing the amazing, but at the same time conflicting, heritage that Puerto Ricans are.
Gity Razaz (Tehran, Iran)
Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” Gity Razaz’s (she/her) music ranges from concert solo pieces to opera and large symphonic works. With intense melodies and inventive harmonic languages, Ms. Razaz’s compositions are often dramatically charged. Her music has been commissioned and performed by Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, National Ballet School of Canada, Chautauqua Opera Company, Ballet Moscow, Seattle Symphony, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, American Composers Orchestra, New York Choreographic Institute, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale, among many others. Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the 2019 American Academy of Arts and Letters Andrew Imbrie Award, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, three ASCAP awards, ASCAP Plus Award, to name a few. Ms. Razaz is a composition teacher and mentor for the Kaufman Music Center’s Luna Composition Lab since 2017 Ms. Razaz attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, and received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition under the tutelage of John Corigliano, Samuel Adler, and Robert Beaser.
About And the brightest rivers glide…
And the brightest rivers glide… is my third composition for large orchestra; its title refers to a fragment from a poem by the Persian poet Rumi. I have always been fascinated by the Sufism of Persian poets, and how their evocative depictions of earthly pleasures are actually metaphors for the intensity and purity of their spiritual devotion. In this way, this piece is an attempt to conjure a dramatic, voluptuous surface that surrounds the deeper spiritual essence, as depicted by a pure and simple lyrical line. The structure of the piece is a hybrid idea inspired by palindromes and the Golden Ratio, or the divine proportion. Musical ideas and textures re-appear in exact reverse order of the opening episodes, their length upon return considerably shortened in order to maintain and an organic and proportional dramatic arc.
Keane Southard (Southborough, MA)
Described as “a hugely prolific musician with a wide variety of skill sets” (newmusicbuff.com), Keane Southard (he/him) is a composer and pianist who believes deeply in the power of music to change how people think, feel, and act, and that it can be a catalyst for positive change in the world. His music has been described as “a terrific discovery” (Bandworld Magazine) and “highly-professional and well-orchestrated” (Portland Press Herald) and his works reflect his many diverse musical tastes, from medieval chant to 70’s rock, Bach to the Blues, and 19th century romanticism to Latin dance forms. He has been a recipient of many awards, most recently winning the Yale Glee Club’s Emerging Composers Competition and Capital Hearings Young Composers Competition, and has been a fellow at the Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong) and the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. Keane earned his M.M. at the University of Colorado-Boulder in composition and is currently a Ph.D. student in composition at the Eastman School of Music. His composition teachers include Kenneth Girard, Loris Chobanian, Daniel Kellogg, Jeffrey Nytch, Carter Pann, Richard Toensing, Allen Shawn, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and David Liptak. Keane spent 2013 in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar studying music education.
About Symphony No. 2, Movement 1
Symphony No. 2 for Large Orchestra first began life as my Piano Sonata No. 2. The sonata was begun in 2006 and completed in 2008. This was my first large-scale work (over 15 minutes) that I had ever written, and I premiered the sonata myself in 2008. After playing the first movement in a masterclass with a well-known American composer, she suggested that I orchestrate it, that the instruments and colors were right there begging to be realized in orchestral form. This thought stayed in the back of my mind for several years until I decided to give it a shot. After completing the first movement, I decided that the other movements would work well in an orchestral form as well and decided to turn the sonata into a symphony. (I am still working on orchestrating the other three movements). While I have written a lot of joyful and happy music in recent years, this work of mine represents a different side of my music, one that is loud, dissonant, “in your face,” and intense. I haven’t written in this mode very often, but I still connect deeply with it and feel it is an important part of my creative identity and what I want to express in my music.
Sesiones de lecturas de obras contemporáneas para orquesta
Marzo 12-14, 2020 Orquesta de Compositores Americanos (Nueva York, NY)
City College Aaron Davis Hall Marian Anderson Theater 160 Convent Ave New York, NY 10031
Sesiones abiertas: Marzo 12, 2020 – 9:30am – 12:30pm Marzo 13, 2020 – 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Paneles de desarrollo profesional: Marzo 13, 2020 – 10am – 3pm
Con compositores: Dai Wei, Samsaric Dance Anthony R. Green, Peace Til We Meet Again Paul Novak, as the light begins to drift Christian Quiñones, Trigueño o moreno Gity Razaz, And the brightest rivers glide… Keane Southard, Symphony No. 2 – Movement I
Programa
American Composers Orchestra busca identificar y celebrar a los compositores estadounidenses emergentes a través de su programa Underwood New Music Readings.
Las lecturas incluyen dos sesiones con la American Composers Orchestra, un ensayo de trabajo y una presentación continua. Las actuaciones se graban profesionalmente, y cada compositor recibe una grabación de audio de alta calidad para usar con fines de archivo, estudio y portafolio. Los compositores también participan en una serie de talleres de desarrollo profesional que cubren temas tales como promoción, preparación de puntajes, publicación, acuerdos de derechos de autor y otros elementos esenciales de la carrera.
Este año, los compositores participantes en la residencia con la Orquesta de Compositores Americanos trabajarán de cerca con los compositores mentores Derek Bermel, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Melinda Wagner, así como con el director de musica de la Orquesta, George Manahan.
Participan seis compositores y al finalizar el programa, un compositor participante recibirá una comisión de $15,000 USD y el rendimiento futuro de ACO. Las compositoras participantes también son elegibles para solicitar el Programa de la Comisión de Mujeres Compositoras, que, en asociación con la Liga de Orquestas Estadounidenses, ofrece a tres mujeres una comisión de $15,000 y un estreno mundial con una orquesta profesional.
EarShot, an initiative of American Composers Orchestra (ACO) in partnership with American Composers Forum,League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA, is the nation’s first ongoing program for identifying and promoting the most promising orchestral composers on the national stage. ACO’s artistic and administrative staff collaborates with participating orchestras, assisting with planning, program design, and execution. EarShot residencies include mentorship from the most accomplished orchestral composers in the country, orchestra readings, and musician and conductor feedback sessions. The program is customized to each host orchestra’s aesthetic, demographic, community, and educational interests.
The Sarasota Orchestra EarShot participant composers will work closely with mentor composers Robert Beaser, Laura Karpman, and Chinary Ung. There will be professional development panels including the mentor composers and guests William J. Lackey of American Composers Forum, Stephen Miles of New College of Florida, and select staff from the Sarasota Orchestra administrative team.
SELECTED COMPOSERS
Krists Auznieks
Currently pursuing doctorate at Yale School of Music with Aaron Jay Kernis and David Lang, Krists Auznieks’ (b.1992) most recent recognitions include Jacob Druckman Prize from Aspen Music Festival, Latvian National Grand Music Award for the best new work of the year, The Woods Chandler Memorial Prize from Yale, fellowships from Aspen Music Festival, NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists (NYC), Bennington Chamber Music Conference, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, winning works at The Chicago Ensemble’s Discover America XI and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra competitions. His quintet “Piano” was featured in The New York Times among the week’s best classical music moments. His opera NeoArctic, co-written with British techno producer Andy Stott, won Danish Reumert Prize and will have its US premiere at The Kennedy Center in 2019.
About Crossing
The title of Auznieks’ work envisages a “crossing” into another state of mind, suggested and catalyzed by rhetorical and musical devices. “I hope Crossing can become a leap from the familiar physical world and how memory operates in it,” says Auznieks, “to some other imaginary, utopian, idealistic world.” The work centers on motivic transformations that function as an analogy to Proustian notions of memory. “The same motifs are heard, re-heard, and misheard,” Auznieks points out. As Feldman once observed, “The whole lesson of Proust is not to look for experiences in the object, but within ourselves.” Auznieks aims for this work to similarly elicit a parallel experience within the listener.
Krists Auznieks’ Full Bio
The music of Krists Auznieks has been performed at The Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), The Royal Danish Theatre, Beijing National Arts Centre, Shanghai City Theatre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, The Southbank Center (London), Théâtre Maisonneauve (Montreal), The Kitchen (NYC), National Sawdust (NYC), Chassé Theater (The Netherlands), Cultuurcentrum Hasselt (Belgium), Théâtre De Nîmes (France) and featured in Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Holland), Aspen Music Festival, American Music Festival (Albany, NY), MATA 2017 (NYC), Arctic Arts Festival (Norway), UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Finland, European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 Festival (Denmark), and Chelsea Music Festival (NYC). He has worked with Sandbox Percussion (NYC), David Kweksilber Big Band (Holland), Antico Moderno (Boston), Yale Philharmonia, Orkest de Ereprijs (Holland), pianists Robert Fleitz and David Fung, and guitarist Jiji. Recent works include Crossing for orchestra, commissioned by Aspen Music Festival and Robert Spano, premiered by Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra and Patrick Summers, as well as works for Capella Amsterdam, Latvian Radio Choir, Albany Symphony musicians (NY), Yale Percussion Group, and two massive concert-length works for Contemporaneous (NYC) and Sinfonietta Riga (Latvia).
Nicky Sohn
From ballet to opera to Korean traditional-orchestra, the wide-ranging talent of composer Nicky Sohn (b. 1992) is sought after across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Characterized by her jazz-inspired, rhythmically driven themes, Sohn’s work has received praise from international press for being “dynamic and full of vitality” (The Korea Defense Daily), having “colorful orchestration” (NewsBrite), and for its “elegant wonder” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), among many others. As a result, Sohn has enjoyed commissions from the world’s preeminent performing arts institutions, including sold-out performances at the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, The National Orchestra of Korea, and the New York Choreographic Institute at New York City Ballet.
About Bird Up
Bird Up encapsulates the composer’s perspective on the erratic nature of New York City, as seen through the lens of the bizarre and chaotic humor in the Eric Andre Show. Throughout several years of living in the absurd and unpredictable environment that is New York, the composer found that his skits were a clever match to the everyday unpredictability of the city. The skit that inspires this piece reflects the extreme end of the chaos that New Yorkers often encounter with a humorous twist, Eric Andre dresses up as a bird and confronts strangers on the street. The composer develops the piece around direct inspiration from the show, the primary motivic material of the piece is derived from the opening chords of the tv show. Incorporating this motive in several modes, the piece gradually transforms, reflecting the humor of the ever changing yet constantly absurd reality of the show and New York City.
Nicky Sohn’s Full Bio
In 2019, Sohn will attend the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy as Gerald Fischer Fellow, where she will work with Grammy-winning soprano Jessica Rivera. Other projects include commissions from the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra as the sole winner of the Jacob Druckman Prize, as well as the Chelsea Music Festival. Festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Les Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, Ars Nova with Unsuk Chin and the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Summer Festival of the Moscow Conservatory of Music, among others. Residencies have included the Avalon Music Consort in Sweden, Washington Square Winds in New York City, and Project: 音 Sound 음 in Korea. Nicky Sohn currently shares her time between Berlin, New York City, and her hometown of Seoul, and holds a Master of Music Diploma from The Juilliard School. Her early years are marked by a voracious eagerness to learn. Already a student of piano at the age of two, she began seriously studying composition at the age of seven. At fourteen, Sohn completed her high school diploma, and would go on to receive both a Bachelor of Music degree and a Diploma of Piano Performance from the Mannes College of Music. She is grateful to her pedagogues, which include Robert Beaser, Chris Theofanidis, Derek Bermel, and Richard Danielpour.
Sam Wu
The music of Sam Wu (b. 1995) deals with the beauty in blurred boundaries. From Shanghai, China, Wu attends The Juilliard School for his M.M., after receiving an A.B., with honors, from Harvard University. His teachers include Tan Dun, Robert Beaser, Chaya Czernowin, Richard Beaudoin, and Derek Bermel. Wu also has been featured on the National Geographic Channel, Business Insider, Harvard Crimson, Yale Daily, Asahi Shimbun, People’s Daily, China Daily USA, SinoVision, CCTV, and ICS, among others.
About Wind Map
Wind Mapwas composed with inspiration from a graphic visualization of global wind patterns. Wu notes, “Massive amounts of weather data are fed into a supercomputer that then produces a live (or pseudo-live) ‘wind map.’ The swirls and swoops are color-coded: areas of blue and green are relatively calm, while red and purple usually imply devastating conditions in a tropical system. There is something particularly poetic about seeing our atmosphere on such a macro scale; the same colors that are converted from numerical data also suggest Van Gogh-esque brushstrokes. The confluence of the empirical and the aesthetic in the ‘wind map’ has proved wildly inspiring for the composition of this piece.”
Sam Wu’s Full Bio
Winner of Harvard’s Robert Levin, Francis Boott, Bach Society, Wister Prizes, Artist Development Fellowship, Oklahoma City University’s Project21 Prize (Second Place), and the Interlochen Fine Arts Award. Sam was also a finalist for the Cortona Prize and ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Wu’s music has been performed across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His collaborators include the Melbourne, China National, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Suzhou Symphonies, Shanghai, Moscow, Boston Youth Philharmonics, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Shanghai International Arts Festival, Sydney University Confucius Institute, Asia Society, members of the Parker and Ansonia Quartets, Princeton Pianists’ Ensemble, Radcliffe Choral Society, Harvard Ballet Company, and pipa master Wu Man.
Kitty Xiao
KittyXiao (b. 1989) is an Australian composer, pianist, and collaborative artist based in Rochester, New York. She is currently completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Eastman School of Music as a graduate award recipient, studying composition with Robert Morris and piano with Tony Caramia. Xiao is founder, composer and pianist of Nimbus Trio and released her first album Novum in 2016 as a represented artist of Move Records label. In 2017 Kitty formed the Six Piano Collective and is Artistic Director of the Six Piano Project. The same year she launched a new concert series NoiseSense.
About Ink and Wash
Ink and Wash is influenced by Chinese calligraphy, in particular the work of contemporary Chinese, New York based artist Gu Wenda. His works, Negative and Positive Characters and TranquilityComes from Meditation, liberate themselves from traditional technical and aesthetic structures. For me, the works confront repression and the power of the human spirit. These ideas are expressed sonically in various strokes and lines of light and shade, attack and decay, from singular gestures to the mass.
Kitty Xiao’s Full Bio
Commissions include Arts Centre Melbourne’s 5x5x5, Plexus, Elysium Dance, Brighton Fashion Week London, Six Piano Project, Nimbus Trio, Tilde New Music Festival, Gamelan DanAnda, the Augmented Trumpet, Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, Panoramic Voices, Australian Art Orchestra CMI, Clan Analogue; her work being featured on their recent album Coordinates and Australian short/feature films. Her works have been part of the Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Festival, Mapping Melbourne Festival, performed at Deakin Edge, Melbourne Recital Centre, Elder Hall University of Adelaide, broadcast on 3MBS, 4MBS, ABC Classic FM, PBS, KUTX 98.9 (U.S). She has performed in the UK, US and Europe as a soloist, with Kirolian Piano Trio, Trinity Laban’s new music ensemble, her work recorded at Cacophony Records by Grammy award winner Erik Wofford and her music performed at Kilbourn Hall, The Museum of Human Achievement, The Blanton Museum of Art. Kitty was resident composer of 2017 Tilde New Music Academy, 2016 Keep Composer’s Weird in Austin, and 2016 Australian Art Orchestra CMI. Xiao holds a Master of Music (Performance) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London as a full recipient of the Alfred Kitchin Scholarship, Master of Teaching (Music Education) from The University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Music from The University of Melbourne and was a scholarship recipient at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.
Participants Composers and Works: Brian Raphael Nabors, Rise Marian L. Harrison Stephens, Out of Kilter Anthony Tidd, Sa & Alatangana Kerwin Young, American Caravan
Reading Sessions Open to the Public:
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 1:30pm Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 11am Fisher Music Center 3711 Woodward Avenue | Detroit, MI
EarShot, an initiative of American Composers Orchestra (ACO) in partnership with American Composers Forum,League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA, is the nation’s first ongoing program for identifying and promoting the most promising orchestral composers on the national stage. ACO’s artistic and administrative staff collaborates with participating orchestras, assisting with planning, program design, and execution. EarShot residencies include mentorship from the most accomplished orchestral composers in the country, orchestra readings, and musician and conductor feedback sessions. The program is customized to each host orchestra’s aesthetic, demographic, community, and educational interests.
This year, the Detroit EarShot participant composers will work closely with mentor composers Gabriela Lena Frank, Derek Bermel, and DSO’s Classical Roots composer-in-residence (TBD), as well as conductor André Raphel, guest teaching artist Jessie Montgomery,and ACO’s Education Director, Kevin James.
The Professional Development component of this residency will be focused on education and community engagement. Participant composers will receive hands-on training and will collaborate with DSO’s Teaching Artists, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin James to present composition basics to students in local public schools.
SELECTED COMPOSERS
Brian Raphael Nabors
Brian Raphael Nabors (b. 1991) is a composer of emotionally enriching music that tells exciting narratives with its vibrant themes and colorful harmonic language. With an eclectic musical palate and crafty compositional technique to match, Nabors’ music draws from combinations of Jazz/R&B with the modern flair of contemporary music. This interesting blend of sound worlds is one that continues to craft his unique musical voice.
About Rise
Of his work, Nabors says, “Rise for orchestra is an adaptation of the first movement of my Concerto for Hammond Organ and Orchestra. The musical elements of the piece in its original form symbolize the eclectic beauty of American lifestyle through music and culture. The work embodies the sense of freedom that the nation continually strives to further embody. This idea is represented through the restless nature of the music. While composing the work, I became quite fond of the synergy between the solo Hammond Organ and orchestra and found that it would double nicely as a small concerto for orchestra. My goal is for the listener to be taken on a journey of restless sounds and lavish tunes, while depicting our innate longing for the freedom to just simply be.”
Brian Raphael Nabors’ Full Bio
Nabors has been commissioned by institutions such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as well as performed at many events across the US, including the Texas Music Educators Association Conference (TMEA), the Midwest Composers Symposium, and the International Double Reed Society Conference (IDRS). He has received awards from the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Alabama Music Teachers Association (AMTA), the Birmingham Music Club, and has been performed by artists such as the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Zodiac Trio, Unheard-of//Ensemble, and the Contemporary Directions Ensemble at the University of Michigan. He has also received instruction in masterclasses with composers such as Lowell Liebermann, William Bolcom, and pianist Jon Nakamatsu. Most recently, he was selected to compete as a finalist in the Rapido! National Composition Contest Take Five with judges Robert Spano, Jennifer Higdon, and Michael Gandolfi in January 2019.
Nabors is currently completing doctoral studies at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati where he studies with Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar, Douglas Knehans. He obtained the Master of Music degree in Composition also from CCM, studying with Miguel A. Roig-Francolí. Prior to graduate studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Music Theory & Composition degree from the School of the Arts at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, where he studied composition with Sarana Chou and piano with Kathryn Fouse.
Marian L. Harrison Stephens
Marian L. H. Stephens (b. 1974) is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. In August 2007, she became the first African American to receive the Doctorate of Music degree in Music Composition from Indiana University (Bloomington) Jacobs School of Music. She also holds the Certificate of Visiting Student from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, for studies completed in music composition during the 2004 – 2005 academic year.Dr. Stephens is the Founding Artistic Director of MLH Music Studio, which she established in 2010. She is the lead instructor to students ages 4 to adult. She resides in Atlanta with her husband, Don, daughters, Nia Sanaa (age 4) and Ava Naima (age 2), mother, M. Loretta Fowlkes Harrison, and Skip, the dog.
About Out of Kilter
There are approximately thirteen miles between the Bankhead Courts housing project development, (a fenced-in, self-sustaining dwelling that includes its own elementary school, public library and convenience store) and the High Museum of Art (a multi-million-dollar complex located in the center of Atlanta’s extremely affluent arts district). Three miles from Bankhead Courts, and eleven miles from the High Museum of Art, is the Historic Collier Heights Community where I spent a privileged childhood that included many trips to the High.
Despite the short distance between my neighborhood and Bankhead Courts, I never considered life so out of kilter in such close proximity between the two communities until the year 2000. That year I received a CLiCC grant from the Atlanta Chapter of the American Composers Forum to implement my program, Project MAP (music, art, poetry), into Bankhead Courts Elementary. I soon realized that lack of opportunity, coupled with a constant bombardment of real-life negative images was the main catalyst for many of the problems facing the Bankhead Courts community. Chase Campbell’s images from his children’s book, Riding the Sphinx and Other Adventures at the Museum, was the inspiration for OUT OF KILTER: sounding scenes from Black America. Each image is paired with a major section of music, delineated by subtitles, which I created. These subtitles allude to each picture, as I see them, and also to the mood of the music.
Anthony Tidd
A Philly transplant, and the child of Trinidadian parents, Anthony Tidd (b. 1972) was born and raised in London, England. Over the next eighteen years, he attended the Newham Academy of Music (London), Guild Hall (London), Thurrock College of Music (Grays), and Goldsmiths University (London), and studied with jazz alto saxophonist and McArthur genius, Steve Coleman. As an international touring bassist, Tidd has had the pleasure of working with a number of celebrated names, including Greg Osby, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Kindred, Wayne Krantz, Talib Kweli, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Meshell N’degiocelo, Common, Jill Scott, De La Soul, David Byrne, Gangstaar, Frank Ocean and many others.
About Sa & Atalangana
This piece is dedicated to my Aunt, Ruth Harper, who passed away in 2018 after a long fight with cancer. It celebrates the life cycle, from birth, coming of age, maturity, and of course death, as an inevitable part of this. I tried to use a limited number of themes, which grow slowly throughout, emulating biological growth. The piece also features material which was derived from my jazz improvisational approach, based on my own extensive experience in this area.
Anthony Tidd’s Full Bio
As an accomplished composer/band leader Anthony released his critically acclaimed album, Quite Sane – The Child of Troubled Times in 2002, and has written and recorded works for small ensembles, big bands, and full orchestra. As a Grammy Award winner, Tidd has also recorded and produced a number of records for multiplatinum artists such as, The Roots, Macy Gray, Zap Mama, Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Pink, Jill Scott, and Ursula Rucker, as well as composing scores for major film and television projects, most recently including Jay Z’s Paramount/BET docuseries, Rest in Power – The Trayvon Martin Story.
As an educator, and long-standing member of the M-BASE collective, Anthony has taught and presented masterclasses at a number of prestigious institutions including NYU, Temple, The New School, U-Chicago, UC-San Diego, UCLA, BANFF, Berklee, New England Conservatory, Engelsholm, The Pavarotti Music Centre, The Lincoln Center, Durban University, Paris Conservatory, The London South Bank, The Royal College of Music, and many others. He is also a master lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philly.
Tidd is the creator/director of the Creative Music Program, Jazz Camp of Philadelphia, as well as curator of Meet the Masters, and popular Philly concert series Sittin’ In, all at the prestigious Kimmel Center, where he currently serves as the Jazz Artistic Advisor. Tidd now divides his time between all of the above, as well saving some time to compose, and educate the next generation of musical talent.
Kerwin Young
Kerwin Young (b. 1970) is a prolific American composer of symphonies, opera, ballet suites, orchestral fantasies, concerti, and works for Chinese and other non-western instruments, introducing fresh repertoire, new rhythms, and unconventional instrumentation to the classical music canon. A member of Public Enemy and their infamous production team, the Bomb Squad (1987-2018), Young and the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. Young is an iconic recording producer who has produced Ice Cube, Mobb Deep, Busta Rhymes, Bobby Brown, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle, and others. He has arranged and collaborated with artists as Bootsy Collins, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Roy Haynes, Reginald R. Robinson, George Clinton, and the James Brown Band. In 2017, Young served as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador for Hip-Hop in Egypt, teaching music composition, production, media scoring, and business.
About American Caravan
Inspired by current events taking place in the Americas, American Caravan highlights the trek of a people wanting something better; against all odds and harsh conditions, optimism looms above. This work continues in the manner of my previous work, Season of Autocracy, which also highlights the current times in which I am living.
American Caravan is written in B minor, using an octatonic scale from my personalized Palette of Intervallic Relations; a unique component to my system of Geometric Khemistry. There are modulations to neighboring keys (C# minor, E major, F# minor, and G# minor). My greatest wish is that American Caravan will be enjoyed by concert goers and music lovers everywhere, and that it will join other great works among orchestral concert programming.
Kerwin Young’s Full Bio
As a media composer, Young composed for the 1994 debut season of New York Undercover. His first assignment as a film composer was Tar, the 1997 directorial debut of Goetz Grossman. Since 2014, Kerwin is the composer for the KCPT weekly news series Ruckus. Since the late 1989, Young has also composed and produced original songs for feature motion pictures as Do The Right Thing (1989), Green Card (1990), Sister Act 2 (1992), Streetfighter (1994), Dirty Grandpa (2016), and American Crime Story: The People Vs O.J. Simpson (2016).
Kerwin Young studied music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Jazz Messenger legend, Bobby Watson. He holds both a BM (2012) and an MM (2015) from UMKC. His works have been performed by Music From China, Kansas City Symphony, Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, University City Symphony, Jeffrey Kail (Principal Contrabass – KC Symphony), Jeff Nelsen (French Horn – Canadian Brass), Tami Lee Hughes, and others.
ACO has awarded composer Carlos Bandera its 2018 Underwood Commission, bringing him a $15,000 commission for a work to be premiered by ACO in a future season. Chosen from six finalists during ACO’s 27th Underwood New Music Readings on June 21 and 22, 2018, in one of the most coveted opportunities for emerging composers in the United States, Bandera won the top prize with his work Lux in Tenebris.
In addition, for the ninth year, audience members at the Underwood New Music Readings had a chance to make their voices heard through the Audience Choice Commission. The winner this year was composer Tomàs Peire Serrate, for his piece Rauxa. As the winner, Serrate also receives a $15,000 commission from ACO for a composition to be premiered in a future season.
“Carlos Bandera’s orchestral writing speaks with clarity and purpose,” says ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel. “We were impressed by the expansive, colorful landscape in his tone poem Lux in Tenebris and look forward with great enthusiasm to his new work for ACO.”
ACO President Ed Yim adds, “Tomàs Peire Serrate’s piece Rauxa takes the audience on a visceral ride of arresting rhythms and colors. He harnesses the forces of a large orchestra with such amazing command, and we applaud our audience’s good taste in picking his piece as the Audience Choice Commission. The commission that goes with the audience favorite vote puts a high value on the input of our listeners in the discovery of the future of orchestral music.”
Carlos’ Sound: Lux in Tenebris (Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Jisoo Kim conductor)
Tomàs’ Sound: Toccata (for piano, premiered by José Menor)
ACO will hold its 27th Annual Underwood New Music Readings for emerging composers on Thursday and Friday, June 21 and 22, 2018. Six composers have been selected by open call to participate including Carlos Bandera, Lily Chen, Scott Lee, Ryan Lindveit, Tomas Peire Serrate, and Liliya Ugay. Each composer will hear ACO perform their work live for the first time, receive personalized mentorship, and an archival recording. Two composers will receive a commission for a work to be performed by ACO in an upcoming season: one will be selected by the panel of mentor composers and one will be selected as the Audience Favorite through an audience survey.
The Readings are open to the public for a nominal admission price. The first day of Readings, a working rehearsal, will be presented on Thursday, June 21at 10:30am; the second day of Readings will take place on Friday,June 22 at 7:30pm, during which all selected pieces will be polished and performed in their entirety, led by ACO’s Music Director George Manahan. ACO’s Artistic Director Derek Bermel directs the readings. Composers looking to build their entrepreneurial skills are invited to attend the Career Development Seminar on Friday, June 22 from 10:00am – 3:00pm.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
About Carlos Bandera
Carlos Bandera is a composer who is fascinated by musical architecture and by the music of the past. His recent music explores these fascinations, often by placing a musical quotation, be it a phrase, scale, or sonority, within dense microtonal textures.
Carlos’s music has been performed in the Faroe Islands, Scotland, Uzbekistan, China, and several spaces in the US, including Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall. In 2016, he organized and participated in a workshop between Peabody composers and the Uzbekistan-based contemporary music ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble. In the summer of 2015, Carlos attended the Fresh Inc Music Festival, where he worked with the Fifth-House Ensemble and studied composition with Dan Visconti. He also attended the 2015 Wintergreen Summer Music Academy. There he studied with Daron Hagen and Gylda Lyons and had his Florestan premiered by members of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra.
In 2015 Carlos earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition from the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where he studied with Elizabeth Brown, Dean Drummond, and Marcos Balter. Carlos recently received his Master of Music degree in Composition from The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he participated in masterclasses with Christopher Rouse and Georg Friedrich Haas and studied privately with Kevin Puts. Photo courtesy Carlos Bandera.
Work to be Read: Lux in Tenebris Upon first hearing the music of Anton Bruckner, I felt deeply connected to the composer and his work. His Eighth Symphony in particular, with its immense harmonic landscapes, devastating silences, and profound “darkness-to-light” narrative, continues to be one of my greatest influences – no doubt, in more ways than I am even aware of. Lux in Tenebris explores these elements of the Eighth Symphony by allowing Brucknerian light to pierce through a dense micropolyphonic fabric.
The work is constructed in three large sections: the first features the main theme of the first movement of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, the second focuses on harmonies that are built from the pitches of that theme, and the third section features a fragmented quotation of the last iteration of the theme (found in the coda of that same movement), which Bruckner described as “how it is when one is on his deathbed, and opposite hangs a clock, which, while his life comes to an end, beats on ever steadily: tick, tock, tick, tock.”
While Lux in Tenebris features quotations from only the first movement of the Eighth, it also features the C-major sonority from the coda of the Finale, which represents light in Bruckner’s darkness-to-light narrative. The title Lux in Tenebris is an allusion to this narrative and comes from “et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt” (John 1:5), meaning “and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Carlos’ Sound: Lux in Tenebris (Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Jisoo Kim conductor)
About Lily Chen
Lily Chen (b. 1985), born in Taiwan, is a composer exploring timbral materials with subtle theatrical potentials in both acoustic and electronic music, which shape evocative atmospheres that point towards poetic commentary on her observations on literary, emotional, or social aspects of the contemporary condition. In December 2017, she received her Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied with Ken Ueno, Franck Bedrossian, Edmund Campion, and Cindy Cox. She also holds M.M. (2009) and B.F.A. (2007) from Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, under the instruction of Chung-Kun Hung. Since 2005, Lily has received several prizes, including the George Ladd Prix de Paris for one research year in Paris, 1st Prize of Asian Composers League Young Composers Award, 2nd Prize of National Taiwan Orchestra Symphony Competition, winner of !BAMM! Student Composers Competition, 1st and 2nd Prizes of Nicola de Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition. Her music has also been performed at several international festivals in United States and Asia, including June in Buffalo, Mise-en Festival, International Computer Music Conference, SEAMUS, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and Asian Composers League Conference and Festival. Lily has also collaborated with several ensembles and orchestras, such as St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Eco Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, Mivos Quartet, Splinter Reeds, Ensemble Pamplemousse, Ensemble Mise-en, Ensemble Exceptet, Ensemble Cairn, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra. For more information, please visit – http://chenlily.com Photo by Lily Chen.
Work to be Read: A Leaf Falls After A Leaf Falls After is inspired by my recent memories of living in Europe. In the fall of 2015, I received the Ladd Prize funded by UC Berkeley and had the great opportunity to live in Paris for ten months. This was my first time in Paris as well as in Europe; I experienced intimate incidents of fragile beauty that touched me, but also shocking and terrifying ones during my residence there. I was impressed by the most clear and colorful fall I’d ever seen when autumn leaves fell to the ground, sizzling as if drizzling; I was terrified by the terrorist attack but also touched by the toughness of the Parisians that winter; on a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, I was fascinated to hear twelve bells constantly ringing, intertwining together as a huge chaotic but illusory whirl; I was stunned when visiting the installation ‘Fallen Leaves’ at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, watching thousands of open mouthed steel metal faces on the ground create, when walked on, harshly grating sounds like the victims’ screams.
Inspired by mixed emotions and diverse sounds, this piece traces the journey of a leaf: a solitary leaf falling with loneliness as described in an e. e. cumming’s poem; a light leaf falling with other leaves in autumn; a heavy metal leaf fallen on the ground. However, no matter what vibrations it has undergone during its falling and fallen time, the leaf will eventually be reincarnated into a rising butterfly, flapping its wings to cause a tornado in spring until the next falling comes. Based on such images, I created a constantly flowing process of different kinds of vibrations along with air sounds to represent falling leaves, fallen leaves, and flaps of rising butterflies’ wings. Besides this, metallic sounds/noises either with pure resonances or with intense pressure make up another important element, which is associated with my memories of the ringing bells and the metal “fallen leaves.”
Lily’s Sound: Fusing Refusing Diffusing (Eco ensemble, conducted by David Milnes)
About Scott Lee
Composer Scott Lee writes concert music infused with the visceral sounds of popular music. Lee has worked with leading orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Winston-Salem Symphony members, Symphony In C, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, chamber groups such as the Jack Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Deviant Septet, chatterbird, and ShoutHouse, as well as multi-platinum pop artist Ben Folds. He has received commissions from the Aspen Music Festival, the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, loadbang, the Raleigh Civic Symphony, and the American Craft Council.
Notable honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, winner of the Symphony In C Young Composer’s Composition, the grand prize in the PARMA Student Composer Competition, and the Gustav Klemm Award in Composition from the Peabody Institute. Lee has also received fellowships to attend the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals.
As a James B. Duke Fellow, Lee recently earned a PhD in Composition at Duke University, mentored by Scott Lindroth and Steve Jaffe. He earned the Master of Music degree at the Peabody institute, where he was the recipient of the Philip D. Glass Endowed Scholarship in Composition and studied with Michael Hersch. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where he studied with Michael Rose, Michael Slayton, Stan Link, and Michael Kurek. Photo courtesy Scott Lee.
Work to be Read: Anadyr The name Anadyr refers both to a remote port town in Northeastern Russia and to the secret 1962 operation (“Operation Anadyr“) in which Soviets deployed missiles and supporting forces to Cuba, prompting the Cuban missile crisis. The mission involved a complex campaign of deception, and was shrouded in secrecy. The name “Anadyr” itself was chosen in order to suggest anything but a movement of Soviet troops and missiles to the Caribbean. Only five senior officers knew of the actual deployment location, and kept their plans handwritten; the loading of men and material onto the ships occurred under cover of darkness; false structures were built on the ships, placed alongside agricultural equipment, to hide their defenses. Disinformation was fed to associates of President Kennedy and to the Communist Party of Cuba while accurate information was given to the Cuban émigré community in Miami, Florida, since the Soviets knew that American intelligence services perceived them as unreliable. This work aims to evoke the deception and subterfuge that characterized this period in international dealings with Russia.
Scott’s Sound: Vicious Circles (Symphony in C, with Stillian Kirov conducting)
About Ryan Lindveit
An American composer of chamber, orchestral, vocal, choral, and electronic music, Ryan’s works have been performed across the United States and abroad by Alarm Will Sound, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, Orkest de Ereprijs, the USC Thornton Symphony, numerous university wind ensembles, the Donald Sinta Quartet, FearNoMusic, and the City of Tomorrow, among others. His music has received recognition from BMI, ASCAP, SCI, the American Modern Ensemble, the National Band Association, Tribeca New Music, and the Texas Music Educators Association. Ryan grew up in Texas and is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he was selected as Salutatorian for the class of 2016 and named the Thornton School of Music’s Outstanding Graduate. He is currently a master’s student at the Yale School of Music. His past teachers include Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Frank Ticheli, and Donald Crockett. Recent and upcoming projects include Mysterious Butterflies for chamber ensemble and eight voices, a wind ensemble version of Like an Altar with 9,000 Robot Attendants commissioned by a consortium of 30 university wind ensembles organized by conductor H. Robert Reynolds, a commission for the Big 12 Band Directors Association, and pieces for chamber ensemble and orchestra to be premiered at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2018. Photo by Marije van den Berg.
Work to be Read: Like an Altar with 9,000 Robot Attendants Like an Altar with 9,000 Robot Attendants was inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950). The futuristic story describes a computer-controlled house, in which robots perform a myriad of tasks such as cooking breakfast, cleaning house, and telling time. In Bradbury’s future, all humans have been destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and this house is the only building that still stands amidst the rubble. Nonetheless, the house’s robots remain dedicated to their duties, even in the absence of the house’s human occupants. As the author puts it, “…inside, the house was like an altar with nine thousand robot attendants, big and small, servicing, attending, singing in choirs, even though the gods had gone away and the ritual was meaningless.” Despite this tragedy, Bradbury’s futurist prose remains characteristically exuberant in describing these household robots—a tension which calls to mind the satirical ebullience of Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove. My piece lives in the same brazenly ecstatic spirit as Bradbury’s story and Kubrick’s film. Sometimes the only response to misfortune is a wild, full-teeth smile.
Ryan’s Sound: spiked(Alarm Will Sound)
About Tomàs Peire Serrate
Tomàs Peire Serrate was born in Barcelona. He studied piano at the Sant Cugat del Vallès conservatory, where he grew up, and History at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. After few years performing and teaching he decided to focus on composition, first studying at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Barcelona) with Salvador Brotons, and in 2009 at the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki (Finland) with Tapio Tuomela and Risto Väisänen. In 2011 he moved to New York with the La Caixa Fellowship to pursue a Master´s in Scoring for Film and Multimedia at the New York University, where he graduated in 2013 obtaining the Elmer Bernstein Award. That year he moved to Los Angeles to explore the film music industry and participate as a composer in different projects including writing the music for the films The Anushree Experiements and Prism, and orchestrating and arranging music for If I Stay, Minions or Love and Friendship.
In the fall of 2015, Tomàs initiated his PhD studies at UCLA, where he is having the privilege to study with Bruce Broughton, Richard Danielpour, Ian Krouse, Mark Carlson, Peter Golub and David S. Lefkowitz. His research at UCLA is about music, space and media, with particular interest in new technologies and virtual reality. His concert works have been performed in Europe, US and Asia, and is currently working on a short opera-monologue that will be premiered at the Off-Liceu series in Barcelona next June 2018. Photo courtesy Tomàs Peire Serrate.
Work to be Read: Rauxa Rauxa is a sudden determination, like the impulse I had to write this piece, or an outburst, which actually is how this work begins. It is a Catalan word that has been used in pair with another one, Seny, meaning balance and sensibleness, to describe or refer to the Catalan people and their character. This duality, like in other cultures and traditions, is essential, indivisible, and necessary to understand each part separately, which is what I tried to explore here.
I worked on sketches and sections of Rauxa in different moments and places, always away from my home country, Catalonia, and I kept coming back to it looking to improve it as well as to learn more about myself and about music.
Tomàs’ Sound: Toccata (for piano, premiered by José Menor)
About Liliya Ugay
Described as “particularly evocative,” “fluid and theatrical… the music [that] makes its case with immediacy” (The Arts Fuse) as well as both “assertive and steely,” and “lovely, subtle writing” (Wall Street Journal) the music by the award-winning composer and pianist Liliya Ugay has been performed in many countries around the globe. Recipient of a 2016 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2017 Horatio Parker Memorial prize from the Yale School of Music, Ugay has collaborated with the Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Yale Philharmonia, Raleigh Civic Symphony, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Molinari Quartet, Antico Moderno, Omnibus ensemble, and Paul Neubauer among others. Her music has been featured at the Aspen, American Composers, New York Electroacoustic Music, June in Buffalo, and Darmstadt New Music festivals, as well as the 52nd Venice Biennale. During 2017-2018 Ugay will be working on a new opera as a Resident Composer at the American Lyric Theater. Originally from Uzbekistan, Liliya is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music studying with Aaron Kernis and David Lang. Besides new music, Liliya is passionate about the music of the repressed composers from the Soviet era. She regularly presents a series of the lecture-recitals on this topic with guidance of Boris Berman. Photo by Dilya Khaliulina.
Work to be Read: Rhapsody in Color I chose the title Rhapsody in Color to evoke two musical associations: Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The piece bears a structure similar to Hungarian Rhapsodies with two main sections – slower one (lassan) and fast one (friska). Each section bears strong elements of improvisation: in particular, such aspects as a simple harmonic progression in variations and ostinato.
The idea of Rhapsody in Color is similar to the process of reproduction of old sepia photographs or films into color with individual, unrealistic to the time of the original, touch. Rather a simple, and, in a sense, traditional, motive and harmonic progression are taken through the contemporary lens by coloring it out with the sporadic and often unpredictable formal and orchestral realization. Similarly, in the second half of the piece, the idea of the ostinato dance is approached from modern perspective, transforming it into what sounds more like an electronic dance loop track with constantly adding/changing shades and timbral colors.
Liliya’s Sound: Sospiri (conductor is Peter Askim, and the orchestra is The Next Festival of Emerging Artists)
Jacksonville Symphony New Music Readings April 17-20, 2018 (Jacksonville, FL)
Concert: April 20, 2018
On Friday, April 20, 2018 at 8pm, EarShot (the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network) and the Jacksonville Symphony present the performance of new works by four emerging composers in Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall (300 Water St.) led by Jacksonville Symphony Music Director Courtney Lewis. This performance will be the culmination of a series of private readings, feedback sessions, and work with mentor composers Courtney Bryan, Marcos Balter, and Steven Mackey. The selected composers, chosen from an international candidate pool, are Nicholas Bentz (E.W. Korngold Goes to Kikkatsu), Will Healy (Kolmanskop), Ursula Kwong-Brown (Night & Day), and Meng Wang (Blooming in the Long Dark Winter’s Night).
The Readings include reading sessions with the orchestra and a recorded performance on a program including John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes.
The Composers:
Nicholas Bentz (b. 1994) is forging a path of the composer-performer that hasn’t been explored in generations. His music often takes its inspiration from pieces of literature and poetry, film, and visual art. He has received commissions from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Robinson Jeffers Association, the College of Charleston Contemporary Music Ensemble, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Troika, Symphony Number One, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and has had his music played by the Peabody Modern Orchestra and the Peabody String Sinfonia. Nicholas was a winner of SONAR New Music Ensemble’s RADARLab Competition and was also a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2014. Nicholas was the Composer in Residence for Symphony Number One’s 2016-17 season. Nicholas currently attends the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where he is pursuing a Master’s degree in violin under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. He is also studying composition privately with Felipe Lara. Nicholas received Bachelor’s degrees in both composition and violin at the Peabody Institute under Kevin Puts and Herbert Greenberg. His previous composition teachers include Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and George Tsontakis, and his previous violin teachers include Yuriy Bekker and Diana Cohen. For more information, visit www.nicholasbentz.net.
about the piece:
Of his piece Bentz says, “E.W. Korngold Goes to Nikkatsuwas conceived from an experiment in combining the work of two of my favorite artists: composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and filmmaker Seijun Suzuki. The main inspiration of my piece is in imagining a film of Suzuki’s scored by Korngold. Both of these artists worked in aesthetics of excess – Korngold with his hyperRomanticism, and Suzuki with his seemingly never-ending action sequences and hyper-masculine (to the point of parody) heroes.
photo by Dennis Christians
Will Healy (b. 1990) is a composer and pianist based in New York. Noted for his “lushly bluesy” sound and “adroitly blended… textures” (New York Times), he is the artistic director of ShoutHouse, an ensemble of 15 hip-hop, jazz, and classical musicians. Healy was the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Scholarship at The Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano. He has also studied with Samuel Adler, Steven Stucky, Kevin Puts, Harold Meltzer, and Richard Wilson. Recent awards include a 2017 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the W.K. Rose Fellowship, a JFund commission from the American Composers Forum, and prizes in the Juilliard and Kaleidoscope Orchestra Composition Competitions. He was a composition fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2013. His commissions include Copland House, the Great Lakes Chamber Festival, Novus New Music, Kyo Shin-An Arts, Robert Fleitz and Carrie Frey, Nancy Allen, and others. For more information, visit www.willhealymusic.com.
about the piece:
Healy explains, “Kolmanskop is a ghost town, located in a desert near the coast of Namibia. A diamond mining settlement until its abandonment in the 1950’s, the surrounding sands have filled the homes. The first time I came across pictures of Kolmanskop, I was awestruck by the beauty and strangeness of the place. The photographs looked like surrealist art, with mountains of sand, sometimes to the tops of doorways and roofs, inundating ornate colonial houses. In 2014, I was awarded the W.K. Rose Fellowship to go to Kolmanskop and compose a piece based on that setting. I wanted to represent more than just the visual elements of Kolmanskop. I tried to depict the idea of decay as the sand fills the houses, the sense of loss and nostalgia as the structures fade away, and the passage of time.”
photo by Danny Erdberg
Ursula Kwong-Brown (b. 1987) is a composer and media artist from New York City. Described as “atmospheric and accomplished” by The New York Times, her work has been performed in diverse venues including Carnegie Hall, le Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre and the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center in New York, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Awards include a 2017- 2019 fellowship with the Berkeley Symphony, the 2016 George Ladd Prix de Paris Prize, the 2015 Composers, Inc. BAMM Prize, and the 2014 Bowdoin Festival Prize, as well as honors from ASCAP, the New York Composers’ Circle and the Chicago Ensemble. Plans for 2018 include new works for both the Berkeley Symphony and the UC Berkeley Symphony. Currently, Ursula is finishing a Ph.D. in New Media & Music at UC Berkeley with support from a Mellon-Berkeley fellowship. She received her B.A. from Columbia University in 2010, graduating with honors in music and biology. For information, visit www.ursulakwongbrown.com.
about the piece:
Kwong-Brown notes, “This work is divided into two sections: Night and Day. The piece starts in the Night with a roll on the tam-tam supporting the soft plucking of the harp and feather-beamed pizzicato in the strings, meant to evoke the rustling of sounds in the darkness. The atmosphere grows increasingly uneasy with trills in the woodwinds and the eerie sound of the celesta, and then we burst into Day. Once again, the strings play pizzicato but now the rhythms are purposeful, and soon the strings receive reinforcement from the winds and brass. Day is a mixture of energetic and cheerful that borders almost on frantic, but ultimately climaxes on a joyous note: a burst of brilliant sunshine.”
photo by Benrong Zhu
Meng Wang (b. 1989) is a Chinese composer currently based in New York City. Wang’s music has been performed throughout North America, China, and Europe, by esteemed ensembles such as The Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Thin Edge New Music Collective, LONGLEASH trio, MSM Composer’s Orchestra (George Manahan, conductor) and China Youth Symphony Orchestra. Her piece Beloved by Artemis won the 2012 Chinese National Chamber Music Composition Competition and was selected for the composition showcase by the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in China. Wang has been a fellow at Aspen Music Festival and School and was named The Deolus W. Husband Scholarship for Composition in 2015-2017. Upcoming projects include a chamber opera, Simulacrum, presented by Path New Music Theatre, which will be premiered in April 2018. Wang is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Reiko Fueting. She also studied with Andreia Pinto Correia and Kaija Saariaho. For more information, visit www.mengwangmusic.com.
Wang says, Blooming in the Long Dark Winter’s Night is inspired by a French symbolist poem, ‘Correspondences,’ from the volume of Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Pierre Baudelaire. The music draws its expression from the fragrance, coloration, brightness, and darkness of the poem. Its sensation constructs a utopian world of imagination.”
About Jacksonville Symphony:
The Jacksonville Symphony is North Florida’s leading music nonprofit offering live performances at Jacoby Hall in the TimesUnion Center for the Performing Arts and other venues throughout the area. In addition, the Symphony provides music instruction for youth and operates the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. For more information about the Symphony, visit JaxSymphony.org
Jacksonville Symphony is a member of EarShot, a program of American Composers Orchestra in partnership with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. Made possible with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Strategic Planning for Emerging Composer Programs is generously supported by the Altman Foundation.
Fort Wayne Philharmonic New Music Readings February 5-8, 2018 (Fort Wayne, IN)
Submission Deadline: October 16, 2017
Drawing from a national network of advisors and advocates, EarShot works with orchestras around the country to identify and support promising composers in the early stages of their careers. Orchestras have relied on EarShot to identify and connect with composers consistent with their artistic vision, and to advise the orchestra on commissions, competitions, and program design. Managed by the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), EarShot is a partnership between the ACO, League of American Orchestras, American Composers Forum, and New Music USA. Over the past 10 years EarShot has initiated dozens of composer/orchestra/conductor relationships across the country offering opportunities to more than 100 composers. In 2016, ACO launched a composer archive of past EarShot compositions now in the orchestral repertoire.
Travel and accommodations are provided, and composers will receive a recording of their work for archival and study purposes.
The Readings include two sessions with the orchestra, a working-rehearsal and a run-through performance. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes. Composers also participate in a series of professional development workshops covering such topics as promotion, score preparation and publishing, copyright and commissioning agreements, and other career essentials. Transportation and meals are provided for all participants.
Lead support for the Underwood New Music Readings comes from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood. Support of Readings also comes from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fromm Music Foundation. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Charlotte Symphony New Music Readings February 27-March 2, 2018 (Charlotte, NC)
Submission Deadline: October 16, 2017
Drawing from a national network of advisors and advocates, EarShot works with orchestras around the country to identify and support promising composers in the early stages of their careers. Orchestras have relied on EarShot to identify and connect with composers consistent with their artistic vision, and to advise the orchestra on commissions, competitions, and program design. Managed by the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), EarShot is a partnership between the ACO, League of American Orchestras, American Composers Forum, and New Music USA. Over the past 10 years EarShot has initiated dozens of composer/orchestra/conductor relationships across the country offering opportunities to more than 100 composers. In 2016, ACO launched a composer archive of past EarShot compositions now in the orchestral repertoire.
Travel and accommodations are provided, and composers will receive a recording of their work for archival and study purposes.
The Readings include two sessions with the orchestra, a working-rehearsal and a run-through performance. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes. Composers also participate in a series of professional development workshops covering such topics as promotion, score preparation and publishing, copyright and commissioning agreements, and other career essentials. Transportation and meals are provided for all participants.
Lead support for the Underwood New Music Readings comes from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood. Support of Readings also comes from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fromm Music Foundation. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Underwood New Music Readings & Commission
June 21-23, 2018 – DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY
Submission Deadline: October 16, 2017
American Composers Orchestra announces its 26th Annual Underwood New Music Reading Sessions to be held in New York City at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, June 21-23, 2018.
Up to seven composers in the early stages of their careers will be selected to participate. One will be awarded a $15,000 commission to write a new work to be performed by ACO.
The Readings are led by ACO Artistic Director, Derek Bermel and conducted by ACO Music Director, George Manahan. Three additional mentor composers will be selected to participate.
Writing for the symphony orchestra remains one of the supreme challenges for the aspiring composer. The subtleties of instrumental balance, timbre, effective part preparation, and communication with conductor and musicians are critical skills. But openings for composers to gain hands-on experience working with a professional orchestra are few. ACO’s New Music Reading Sessions are designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to work with an orchestra singular in its commitment to the development of the American composer and to hear their work performed by some of the country’s most outstanding contemporary music instrumentalists.
The Underwood Readings are the core of ACO’s ongoing professional training programs for emerging American composers. At the Readings, composers will meet with ACO artistic staff, orchestra members — including the conductor and mentor composers. Members of ACO’s composer advisory panel and guest composers participate in preliminary reviews of scores, provide critical commentary and feedback, post-Reading evaluations and selection of the composer to receive the commission award.
The Readings include two sessions with the orchestra, a working-rehearsal and a run-through performance. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes. Composers also participate in a series of professional development workshops covering such topics as promotion, score preparation and publishing, copyright and commissioning agreements, and other career essentials. Transportation and meals are provided for all participants.
Applicants may submit one work, up to 15 minutes duration for consideration. Applicants must submit an electronic submission form, the orchestral score, a resume, and works list. The submission deadline is October 16, 2017. Incomplete, illegible, or late applications will not be considered.
Lead support for the Underwood New Music Readings comes from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood. Support of Readings also comes from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fromm Music Foundation. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS EarShot: Grand Rapids Symphony
September 25-30, 2018 (Grand Rapids, MI)
Application Receipt Deadline: June 11, 2018, 5:00pm EST Composer Notification: July 16, 2018
Program
American Composers Orchestra seeks to identify and celebrate emerging American composers through its Underwood New Music Readings and EarShot program.
Each program provides:
Your piece rehearsed and performed by a professional orchestra
Mentor composers throughout the residency to guide the process and offer feedback
Professional development seminars and networking opportunities
National exposure supported by ACO partners New Music USA, American Composers Forum and the League of American Orchestras
Travel and accommodations
We encourage composers of all backgrounds to apply and are interested in supporting voices underrepresented in the orchestral repertoire today. Selected women composers are eligible for a $15,000 Women Composer Commission with an orchestra through a joint initiative of the League of American Orchestras and the American Composers Orchestra with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
This program is for composers who have had fewer than 2 pieces performed by a professional orchestra.
Applicant must be either a U.S. citizen or non-citizen lawfully and permanently residing, or studying full-time, in the United States.
We seek composers of all backgrounds, especially those whose gender identity, race, ethnicity, and/or background has been historically or currently underrepresented in professional orchestral programming.
There are no age restrictions; applicants should be composers at the early stages of their professional careers.
Composers selected to participate in prior ACO EarShot, Underwood, or Whittaker New Music Reading Sessions are ineligible.
Past applicants not previously selected are welcome to re-apply with a new and complete application, including score and all required background information.
Application Instructions
Each composer may submit only one composition for consideration. Works that have been previously submitted to ACO for consideration may not be resubmitted.
Works may not have been performed or read by a professional orchestra
Only works completed after January 1, 2015 will be considered.
Compositions must be less than 15 minutes in length. A portion or movement from a longer work may also be considered.
Refer to the instrumentation listed on the application form. If your piece does not match the listed instrumentation, if selected you will be asked to re-orchestrate.
Compositions may not include soloists, electronics, MIDI, digital technology, and/or sound reinforcement.
Do not submit recordings.
The quality of the score submitted is the primary evaluation criterion. It is therefore in the applicant’s best interest that the score be clear, accurate, and the best representation of the composer’s work. The additional background and educational information is for eligibility and documentation purposes; these materials are not considered in the general review of scores.
Incomplete, illegible, or late applications will not be considered.
Please note: composers selected are responsible for delivering timely professional-quality score and parts.
Applicants must submit an electronic submission form, the orchestral score in PDF clearly labeled with the title and composers name on cover page, and current resume. There is no application fee.
For application questions, please contact Greg Evans, Director of Operations, at 212.977.8495 ext 202; or greg@americancomposers.org.
ACO Parables part of Symphony Space’s FUSE PROJECT
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 8 PM
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre @ Symphony Space
JOHN CORIGLIANOTroubadours: Variations for Guitar & Orchestra with Sharon Isbin, guitar
NINA C. YOUNGOut of whose womb came the ice for baritone, orchestra and electronics with David Tinervia, baritone, and R. Luke DuBois, video
(World Premiere – ACO/Jerome Foundation Commission)
CARLOS SIMONPortrait of a Queen with Rehanna Thelwell, narrator
(World Premiere – ACO/Underwood Commission)
Parables, led by guest conductor Rossen Milanov, explores music’s incredible ability to tell stories and weave tales. The program includes John Corigliano’s Troubadours featuring star guitarist Sharon Isbin, for whom the piece was written; the world premiere of Portrait of a Queen by 2016 Underwood New Music Readings commission winner Carlos Simon with narrator Rehanna Thelwell; the world premiere of Nina C. Young’s Out of whose womb came the ice featuring baritone David Tinervia and video by R. Luke DuBois, which tells the survival story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1914-17; and the New York premiere of Postcards by Bright Sheng, with four short movements in a folk music style from different regions of China.
The four composers will be in attendance and will briefly discuss their pieces from the stage. Join us after the concert at Symphony Space for drink specials and conversation.
Symphony Space’s FUSE PROJECT celebrates artistic innovation through new commissions, premieres, vibrant collaborations, and extraordinary performances.
In the Composers’ Own Words:
JOHN CORIGLIANO Troubadours
For me, the compositional process starts well before the generation of actual musical ideas. Troubadours began with guitarist Sharon Isbin nearly 13 years ago. At that time, she asked if I would write her a concerto, and I was decidedly lukewarm about the idea. The challenges of writing for a highly idiomatic instrument that I didn’t fully understand were augmented by my dislike of most “idiomatic” guitar music, as well, as my fear of writing a concerto for an inherently delicate instrument. But Sharon persisted. She sent me scores, tapes, and letters with ideas on the kind of concerto it could be. When I received a letter from her some years ago with articles about the age of the troubadours, and particularly some celebrated women troubadours, I started thinking about the idea of serenading and of song. Slowly the conception of a troubadour concerto began to form. During this process the crystallization of what I love most about the guitar took place: it is an instrument that has always been used to speak directly to an audience. Lyrical, direct, and introspective, it has a natural innocence about it that has attracted amateurs and professionals, young and old. Read full program notes Composer Spotlight Q&A with John Corigliano| Q&A with guitarist Sharon Isbin
CARLOS SIMON Portrait of a Queen Women have always been the pillar in the African-American community. My piece, Portrait of a Queen, will trace the evolution of black people in America from the prospective of the African-American female who represents strength, courage and selflessness. Through four movements, representing different places in time (Africa, Plantation/Slavery, Southern Jim Crow and Present Day), I will express her pride, sorrow, anger, and nurturing character. Each movement will be marked by short poetic statements that depict her emotions during her journey from Africa to present day. Here’s an example of the poetry:
Prologue
I am Queen
Strength rest upon my head: a gold-dipped crown adorned with jewels of Patience, Kindness and Wisdom that shine diamond bright.
Like a baby wrapped on my back in swaddling silk, I first nurtured it in my womb.
Created a love so deep.
NINA C. YOUNG Out of whose womb came the ice Out of whose womb came the ice creates a sonic and visual glimpse of a segment of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17). In August 1914, at the onset of WWI, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton gathered a crew of 27 men and set sail for the South Atlantic. They were in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize of the Heroic Age of Exploration: to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent by foot. Upon entering the Weddell Sea, they encountered unusually foul weather. Weaving south through the treacherous seas of ice, their ship, the Endurance, became trapped only 85 miles from their destination. After months of waiting for the ice to break, the ship was crushed and sank, leaving the crew stranded upon the ice floes without any means of contacting the outside world. In pursuit of survival, Shackleton and his crew endured 22 months traversing ice floes up the Antarctic Peninsula. The final leg included a deadly 800-mile open boat journey in their lifeboat, the James Caird, in hopes of reaching South Georgia Island. The crew was rescued on August 30, 1916; everyone survived. Though this expedition failed, it remains one of the most miraculous stories of polar exploration and human survival. Read full program notes
BRIGHT SHENG Postcards In 1997, I was approached by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for a commission. I was told that I was selected from 10 composers by the commissioner Ruth and John Huss, who were the patrons of the orchestra and chose me to write a work in celebration of their silver wedding anniversary. I subsequently had a nice conversation with the Husses and was told that they chose me because my music reminded them of their fantastic trip to China a few years earlier. So I thought a selection of music postcards from various places in China would be appropriate for the occasion. Thus I based each of these four short movements on a folk music style from different regions in China: Movement 1 is from Qinghai (Eastern Tibet), Movement 2 is from Sichuan, Movement 3 is from the southern China (nearby Shanghai), and last movement is based on a folk song from Shaanxi Province. For those who have been to China, I hope the music reminds them of their trip. For those who have not, maybe the listening will whet their appetite to visit China. Postcards was premiered on January 22, 1999 in St. Paul’s Ordway Theater by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff, and is dedicated to Ruth and John Huss.
Friday, March 24, 2017 at 7:30 PM
Zankel Hall @ Carnegie Hall
STEVE REICHTehillim with vocal ensemble: Elizabeth Bates, Martha Cluver, Mellissa Hughes, Rachel Calloway DAVID HERTZBERGChamber Symphony
(World Premiere – ACO/Underwood Commission)
TREVOR WESTONFlying Fish (World Premiere – ACO/Carnegie Hall Commission)
PAOLA PRESTINIThe Hotel That Time Forgot for Video Artist & Orchestra
(World Premiere – ACO/Toulmin Commission)
Led by George Manahan, Past Forward illustrates the role the past plays in the present, from composers’ own personal explorations of their roots, to broader investigations of the universal role of memory and recollection.
The concert celebrates Steve Reich’s 80th birthday with a performance of his Tehillim, presented as part of Reich’s season-long residency as holder of Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair; the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s The Hotel that Time Forgot with video by Mami Kosemura; the world premiere of Trevor Weston’s Flying Fish, which honors the composer’s Barbadian heritage; and the world premiere of 2015 Underwood New Music Readings commission winner David Hertzberg’s Chamber Symphony.
Photo from the Tehillim rehearsal at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1981 – George Manahan conducting Steve Reich & Musicians | George Manahan conducting Steve Reich & Musicians at the recording session | Courtesy of the Steve Reich Collection, Paul Sacher Foundation – Photos by Deborah Feingold
Listen to this excerpt from Steve Reich’s radio interview aboutthe 1981 New York premiere of Tehillim, which George Manahan conducted:
STEVE REICH Tehillim Tehillim will probably strike most listeners as quite different from my earlier works. There is no fixed meter or metric pattern in Tehillim as there is in my earlier music. The rhythm of the music here comes directly from the rhythm of the Hebrew text and is consequently in flexible changing meters. The use of extended melodies, imitative counterpoint functional harmony and full orchestration may well suggest renewed interest in Classical or, more accurately, Baroque and earlier Western musical practice. The non-vibrato, non-operatic vocal production will also remind listeners of Western music prior to 1750. However, the overall sound of Tehillim and in particular the intricately interlocking percussion writing which, together with the text, forms the basis of the entire work, marks this music as unique by introducing a basic musical element that one does not find in earlier Western practice including the music of this century. Tehillim may thus be heard as traditional and new at the same time. Composer Spotlight Q&A
DAVID HERTZBERG Chamber Symphony
In writing my Chamber Symphony (2017), I sought to create something essential, pared down. In the argument, voices speak to one other across vistas, from different sides of time, finding resonances both sympathetic and volatile. The music breathes with stoic indifference; silence turns space to sound like organ bellows. Though I conceived this work abstractly, the following lines of the American poet Wallace Stevens often came to my mind while composing:
Of Mere Being
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance,
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down. Composer Spotlight Q&A
TREVOR WESTON Flying Fish Images of flying fish have been ubiquitous in my life. As a national symbol and cuisine of Barbados, this animal has always intrigued me. Most of my family comes from Barbados so I do not remember a time before knowing about flying fish. My grandfather’s restaurant and bar in Speightstown, now owned by my cousin, uses the image of flying fish in its logo. When I was a child, I thought that flying fish were magical, mythical creatures moving through water and air at great speeds. Visiting the island of Barbados reminds me how much of my life resonates the culture of Bimshire (Barbados). Every time I visit Barbados, I feel like I am walking with my ancestors and with the vast history of the African presence in the Americas and the Caribbean. On the island, I feel like I am figuratively visiting the sound source of the resonance that I live. Flying Fish honors the African roots of Bajan (Barbadian) culture and African diasporic expression. Composer Spotlight Q&A
PAOLA PRESTINI The Hotel That Time Forgot for Video Artist & Orchestra
Across the border from Syria, in a forgotten Lebanese city, sits an unexpected building, The Grand Hotel Palmyra. The hotel hasn’t closed since its opening in 1874, even as war has raged just outside its doors. The owner Rima Husseini says, “No one has a right to touch hotel Palmyra, except for time.” I became fascinated with the hotel when I first came upon a video showing its interior. It became clear that I wanted to create a sonic orchestral world to relive its memories. In her new eponymous video installation, Pendulum, Mami Kosemura sought to create a mysterious and unrealistic atmosphere, while using a real structure as its basis. This structure is the main salon of the Dillon + Lee townhouse, where Kosemura spent the summer. As it relates to The Hotel that Time Forgot, this room is meant to represent a room in The Grand Hotel Palmyra and is filled with every day actions. The pendulum gives the viewer the sense of loss of time, and blurred memories. Composer Spotlight Q&A
Watch the short documentary on the Hotel Palmyra that inspired Paola to write this piece:
Underwood New Music Readings & Commission
June 21-23, 2017 – DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY
Submission Deadline: December 12, 2016
DEADLINE HAS PASSED. APPLICATIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED. THIS PAGE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
American Composers Orchestra announces its 26th Annual Underwood New Music Reading Sessions to be held in New York City at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, June 21-23, 2017.
Up to seven composers in the early stages of their careers will be selected to participate. One will be awarded a $15,000 commission to write a new work to be performed by ACO.
Writing for the symphony orchestra remains one of the supreme challenges for the aspiring composer. The subtleties of instrumental balance, timbre, effective part preparation, and communication with conductor and musicians are critical skills. But openings for composers to gain hands-on experience working with a professional orchestra are few. ACO’s New Music Reading Sessions are designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to work with an orchestra singular in its commitment to the development of the American composer and to hear their work performed by some of the country’s most outstanding contemporary music instrumentalists.
The Underwood Readings are the core of ACO’s ongoing professional training programs for emerging American composers. At the Readings, composers will meet with ACO artistic staff, orchestra members — including the conductor and mentor composers. Members of ACO’s composer advisory panel and guest composers participate in preliminary reviews of scores, provide critical commentary and feedback, post-Reading evaluations and selection of the composer to receive the commission award.
The Readings include two sessions with the orchestra, a working-rehearsal and a run-through performance. The performances are professionally recorded, and each composer is given a high-quality audio recording to be used for archival, study and portfolio purposes. Composers also participate in a series of professional development workshops covering such topics as promotion, score preparation and publishing, copyright and commissioning agreements, and other career essentials. Transportation and meals are provided for all participants.
Applicants may submit one work, up to 15 minutes duration for consideration. Applicants must submit an electronic submission form, the orchestral score, a resume, works list, and letter of recommendation. The submission deadline is December 12, 2016. Incomplete, illegible, or late applications will not be considered. Complete submission guidelines can be found here.
Lead support for the Underwood New Music Readings comes from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood. Support of Readings also comes from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fromm Music Foundation. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
EarShot – Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composer Competition in collaboration with the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival
September 22-24, 2016, Indianapolis, IN Application deadline: THIS DEADLINE HAS PASSED
The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO), Matthew Kraemer, Music Director, and EarShot, the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network, announce the EarShot – Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composer Competition to be held on September 22 – 24, 2016 at the Schrott Center for the Arts, Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Competition will provide up to five emerging composers the opportunity to work closely with the ICO to have their music workshopped, rehearsed and read, under the guidance of maestro Matthew Kraemer. The experience will include feedback from principal ICO musicians, and mentor composers Melinda Wagner, Michael Schelle, Robert Beaser. Participants will be selected on a competitive basis from a nationwide call for scores.
An intensive reading session and working rehearsal will take place on September 22nd, accompanied by feedback sessions with ICO musicians, mentor composers, and the conductor. ICO will perform a public run-through performance on the evening of September 23rd. A final feedback session will be held the following day with the mentor composers. Career development workshops will also be offered.
Following the competition proceedings, one winning composer and work will be selected to be performed by the ICO as part of the Indiana State University’s 50th Anniversary Contemporary Music Festival on Thursday, October 27, 2016 in Terre Haute, IN.
Composers selected are responsible for delivering professional-quality score and parts. Composers will receive a recording of their work for archival and study purposes. Travel and accommodations will be provided.
Applicants must review the submission guidelines, then submit an electronic submission form, upload a PDF of the orchestral score, a resume, works list, and letter of recommendation.
Applications must be received by Friday, June 17, 2016 at 5pm eastern time. Incomplete, illegible, or late applications will not be considered.
About Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra & Matthew Kraemer
The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO) debuted in 1984. Kirk Trevor served as Music Director and Conductor for 27 years. The 2015-2016 season marks an important transition in artistic leadership, as the ICO welcomes Matthew Kraemer to the podium for his first season as Music Director and Conductor.
Comprised of 34 professional musicians, the ICO presents an annual subscription concert series, drawing on a body of musical literature spanning four centuries. Concerts feature internationally recognized concert artists as well as superior local talent, present aspiring young soloists, and showcase the talents of contemporary composers. The ICO has commissioned several new works and has performed a number of world and American premieres. In May 2015, the ICO released its first commercial CD, entitled Momentum 21, with contemporary music composed by James Aikman (who currently serves as composer-in-residence), Derek Bermel, Michael-Thomas Foumai, and Christopher Theofanidis. The ICO offers a full range of educational programs for ages pre-kindergarten through adult. The ICO also accompanies many local arts and educational organizations including the Indianapolis Opera, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, and American Pianists Association. The ICO also serves as orchestra-in-residence for the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival.
Matthew Kraemer recently completed a highly successful, five-year tenure as associate conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he regularly led the orchestra on each of its concert series. A passionate advocate for new music, he has performed the works of many living composers during his career. He has led composer readings and workshops with several orchestras in the United States, in addition to leading the BPO’s Earshot partnership with the American Composers Orchestra in Buffalo for three consecutive seasons. Increasingly recognized for his committed advocacy of music education and his devotion to young audiences, he has created numerous arts education programs and has taught at several music festivals both in the United States and abroad.
About Earshot
EarShot is a program of the American Composers Orchestra in collaboration with the American Composers Forum, League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. EarShot helps orchestras around the country to identify and support promising composers in the early stages of their careers. EarShot advises organizations on the programs that would best suit their new-composer needs — from new-music readings to composer residencies and competitions — and assists with planning, identifying composers through its extensive nationwide calls, and program design and execution.
EarShot is made possible with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and Fromm Music Foundation, and with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. Additional funding provided by the League of American Orchestras with the support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Zankel Hall @ Carnegie Hall Friday April 1, 2016 at 7:30 pm
ACO looks East, capping-off ACO’s Underground Season with a program, which includes three world premieres, drawing on Indian and Middle Eastern music. Mehmet Ali Sanlikol (“colorful, fanciful, full of rhythmic life” The Boston Globe) sings and plays the Ud (Turkish lute) in a premiere using classical Ottoman composition techniques, with long rhythmic cycles, and a poem by Sufi dervish Edib Harabi. Reena Esmail, who is Indian-American, explores her Hindustani roots in a multimedia premiere that focuses on first impressions and Indian rhythmic cycles. Iranian-American composer Gity Razaz (“limpid Impressionist timbres, ravishing and engulfing throughout” New York Times) explores the internal and psychological stages of Narcissus’ metamorphosis. Matthias Pintscher reflects on his time spent in Israel as he creates a musical dialogue of the voices in Solomon’s Song of Songs, with mixed emotions of love found and love lost and features baritone Steven LaBrie. Saad Haddad, a first generation Arab-American, premieres his piece combining electronics and traditional performance practices of Arabic musicians, with antiphonal trumpets serving as musical “beacons” for the orchestra.
Saad Haddad‘s Manarah (“beacon” in Arabic), commissioned by ACO, is scored for two digitally processed antiphonal trumpets and orchestra, and borrows from the performance practices of Arabic musicians, particularly Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum. Harabat – The Intoxicated by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol was commissioned by ACO and Carnegie Hall, is inspired by the classical Ottoman/Turkish music tradition and features a poem by a late 19th/early 20th century Sufi dervish. Reena Esmail‘s Avartan, also commissioned by ACO, is inspired by the “avartan,” a rhythmic cycle featured in Hindustani music and is paired with video by Neeraj Jain. The Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Gity Razaz is based on Salvador Dali’s portrayal of the Greek myth. The work is a musical drama reflecting on the internal and psychological transformation of Narcissus, beginning with his obsessive self-infatuation, moving through his drowning in the pond that reflected his image, and ending with his rebirth as the narcissus flower. Matthias Pintscher‘s songs from Solomon’s garden is based around the Biblical Song of Songs, and draws on the Hebrew language for rhythmic patterns and gestures.
The Program:
SAAD HADDAD: Manarah (World Premiere. ACO Commission.) GITY RAZAZ:The Metamorphosis of Narcissus MEHMET ALI SANLIKOL: Harabat / The Intoxicated (World Premiere. ACO/Carnegie Hall Commission.) – intermission – REENA ESMAIL: Avartan (World Premiere. ACO Commission.)
MATTHIAS PINTSCHER: Songs from Solomon’s Garden
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Described as “particularly evocative,” “fluid and theatrical… the music [that] makes its case with immediacy” (The Arts Fuse) as well as both “assertive and steely,” and “lovely, subtle writing” (Wall Street Journal) the music by the award-winning composer and pianist Liliya Ugay has been performed in many countries around the globe. Recipient of a 2016 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2017 Horatio Parker Memorial prize from the Yale School of Music, Ugay has collaborated with the Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Yale Philharmonia, Raleigh Civic Symphony, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Molinari Quartet, Antico Moderno, Omnibus ensemble, and Paul Neubauer among others. Her music has been featured at the Aspen, American Composers, New York Electroacoustic Music, June in Buffalo, and Darmstadt New Music festivals, as well as the 52nd Venice Biennale. During 2017-2018 Ugay will be working on a new opera as a Resident Composer at the American Lyric Theater. Originally from Uzbekistan, Liliya is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music studying with Aaron Kernis and David Lang. Besides new music, Liliya is passionate about the music of the repressed composers from the Soviet era. She regularly presents a series of the lecture-recitals on this topic with guidance of Boris Berman.
Nicholas Bentz (b. 1994) is forging a path of the composer-performer that hasn’t been explored in generations. His music often takes its inspiration from pieces of literature and poetry, film, and visual art. He has received commissions from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Robinson Jeffers Association, the College of Charleston Contemporary Music Ensemble, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Troika, Symphony Number One, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and has had his music played by the Peabody Modern Orchestra and the Peabody String Sinfonia. Nicholas was a winner of SONAR New Music Ensemble’s RADARLab Competition and was also a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2014. Nicholas was the Composer in Residence for Symphony Number One’s 2016-17 season. Nicholas currently attends the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where he is pursuing a Master’s degree in violin under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. He is also studying composition privately with Felipe Lara. Nicholas received Bachelor’s degrees in both composition and violin at the Peabody Institute under Kevin Puts and Herbert Greenberg. His previous composition teachers include Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and George Tsontakis, and his previous violin teachers include Yuriy Bekker and Diana Cohen. For more information, visit www.nicholasbentz.net.
STEVE REICH Tehillim
