Hannibal Lokumbe
(Photo Courtesy Philadelphia Orchestra)
League of American Orchestras and New Music USA Announce
Five New
Music Alive
Residencies
Program Embeds Composers Deeply into Orchestras and Communities
for Three-Year Period, Beginning in 2016-17 Season
Program Participants to Include
Lembit Beecher and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra;
Anna Clyne and Berkeley Symphony;
Stacy Garrop and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra;
Hannibal Lokumbe and The Philadelphia Orchestra;
Jerod Tate and South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
New York, NY (December
21, 2016) – Five composer and orchestra pairs have been selected
through a peer review panel process to participate in Music Alive, a
national three-year composer-orchestra residency program of the League
of American Orchestras and New Music USA.
This new iteration of
Music Alive begins 2016-2017 and prioritizes collaborative work and
immersive experiences for composers, orchestra musicians, artistic
leadership, and community members. Music Alive hopes to
demonstrate—through active partnership with the participating residency
pairings—the power and value of living composers working at the center
of American orchestras.
"We live in an era of
unsurpassed compositional invention, as composers break musical barriers
and redefine the rules," said League of American Orchestras President
and CEO Jesse Rosen. "This new iteration of Music Alive takes engagement
several steps further, building opportunities for cohorts of composers
to learn from each other, and for entire orchestra staffs and musicians,
as well as their communities, to interact closely with these talented
composers-in-residence."
"Music Alive is driven
by a belief in the power of new work," said New Music USA President and
CEO Ed Harsh. "These new residencies will demonstrate even more
powerfully than ever before the role that collaboration with living
artists can play in vitalizing orchestras' connections to their
communities."
The five new Music Alive composer-orchestra pairings are:
Lembit Beecher and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Anna Clyne and Berkeley Symphony
Stacy Garrop and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra
Hannibal Lokumbe and The Philadelphia Orchestra
Jerod Tate and South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
The newly configured
program was reimagined as a result of an extensive survey of leading
professionals deeply experienced in relationships between composers and
orchestras. The survey culminated in a 2015 convening by New Music USA
and the League of American Orchestras hosted by The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation. Colleagues in the new music and orchestra worlds met to
identify and discuss critical challenges that the program could address
directly. This iteration of Music Alive, and its residency
priorities, directly emerged from these conversations.
More than visiting
artists, the composers in residence will be centrally embedded within
their orchestras, and their roles will be incorporated directly into the
orchestras' operations, programming and curatorial decisions, and
activities in their communities. Dedicated funding will be attached to
the residency priorities, including workshopping, rehearsing, and
developing new works or performing existing works by living composers;
mentoring emerging composers through readings, shadowing, and other
mentoring opportunities; and creating public access to the artistic
process through open rehearsals, access to various media, and other
points of entry. The composers, orchestra leadership teams, and program
staff are also committed to engaging in a cohort-based planning process
around the residency priorities, which will include virtual convenings
as a group several times per year, as well as an annual in-person
convening at the League's National Conference.
Panelists for the residencies were:
Jenny Bilfield, President and CEO, Washington Performing Arts
Avner Dorman, composer and Music Director, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra
Sarah Lutman, Founder, Lutman & Associates
Shulamit Ran, composer
Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and President, Artis — Naples
Review criteria for the residencies were:
Artistry: the artistic merit of the composer's work and orchestra's performances
Opportunity: the partnership's potential for depth and innovation in residency work and in tackling the thematic priorities.
Capacity and commitment: the ability of the orchestra and composer to make the residency a success and to adhere to two core commitments — having a centrally embedded composer and a cohort-based planning process.
About Music Alive
Launched in 1999 as a joint program between Meet The Composer (now
New Music USA) and the League of American Orchestras, Music Alive has
been a steward and partner in a multitude of projects that foster strong
working relationships between American orchestras and accomplished
composers across the country. In its 17 years, the program has supported
115 composers, 77 orchestras, and 119 distinct residencies.
Music Alive is made possible due to a $1.5 million lead grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from The Aaron Copland Fund for
Music, the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Amphion
Foundation, and The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.
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