News In Brief 9/13/04
Meet The Composer Announces Program Changes
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The Meet The Composer Fund has been renamed Creative Connections to reflect recent changes that expand the scope of the program to offer a wider range of award amounts. Awards will now range from$250 – $5,000.
However, the change will affect only those states administered by the New York office. Creative Connections guidelines and application forms are for projects taking place in Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Utah. For other locations, composers should check the MTC website to find their MTC affiliate office.
The change in funding is “intended to enable composers to undertake more substantial projects, and to build stronger and longer-term relationships with presenters,” according to the MTC announcement.
PRISM Quartet Celebrates 20th Anniversary Season
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The PRISM Quartet, an ensemble notable for premiering over 75 works since its founding two decades ago, will commemorates its 20th anniversary appropriately enough with the world premiere of Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Steven Mackey as well as Lyric by PRISM’s own Matthew Levy.
In addition, PRISM will debut twenty-two one-minute dedications by composers representing the full spectrum of today’s saxophone repertoire: Tim Berne, William Bolcom, Zack Browning, Robert Capanna, Donnacha Dennehy, Nick Didkovsky, Jason Eckardt, Renee Favand, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Alvin Lucier, the Minimum Security Composers Collective (Dennis DeSantis, Roshanne Etezady, Adam B. Silverman and Ken Ueno), Keith Moore, Greg Osby, Frank J. Oteri (editor of this webzine), James Primosch, Tim Ries, Gregory Wanamaker, and Chen Yi.
In making the announcement, founding PRISM member Michael Whitcombe commented, “What better way to celebrate than with brand new works by so many composers we have admired and befriended over the years?”
PRISM—comprising Levy, Whitcombe, Taimur Sullivan and Timothy McAllister—was founded under the tutelage of the classical saxophone virtuoso and pedagogue Donald Sinta at the University of Michigan. Each season, PRISM presents a three-concert recital series in Philadelphia, with repeating programs at New York City’s Symphony Space.
Inaugural Santa Fe International Festival of New Music
Santa Fe New Music has established an International Festival of New Music. The four-day event, entitled “The Pulse of New Voices,” will focus on music for percussion and voice. Meredith Monk, So Percussion, Joseph Gramley and Essential Music, and Santa Fe New Music led by Artistic Director (and AMC Board Chair) John Kennedy will be among the featured performers, in addition to local and regional musicians and performers.
The festival will take place at the Lensic Performing Arts Center and other locales in Santa Fe, from September 23-26, 2004.
Programming will highlight a number of historically important works from the contemporary classical world, including Edgard Varèse’s Ionisation and William Russell’s Made In America, as well as a number of premiere performances including works by Randy Nordschow (production coordinator of this webzine), Santa Fe composer Peter Swanzy, and William Susman. In Santa Fe by the 20th century composer and peerless original, Moondog, will also be read.
Meredith Monk’s Facing North concert event will be her first New Mexico performance in 13 years.
The four-day fest will also leave time for a lecture by Meredith Monk, a family concert and instrument-making workshop at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, and breakfast with Joseph Gramley and his tales of traveling the Silk Road with Yo-Yo Ma.
This new festival is intended to become a biennial event; the 2006 Festival will focus on Music and Water.
SYMPHONY Magazine 2004-2005 Premieres List Online
SYMPHONY‘s list of 2004-2005 orchestral premieres is now accessible online. Each summer, the trade magazine of the American Symphony Orchestra League compiles a list of world, U.S., and Canadian orchestral premieres scheduled for the upcoming season. The list—searchable by orchestra, composer, and premiere date—includes names of the works, the orchestras premiering them, scheduled premiere dates, conductors, commissioning parties, and soloists.
