Tag: commissioning awards

CMA Announces Commissioning Grants Totaling $475,000 for 21 Ensembles

Logo of Chamber Music America listing genres of music they represent: classical, jazz, contemporary, world, and early music

Chamber Music America (CMA) has announced the recipients of its 2016 commissioning programs, supporting the creation of new works for small ensembles. CMA will distribute a total of $475,000 to 21 ensembles through two of its major grant programs: New Jazz Works, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; and Classical Commissioning, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The ensembles selected this year reflect the diverse array of styles performed by small ensembles in the U.S. today, ranging from western classical to Cuban jazz to category-defying new music. Several feature instrumentation that bridges the gap between traditional classical and jazz ensembles, and between Eastern and Western musical traditions. Independent peer panels selected the grantees in each program in May.

NEW JAZZ WORKS

A total of $277,000 was awarded to nine jazz ensembles to support the creation of new works by professional U.S.-based jazz artists and to help assure that these compositions will be heard through live performances and recordings.

Christopher Jentsch and the Jentsch Group No Net (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: flute/alto flute, clarinet/alto clarinet/bass clarinet, soprano/tenor saxophones, trumpet/flugelhorn, trombone, guitar, piano, bass, and drums, plus conductor
Composer: Christopher Jentsch

Jane Ira Bloom and the Jane Ira Bloom Quartet (New York, NY)
Instrumentation: soprano saxophone and live electronics, piano and keyboards, bass, and drums
Composer: Jane Ira Bloom

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue (Bronx, NY)
Instrumentation: vocals/gayageum/moon lute/piano, bass, drums, trumpet, clarinet/flute/saxophone, and string quartet
Composer: Jen Shyu

Jim Black and the Jim Black Trio (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: drums, piano, and bass
Composer: Jim Black

Michele Rosewoman and New Yor-uba (New York, NY)
Instrumentation: piano/vocals, bata/congas, bass, drums, trumpet/flugelhorn, soprano/alto/tenor saxophones, trombone, and tuba
Composer: Michele Rosewoman

Pascal Le Boeuf and Imagined Reality (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: piano, drums, bass, alto saxophone, woodwinds, tenor saxophone, violin, viola, and cello
Composer: Pascal Le Boeuf

Patrick Zimmerli and the Patrick Zimmerli Quartet (New York, NY)
Instrumentation: tenor saxophone, piano, bass, drums, percussion, and marimba
Composer: Patrick Zimmerli

Rob Reddy and Bechet: Our Contemporary (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: soprano saxophone, trumpet, trombone, violin, cello, guitar, bass, and drums
Composer: Rob Reddy

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Indo-Pak Coalition (Montclair, NJ)
Instrumentation: alto saxophone, guitars, tabla, and drums
Composer: Rudresh Mahanthappa

CLASSICAL COMMISSIONING

Twelve grants totaling $198,100 provide support for U.S.-based professional classical and world music ensembles and presenters for the creation and performance of new chamber works by American composers.

Altius Quartet (Boulder, CO)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Composer: Michael Ippolito

Art of Élan with the Formosa Quartet (San Diego, CA)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Composer: Lei Liang

Beijing Guitar Duo (Baltimore, MD)
Instrumentation: two guitars
Composer: Chen Yi

Carpe Diem String Quartet (Lafayette, CO)
Instrumentation: string quartet
Composer: Reza Vali

Ekmeles (New York, NY)
Instrumentation: vocal ensemble (two sopranos, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass)
Composer: Christopher Trapani

Haven Trio (Corinth, TX)
Instrumentation: soprano, clarinet, and piano
Composer: Jon Magnussen

Kenari Quartet (Bloomington, IN)
Instrumentation: saxophone quartet
Composer: Corey Dundee

Mobius Percussion (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: percussion quartet, with live processing
Composer: Jacob Cooper

Sō Percussion (Brooklyn, NY)
Instrumentation: percussion quartet
Composer: Paul Lansky

TAK Ensemble (New York, NY)
Instrumentation: soprano, flute/bass flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, and percussion, plus live electronics
Composer: Mario Diaz de Leon

Wild Rumpus (San Francisco, CA)
Instrumentation: soprano, flute, trombone, violin, bass, electric guitar, percussion, and piano/synthesizer
Composer: Dan VanHassel

Yarn/Wire (Ridgewood, NY)
Instrumentation: two pianos and two percussion
Composer: Alex Mincek

More details are available on the website of Chamber Music America.

(—from the press release)

ACF Announces 2014 JFund Awardees

jerome_logo[1]
The American Composers Forum (ACF) has announced that twelve new music projects have been awarded grants through the Jerome Fund for New Music (JFund). JFund supports the creation, presentation, and subsequent life of a new work, providing up to $7,000 for the composer or primary artist’s time to create the work and up to $1,500 to help make it happen and further its potential. Primary artists must reside in Minnesota or the five boroughs of New York City. Project partners may be based anywhere in the world.
The 2014 JFund recipients are:

  • Zack Baltich (Minneapolis, MN) in support of Western Interior for percussion trio and two guitars inspired by the poetry of Alec Osthoff that reflects the disasters that can occur in Northern Minnesota ice houses as well as the harsh reality of meth abuse. It will premiere at the Fallout Arts Initiative Music Co-op.
  • Justine Chen (New York, NY) in support of the two-act opera, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, with a libretto by David Simpatico, presented by American Lyric Theater
  • Jeff Fairbanks (Sunnyside, NY) in support of Gained in Translation, a 20-minute work for performing artist Gamin with a seven-piece gugak ensemble of Korean instruments that will premiere in Seoul and go on tour.
  • Anne Goldberg (New York, NY), composer and professional ice skater, in support of para, a work for soprano (Corrine Byrne), trumpet (Andrew Kozar) and herself on piano, based on the junction of breath, movement and sound. It will be presented by Tempus Continuum in workshop settings and multiple performances.
  • Molly Joyce (New York, NY) in support of Rave, a work for pianist Vicky Chow and electronics.
  • Paul Kerekes (Brooklyn, NY) in support of a new work for seven electric guitars. The premiere and recording will feature Trevor Babb (with prerecorded tracks).
  • Levy Lorenzo (Brooklyn, NY) in support of Inside Voice for Chicago-based Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, featuring four female vocalists using iAlvin, an iPhone app created by the artist that responds to movement.
  • Jessica Meyer (Bronx, NY) in support of Seasons of Basho, for The Colonials (mezzo soprano, cello and piano). It will be performed several times on their ‘mansion tour’.
  • Kari Musil (St. Paul, MN) in support of The Freedom of Jazz is in the Flavors!, an evening length cabaret in conjunction with trumpeter John Ahern and singer Pippi Ardennia presented by the Pipjazz Foundation in several locations across St. Paul.
  • Natalie Nowytski (Minneapolis, MN) in support of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a theatrical work based on a Norwegian folk tale, produced by Laurel Armstrong and written by Melissa Leilani Larson. It will be workshopped at Nautilus Music Theatre prior to its full production in 2018.
  • Max Vernon (Brooklyn, NY) in support of his first song cycle, Show & Tell. It features 6 singers playing misfit characters on the night of the apocalypse, and will be produced by Rebecca Feldman of the Public Theater Casting Office.
  • Tamara Yadao (Brooklyn, NY) in support of Another Kind of Spiral using C#, an algorithmic piece programmed using Unity Game Engine for a virtual mechanical musical instrument. It will be presented at Winnipeg’s Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival.

The panelists for this grant round were Cal Arts composer-performer-improviser Vinny Golia, violinist, composer, and Juilliard teacher Mari Kimura, and composer and University of Michigan professor Kristin Kuster.

(—from the press release)

 

Chamber Music America Announces 2013 Commissioning Grant Recipients

Chamber Music America (CMA) has announced the recipients of its 2013 commissioning grants, supporting the creation of new works for small ensembles. CMA will distribute $421,950 to 19 ensembles through two of its major grant programs: New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Classical Commissioning, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grantees in each program were selected by independent peer panels this spring.
A total of $208,500 has been awarded to nine jazz ensembles through the New Jazz Works program, which provides support for the creation and performance of new works in the jazz idiom, as well as funding for activities that extend the life of the work, and allow the ensemble leader to acquire or cultivate career-related business skills.

The 2013 New Jazz Works grantees are:

World Time Zone (led by Michael Blake)
Sheldon Brown Group
Robin Verheyen NY Quartet
Ben Kono Group
Manuel Valera and New Cuban Express
Dapp Theory (led by Andy Milne)
Alan Ferber Nonet
Jacob Garchik Trio (joined in its commission by the Caravel String Trio)
Sicilian Defense (led by Jonathan Finlayson)

Ten ensembles have also been awarded a total of $213,450 through the Classical Commissioning program, which provides support for U.S.-based professional classical and world music ensembles and presenters for the creation and performance of new chamber works by American composers.

The 2013 Classical Commissioning grantees are:

Duo Scorpio / Nico Muhly
Kontras Quartet / Jens Kruger
Melody of China / Yuanlin Chen
Michael Winograd Ensemble / Michael Winograd
Music from China / Chen Yi
Mivos Quartet / Eric Wubbels
PRISM Quartet / Julia Wolfe
Talea Ensemble / Oscar Bettison
ZOFO / William Bolcom
Ensemble N_JP / Gene Coleman

(—from the press release)

Fromm Music Foundation Announces 2012 Commissions

The board of directors of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University have announced the names of twelve composers selected to receive 2012 Fromm commissions. In addition to the $10,000 commissioning fee, a subsidy is available for the ensemble performing the premiere of the commissioned work.

The composers who received commissions are:

Douglas Boyce (Alexandria, VA)
Dorothy Chang (Vancouver, BC)
Phyllis Chen (Astoria, NY)
Brian Current (Toronto, Ontario)
Nathan Davis (New York NY)
Michael Dessen (Irvine, CA)
Stacy Garrop (Evanston, IL)
Yotam Haber (Brooklyn, NY)
Ted Hearne (Brooklyn, NY)
Olga Neuwirth (New York, NY)
Andreia Pinto-Correia (Princeton, NJ)
David Sanford (Northampton, MA)
Wadada Leo Smith (Ventura, CA)
Chen Yao (Chicago, IL)

Founded by the late Paul Fromm, the Fromm Foundation is now in its fifty-seventh year, having been located at Harvard University for the past several decades. Since the 1950s, it has commissioned well over 300 new compositions and their performances, and has sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series.

The postmark deadline for the next cycle is June 1, 2013. Requests for guidelines should be sent to The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, Department of Music, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. More information is available at their website.

(—as reported on the Fromm website)

Chamber Music America Awards $557,000 to 38 US-based Ensembles and Presenters

Chamber Music America (CMA) has announced the recipients of grants supporting the composition of new works and community-based residencies. CMA will distribute a total of $557,000 to 38 ensembles and presenters in 18 states through three of its major grant programs. Through its Classical Commissioning Program, CMA awarded $205,000 to 13 ensembles and presenters, chosen out of 102 applications, for the commissioning and performance of new works by American composers. In addition, 10 composer-led jazz ensembles selected from 167 applicants will receive a total of $230,000 from CMA’s New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program. Lastly, 15 grants totaling $122,000 were awarded to ensembles and presenters (from a pool of 62 applicants) for community-engagement activities taking place beyond traditional concert settings.

The new compositions that will result from these commissions span a wide variety of styles and instrumental combinations. Among them are a percussion quartet by Augusta Read Thomas for Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion, and a percussion trio by Kate Soper and Austin’s Line Upon Line. Mario Davidovsky will compose a new work for The International Contemporary Ensemble and Daniel Godfrey will compose a new work for the Cassatt String Quartet, while Mary Ellen Childs will create a work for violin solo and trombone quartet for Guidonian Hand with special guest Mary Rowell. The genre-bending composer/improviser/oboist Kyle Bruckmann will create new music for his Oakland-based group Wrack, which has now expanded to a septet. Pianist Andrew Oliver will compose music for the Portland-based Kora Band, an ensemble incorporating West African instruments, and Steve Lehman will craft new work for his octet which combines post-bop jazz with spectralism. In addition, grant support from CMA will help make possible a wide variety of music programs across the country including: student coaching at Bang On A Can’s annual contemporary music festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts; Da Camera of Houston’s day of free public performances at The Menil Collection in celebration of the John Cage centenary which will feature the Meehan/Perkins Duo; workshops at Jersey City’s Infinity Institute by Jason Kao Hwang and Edge that will involve bucket drums, claves, rap, paintings and website interactions; plus community concerts in a youth detention residence and a tribal meetinghouse in Juneau, Alaska by saxophonist Grace Kelly’s Quintet (as part of Juneau Jazz & Classics). A complete list of awardees with complete project descriptions is available as a PDF document from the Chamber Music America website.

The grantees were selected this spring by independent review panels of musicians and presenters. The Classical Commissioning Program is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. New Jazz Works is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Residency Partnership Program is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.