Learning Lab
Each season, ACO presents a series of digital professional development sessions led by composer mentors and industry leaders. An evolving resource for composers at all stages of their careers, sessions have covered topics including orchestration, networking, publishing, copyright, orchestra unions, media rights, fundraising, public speaking, educational program design, and more.
Helping Hands: Traversing Artist Management
Featured Speakers: Peggy Monastra and Melissa Ngan
Professional representation has helped countless artists reach the next levels of their careers, but the process of identifying and securing management can be a heavy lift for those who are unfamiliar with how to do so. This session will highlight both the ways in which representation can help orchestral composers continue their professional trajectories, and how composers can gain the attention of management agencies.
Put Me On: Commissions and Consortia Workshop
Featured Speakers: Melissa Ngan and Vanessa Rose
Being a part of a consortium is not only artistically beneficial to composers, but financially beneficial as well! In this session, Melissa Ngan will unpack some of the need-to-know information surrounding orchestral commissions and the creation of consortia for composers.
Onstage Do’s and Do’s: Rehearsal Techniques and Procedures
Featured Speakers: Tito Muñoz and Adam Schoenberg
Receiving a performance by an orchestra isn’t the end of the road for a composer, but the beginning of an ongoing relationship. This webinar will offer rehearsal techniques to composers, and will speak to how they should engage conductors, orchestras, and its musicians throughout the rehearsal process.
Signing the Dotted Line: Licensing and Publishing
Featuring Speakers: Melissa Ngan and Deirdre Chadwick
Understanding media rights, broadcast regulations, and payments is a vital part of making a living as a composer. BMI’s Deirdre Chadwick will lead a dialogue built to demystify some of the fine print that composers face as their careers reach larger scale.
Away from the Writing Desk and Into the World: Creating Relationships with Orchestras
Featured Speakers: Curtis Stewart and David Ludwig
For most composers, developing and maintaining relationships with orchestras is a key factor toward first and repeat performances. ACO Artistic Director Curtis Stewart will lead a discussion on the “how to’s” of making initial and repeat connections with orchestra administration and staff.