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.
Orchestra Etiquette
Featuring Speaker: Aaron Jay Kernis
Composer Aaron Jay Kernis presents the basics of etiquette as a composer working with an orchestra, discusses the general form of rehearsals with orchestras, and answers questions from the attendees.
Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-Award winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis draws artistic inspiration from a vast and often surprising palette of sources, among them the limitless color spectrum and immense emotional tangle of the orchestra, cantorial music in its beauty and dark intensity, the roiling drama of world events, and the energy and drive of jazz and popular music. All are woven into the tapestry of a musical language of rich lyric splendor, vivid poetic imagery, and fierce instrumental brilliance, and he has been praised for his “fearless originality [and] powerful voice” (The New York Times).
Additional Resources
MOLA Guidelines for Music Preparation
Tricks of the Trade
Featuring Speaker: Derek Bermel
ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel explores the basics of orchestration through the lens of composer Steven R. Gerber’s NewMusicBox article “Orchestration: Composers Reveal Tricks of the Trade.” Useful for composers new and old to orchestration, Bermel explores the staples of orchestration with various score examples.
Twice Grammy-nominated composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel has become recognized as a dynamic and unconventional curator of concert series, via ACO’s concert season, SONiC Festival, Earshot Readings, and Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute. His honors include the Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, Herb Alpert Award, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Fundraising for Ensembles
Featuring Speakers: Yolanda F. Johnson and Melissa Ngan
Soprano and philanthropy expert Yolanda F. Johnson joins ACO President Melissa Ngan to give advice and tactics to bolster fundraising for small-to-medium ensembles.
Yolanda F. Johnson has had an outstanding career as a performing artist and philanthropist; as a composer, as an educator, and as a supporter of the arts and women’s equity. In addition to her life as an artist, she is also a current International Advisory Board member of and the former Representative for the Foundation for Post-Conflict Development to the United Nations, a member of the board of directors of the Hudson River Museum, Special Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra, board of directors of PowHer NY, board of directors of the Lehman College Art Gallery and is the first African American President of Women In Development, New York. Johnson is also the Founder and President of YFJ Consulting, LLC and Founder of Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy (WOC)® and Allies in Action Membership Network™.
The Gainfully Employed Composer
Featuring Speakers: Dan Visconti and Melissa Ngan
Composer Dan Visconti and ACO President Melissa Ngan discuss the ins and outs of self-publishing for composers, from which printer and paper to use to best practices for renting out work to ensembles.
Composer Dan Visconti is updating the role of the classical musician for the 21st century as he creates new projects in collaboration with the community. For his ongoing initiatives to address social issues through music by reimagining the arts as a form of cultural and civic service, Visconti was awarded a 2014 TED Fellowship and delivered a TED talk at the conference’s thirtieth anniversary.
Creating Meaningful Creative Relationships
Featuring Speakers: Melissa Ngan, Lainie Fefferman, and Mary Kouyoumdjian
American Composers Orchestra President and CEO Melissa Ngan joins New Music Gathering organizers Lainie Fefferman and Mary Kouyoumdjian to discuss practical approaches to collaboration in new music and how to nurture those creative relationships.