Welcome to ACO’s EarShot New Music Readings
June 16-17, 2022
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA
George Manahan, Conductor
Derek Bermel, Artistic Director, Mentor Composer
Jonathan Bailey Holland, Mentor Composers
Jessie Montgomery, Mentor Composers
YUTING TAN (b. 1993)
Ashes and Embers
ELIJAH SMITH (b. 1995)
Wraith Weight
PATRICK HOLCOMB (b. 1996)
Persephone
ADELIIA FAIZULLINA (b. 1988)
Bolghar
INTERMISSION
WILL STACKPOLE (b. 1990)
Increment
YUQIN “STRUCKY” YI (b. 1995)
Fetters
TOMMY DOUGHERTY (b. 1990)
Restrung
EarShot is a program of American Composers Orchestra completed in partnership with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. The program is made possible with the support of Mellon Foundation, Fromm Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and Steven R. Gerber Trust. Additional funding is provided by the League of American Orchestras with support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Public funds are provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ACO EARSHOT NEW MUSIC READINGS
In ACO’s 45-year history, 30 of those years have included a New Music Reading program, first known as the Whitaker New Music Readings, subsequently as the Underwood New Music Readings, and now as EarShot New Music Readings. They have become one of this country’s most coveted opportunities for composers, providing essential mentorship, workshopping, and recording opportunities to artists at a critical stage in their careers.
EarShot is the nation’s first ongoing, systematic program for creating relationships between orchestras and composers. Through EarShot New Music Readings at home in NYC and in partnership with orchestras nationwide, ACO discovers and develops artists whose work expands the definition of American orchestral music. This season, 19 of the nation’s most promising composers have been selected from over 475 submissions received from applicants throughout the Americas to work with ACO, as well as the Houston, Oregon, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras. Through ACO’s inclusive recruiting and application practices, 79% of composers in this year’s cohort self-identify as BIPOC, 39% as women, and 5% as nonbinary.
Open to composers who have had two or fewer performances with symphony orchestras, EarShot serves as a gateway for artists to have their works workshopped, performed, and recorded by the nation’s most prominent ensembles. As part of the Readings process, composers meet with the conductor, key orchestra members, a copyist, and mentor composers in preparation for two sessions with the orchestra. Following the reading sessions, composers meet with ACO staff, orchestra members, the conductor and mentor composers to receive critical commentary and feedback. The Readings are professionally recorded, providing essential documentation towards future performances and commissions.
EarShot also includes a comprehensive approach to mentorship and artistic development, preparing composers and orchestras for successful partnerships with one another. Prior to the Readings, composers participate in professional development sessions on orchestration, rehearsal techniques, fundraising, networking, public speaking, educational programming, and more.
Designed to encourage long-term relationships, EarShot has an established track record of generating repeat performances and future commissions. Over 50% of EarShot alumni surveyed reported at least one commission as a direct result of their participation in the Readings. The majority of participating orchestras commission or perform the music of at least one composer selected from the Readings process. The Virginia B. Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with ACO, has recently expanded to support commissions by 6 women and nonbinary composers selected through EarShot to write for a consortium of 30 orchestras nationwide.
To date, the New Music Readings have served as a career milestone for over 150 artists, including such award-winning composers as Derek Bermel, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Jennifer Higdon, John Corigliano, Melinda Wagner, Tania León, Pierre Jalbert, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Augusta Read Thomas. Since participating in ACO’s readings, these composers have held important residencies and had scores of works commissioned, premiered, and performed by many of the country’s most prominent symphony orchestras.
Featured Composers
Composer and violinist Tommy Dougherty (b. 1990) is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo works. Over the past several years, Tommy’s music has been performed by the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, Modern Violin Ensemble (MoVE), Alarm Will Sound, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and Kinetic Ensemble. In 2019, Tommy was the recipient of the ASCAP Leo Kaplan Award for his orchestra piece Restrung, and in 2016 and 2017, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards. In 2018, Modern Violin Ensemble premiered Extraordinary Instruments, a violin quartet that aims to bring awareness to issues of gun culture in the United States. As a violinist, Tommy currently serves as Acting Section Violin with the San Diego Symphony and has performed with the Pacific Symphony, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Kinetic Ensemble. Read More
ABOUT Restrung
As a composer/violinist, my music over the past several years has explored contemporary string techniques and behaviors influenced by many of my string-playing colleagues and my own improvisations. Works that have come to life in this period include a conductor-less string orchestra piece (Egyptian Ratscrew Fantasy) based off a card game written for Kinetic and a violin quartet (Extraordinary Instruments) that comments on gun culture in the US for Modern
Violin Ensemble (MoVE), which was written at the same time as Restrung. It’s no coincidence that Restrung begins with a quartet of solo violins, as I used this piece to test out materials for the quartet. Additionally, highlighting solo string players from within the section is a feature that I have been interested in exploring within my orchestral writing. Being a small part of a greater whole in a string section is exhilarating to me as a performer, yet I find that in today’s orchestra, where hundreds of violinists appear for an audition to compete for one chair, the audience rarely has the opportunity to hear each individual voice. Restrung is my first orchestral piece where the various string techniques and behaviors that I’ve developed over the past several years interact with the other families of the orchestra and is the beginning of what will hopefully be a longer, more in-depth exploration of presenting the members of a string sections as both section players and soloists.
Adeliia Faizullina (b.1988) is a Tatar composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and quray player. As a composer, she explores cutting-edge vocal colors and paints delicate and vibrant atmospheres inspired by the music and poetry of Tatar folklore. The Washington Post has praised her compositions as “vast and varied, encompassing memory and imagination.” Her recent commissions include works for Jennifer Koh, the Tesla Quartet, Johnny Gandelsman, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Her works have also been performed by the Seattle Symphony, cellist Ashley Bathgate, the Del Sol Quartet, and Duo Cortona. She won the Seattle Symphony Celebrate Asia Competition in 2019, she won first prize in the Radio Orpheus Young Composers Competition in Moscow in 2018. Adeliia was a guest artist at Play On Philly in 2021, and is a member of Composing Earth 2022-2023, by the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Adeliia was one of seven composers to be selected for the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute in 2022. Read More
ABOUT Bolghar
Bolghar is an ancient city located in Tatarstan, Russia, from as early as the 8th Century, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the present-day Tatar capital is Kazan, many Tatars consider Bolghar to show a glimpse of their ancient Muslim Bulgar way of life.
I visited Bolghar a couple years ago, in the summertime, for my sister’s wedding, which was in a beautiful big white mosque, not far from an archaeological museum. The place itself is located on the left side of the Volga River. It’s a beautiful town, surrounded by some forest, woods and fields. Its beauty comes from its monuments, temples, museums, mosques, and its proximity to nature. People also live there, leading private lives. They work at the museums, or they just live there. Some of the population keep livestock, like chickens. The city is a combination of everything; you may see a modern car there, and then a person riding a horse as well — not just for tourists, but because they keep horses. I wouldn’t call it eclectic in a loud way, because there isn’t a lot of noise or activity. No, it’s very spacious, with large distances between buildings. It’s filled with green, with trees and gardens.
To me, this place is an intersection of moments in time. When I walk there and listen to the environment, the sound travels far in the open spaces. I feel that I am far from the contemporary world; I am somewhere else. And I can almost hear whispers from the past. They have musicians there, playing folk instruments. I bought a quray there, (like a western penny whistle) one of my collection — a simple one, painted with some Tatar national patterns. To me, this is a place that’s unique from the rest of the world. In the midst of ongoing archaeological excavations there, we almost get to overhear voices from the past. History is concentrated there, with all the associations the town carries.
When I’m in Bolghar, I feel my identity more precisely. I hear its voice more distinctly. It awakens in me, feelings that I am not just myself — I am someone that comes from this culture, these older generations. I often think about my grandparents and my family there, and nature itself. As I am visually-impaired, sounds show me my environment. When I was there this summer, it was sunny before noon. I heard the birds and the wind in the branches. In the afternoon there was light rain, and we walked along the river. There were many layers of sound, to me, all at once: water, wind, raindrops, the river running, people talking far away, and music in the distance. Sometimes we cannot hear these faraway sounds when we’re in a big city: we have too many sounds of cars, people and machinery nearby. The original version of this piece featured a Quray, the Tatar folk instrument. Because Bolghar is incorporated so well with nature, I’m using all the possibilities where I can refer to the basic nature of the orchestral instruments. I base my harmonies on the overtone series. With strings, I use a lot of harmonics and open strings. With winds, I use the sound of air, but it’s formed as a ritual: repeating patterns with slight differences. With the quray, also, the gestures refer to ritual sounds. The quray doesn’t have any virtuosic scales — it’s just the most natural sounds of the quray, playing with the overtone series and overblowing on the instrument. Sometimes in the piece, musical gestures finish abruptly, returning to a completely different color. In the climax, the music jumps to the past, and back to the present, back to the past again, and finally to the future. When I’m in this town, I feel flashes of the past — and then again I am brought to the present, talking to my friends and family. In the next moment I am thinking about the future — what’s next for us? We have to save these beautiful places. We have to take care of our heritage for the future — which is a question, because we never know what’s going to happen. But we have to preserve the beauty we already have and appreciate who we are in the moment.
Patrick Holcomb (b. 1996) is a composer from Ocean View, Delaware who is currently based in Rochester, New York. Holcomb’s recent compositional honors include a 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, a 2021 American Prize in Composition, a 2020 BMI Student Composer Award, the 2019/2021 Jon Vickers Film Scoring Award, and the 2019 Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Award. He has attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, and Connecticut Summerfest. Holcomb completed his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College, from which he graduated top of his class in the School of Music with a BM in Composition in 2018. He also earned an MM in Composition and an MM in Music Scoring for Visual Media from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2021. At the Jacobs School, Holcomb served as an Associate Instructor of Music Theory and the Composition Department Graduate Assistant, the Assistant Director of the New Music Ensemble & Co-Coordinator of Music Composition. Read More
ABOUT Persephone
Persephone (2019) is a reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Persephone, the goddess who was abducted by Hades and subsequently forced to spend a portion of each year with him in the underworld. The work was born out of my attempt to imagine Persephone seeing her reflection in each of the six rivers visible from the underworld on her annual journey into Hades.
The piece begins on the shore of the Oceanus, the river-sea that separates the worlds of the living and the dead. Persephone (represented here by the alto flute and the bassoon) cries out in anguish as she awaits her return to the underworld for the coming months. The towering but distant voice of her mother, the powerful goddess Demeter (represented here by the oboe and the bass clarinet), echoes Persephone’s distress back to her. As the goddesses’ voices become increasingly hysterical, Hades (represented here by the horn and the trombone) emerges from the earth, seizing Persephone and taking her in his chariot over the Oceanus and into the underworld. As they fly over the Acheron, the river of pain that marks the entrance of the underworld, Persephone sees the reflections of her and her captor distorted by the ripples caused by the oars of the ferryman Charon. The Phlegethon, the river of fire, is patrolled on both sides by centaurs who prevent the shades of the wicked from escaping the water; Persephone’s reflection stands alongside the ghosts imprisoned in the river. She sees her face contorted by rage in the turbulent waters of the Styx, the river of hatred that wraps around the underworld seven times. The dead who do not receive a proper burial spend eternity on the banks of the Cocytus, the river of wailing; similarly trapped, Persephone sees her reflection mingled with these ghosts and hears her voice echoed in their cries. The Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, passes by the cave of the sleep god Hypnos; in this river, Persephone watches herself surrender to sleep, accepting that she can do nothing to change her fate.
Praised by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a “rising star”, composer Elijah Daniel Smith is quickly establishing himself as one of today’s leading young composers. His music, which has been described as “an extended flirtation with chaos” (Chicago Tribune), and as “a compilation of sounds that defy their source” (Picture This Post), ranges from orchestral compositions to multimedia and interdisciplinary collaborations. Elijah’s affinity for dense and complex textures, rhythmic ambiguity and fluidity, and rich gravitational harmonies shines through in all of his creations. Elijah’s music has been premiered and performed by world renowned ensembles such as The Chicago Symphony Orchestra for MusicNOW, Mivos Quartet, Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Contemporaneous, ~Nois, Ensemble Linea, Ecce Ensemble, Fuse Quartet, Earspace, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming commissions and projects include new works for Bergamot Quartet, DITHER, and saxophonist Julian Velasco on behalf of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation. Read More
ABOUT Wraith Weight
Wraith Weight explores the idea of sonic afterimages by blurring and distorting pitch centers, rhythmic centers, and varying levels of harmonic clarity.
Will Stackpole is a composer whose music has been called “lively” and possessing a “savage charm” by the New York Times. He began his musical career as an electric guitarist and recording engineer in Hoboken, New Jersey. In the following years he found himself driven to compose for the orchestra and quickly developed a vibrant compositional voice notable for its unique orchestration and quasi-tonal harmonic language. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School where he was the only ever three-time winner of the Juilliard Orchestra Competition. Stackpole’s works have been played across the United States by many notable ensembles including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the AMFS Conductor’s Orchestra, the Davin Levin Duo, and the Juilliard Orchestra. He is also the host of the Adagio for Things podcast and co founder of Red Dog Ensemble, a new music group focused on innovative concert works. Stackpole holds a B.A. in Music and Technology from Stevens Institute of Technology and an M.M. in Composition from the Juilliard School. His teachers have included Robert Beaser, Melinda Wagner, Christopher Theofanidis, and Justin Dello Joio. In addition to his output as a composer, Stackpole’s work as a conductor, producer, and audio engineer have led him to compose for and design projects in theater, film, television, and dance. Read More
ABOUT Increment
In today’s world it has become an incredibly difficult task to keep aware of what is ‘normal’, or at least what has seemed so at one time or another. Seemingly small and incremental changes to our social contract are gradually wearing away at our perception of societal order. These changes can be so constant that our capacity for activism or outrage or even simple attention can be worn thin. If a people cannot remain vigilant against these steadily encroaching revisions to our way of life, the door is left open for our entire social contract to be demolished. In this piece I attempted to explore the experience of living through these steady and imperceptible changes. A lone trumpet is heard from the orchestra, playing a melody that will be intoned throughout the piece, perhaps representing truth, perhaps one’s sense of self, or perhaps simply the idea that what one can experience must be the truth. As these utterances are played, a subset of the string orchestra plays an ominously slow-moving progression of harmonies that exist at the periphery of the orchestra’s low and high registers. This body of instruments remain static until they gradually introduce small interruptions to the music. These interruptions while unobtrusive, barely noticeable at first, become steadily more emphatic until they are simply a part of the fabric of the piece. At a certain point, these interruptions take over and become an un-ignorable and terrifying breakdown of the music. All this time, the listener has likely been so distracted by these interruptions that it is difficult to notice the slow transformation in timbre of the original melody that has occurred. The original solo trumpet returns suddenly, now faint and distant, reminding of where this music began, but for the first time musically transformed.
Singaporean composer Yuting Tan writes music which explores the interaction of different sounds to form unique harmonies and textures. Her music has been recognized with awards including First Prize in the Macht Orchestral Composition Competition (2018), First Prize in the Virginia Carty DeLillo Composition Competition (2018), and Third Prize in the Prix d’Été Competition (2017) at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and has been performed in Singapore, USA, UK, Thailand, New Zealand, and Italy. Past collaborations include performances by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, National Sawdust Ensemble, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Empyrean Ensemble, ~Nois, Alarm Will Sound, Now Hear This, Unassisted Fold, and Ensemble Soundinitiative. Recent commissions include four set pieces for the National Piano and Violin Competition 2021 in Singapore and a piece for the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra as their composer-in-residence. Yuting also enjoys working with artists from other fields and creating music in collaboration with other art forms. Read More
ABOUT Ashes and Embers
The flames burn into the night and sparks fly amidst the growing cloud of smoke. What is burning?
There is a sense of wonder, awe, horror, and loss. In the morning, ashes and embers are all that is left.
Yuqin (Strucky) Yi is a composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. Influenced by a wide variety of music genres, his works aim for a crystallization not only of classical music but also of rock, jazz, and soul music. In addition to working in the commercial music industry, Yi has been involved with many classical and jazz events as a composer, orchestrater and consultant. Selected for the NCPA’s Young Composers Program Award in 2019, his works have been in China, the United States, and Europe. His method of composition—of works that are often literary in conception—reflects the fullness and possibility of contemporary music, freshly processing timbre, harmony, and rhythm to generate a philosophical narration of life experience. A sophisticated composer, Yi has worked with Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Windscape Woodwind Quintet, Perry So, MSM Philharmonia Orchestra, Flint Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. He works frequently for Award Winning Artist Damien Sneed as music copyist and arranger. Read More
ABOUT Fetters
As a human being, I have fetters.
Bliss Perry criticized that. They love to dance in these fetters, and even when wearing the same fetters as another poet– about the influence between poets. But I have another comprehension of dancing in fetters. It could also be the optimistic attitude towards life.
People have various sorts of fetters, fetters of lust and passion, fetters of the limitation in knowledge, fetters of relationship, fetters of government, fetters of social environment, fetters of the times. We could have thousands of complaints about the circumstances around me. Nevertheless, we can also keep a positive attitude under the burdens and still be able to dance in my life philosophically. I suppose it will be the most elegant dance ever, reflecting the wisdom and talent of human.
CONDUCTOR AND MENTOR COMPOSERS
The wide-ranging and versatile George Manahan has had an esteemed career embracing everything from opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary. In addition, he continues his commitment to working with young musicians as Director of Orchestral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music as well as guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music and Merola Opera Program.
Mr. Manahan is the 2012 winner of the Ditson Conductor’s Award, established in 1945 by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. Mr. Manahan was honored by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his “career-long advocacy for American composers and the music of our time has enriched and enabled Concert Music both at home and abroad.” His recent Carnegie Hall performance of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra was hailed by audiences and critics alike, “What a difference it makes to hear the piece performed by an opera conductor who palpably believes in it,” said the New York Times, “the fervent and sensitive performance that Mr. Manahan presided over made the best case for this opera that I have encountered.” Read More
Derek Bermel has been widely hailed for his creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity. A musical omnivore, he is equally at home at major concert halls, pop music clubs and festivals worldwide; Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “To listen to his music is to run across a wealth of influences, from Bartók and Stravinsky to big band, and from early-period rap to Bulgarian folk music to West African drumming. Also, it seems, theoretical physics.” Alongside his international studies of composition (with teachers including Louis Andriessen, William Bolcom, and Henri Dutilleux), ethnomusicology, and orchestration, an ongoing engagement with wide-ranging musical traditions has become part of the fabric and force of his compositional language, in which the human voice and its myriad inflections play a primary role. Now in his fourth season as Artistic Director of ACO, Bermel has become recognized as a dynamic and unconventional curator of concert series, via ACO’s concert season, the SONiC Festival, Underwood and Earshot Readings, and Jazz Composers Orchestral Institute. He also regularly directs the CULTIVATE program for emerging composers and Composer-in-Residence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.
A native of Flint, MI, composer Jonathan Bailey Holland’s works have been commissioned and performed by orchestras and chamber ensembles across America. He served as the first ever Composer-In-Residence with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the 2018-19 season. His 2019-20 season includes a commission from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum inspired by John Singer Sargent’s dance-inspired painting, “El Jaleo.” American Composers Orchestra premiered his orchestrations of two Charles Ives songs at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, featuring mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. His Third Quartet, for string quartet and percussion duo was featured on the Walton Arts Artosphere Festival, and the Kingston Chamber Music Festival. Boston Opera Collaborative will delve into an evening of Holland’s chamber operas. The Bowdoin Summer Music Festival performed His House is Not of This Land as part of the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music; and his music will appear on the Juventas New Music Ensemble season. Read More
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA
Violin I
Karen Kim
Meghan Todt William
Edward Hardy
Sashka Korzenska
Karen DiYanni
Mary Jo Stilp
Patricia Davis
Heather Paauwe
Violin II
Deborah Wong
Fung Chern Hwei
Maxim Moston
Jessica Gehring
Lisa Tipton
Avriil Brown
Sunjay Jayaram
Hannah Cohen
Viola
Cyrus Beroukhim
Liuh-wen Ting
Jay Julio
Sandra Robbins
Juliet Haffner
Ardith Homgrain
Cello
Gene Moye
Lanny Paykin
Sarah Carter
Eliana Mendoza
Maureen Hynes
Bass
Gregg August
Richard Sosinsky
Bill Ellison
Melissa Slocum
Greg Chudzik
Flute
Brandon Patrick George
Julietta Curenton
Helen Campo
Oboe
Alexandra Knoll
Mekhi Gladden
Erin Gustavson
Clarinet
Ashleé Miller
Gleb Kanasevich
Patricia Billings
Bassoon
Adrian Morejon
Tylor Thomas
Nisreen Nor Flores
Horn
Karl Kramer
Kevin Newton
Patrick Pridemore
Eric Davis
Trumpet
Wayne Dumaine
Sam Jones
Nabate Isles
Trombone
Chris Mcintyre
Mark Patterson
Zach Neikens
Tuba
Ray Stewart
Timpani
Jonathan Haas
Percussion
Javier Diaz
Charles Descarfino
Shiqi Zhang
Harp
Susan Jolles
Piano
Chris Oldfather
Librarian
Harrison Joyce
Personnel Manager
Jonathan Haas
ACO BOARD & STAFF
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sameera Troesch
Chair
Jonathan Bailey Holland
Vice Chair
Frederick Wertheim
Immediate Past-Chair
Melissa Ngan
President & CEO
Derek Bermel
Artistic Director
Michael Fehrman
Treasurer
Marilyn Go
Secretary
Astrid Baumgardner
Jane Cavalier
Philip Glass
Augusta Gross
Benjamin Hildner
Tess Mateo
Annette McEvoy
Samir Nikocevic
Geoffroy van Raemdonck
Michael J. Russell
Deborah Sherman
Karen Slack
Toyin Spellman-Diaz
Melinda Wagner
ADMINISTRATION
Melissa Ngan
President & CEO
Derek Bermel
Artistic Director
Steven Behr
Operations & Production Manager
Aiden K. Feltkamp
Emerging Composers & Diversity Director
Garrett McQueen
Director of Artist Equity
Kevin James
Director of Education
Lyndsay Werking
Director of Development
Sydney Cusic
Development Associate
Jensen Artists
Public Relations Consultant
ABOUT EARSHOT
EarShot, an initiative of American Composers Orchestra (ACO) in partnership with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA, is the nation’s first ongoing program for identifying and promoting the most promising orchestral composers on the national stage. ACO’s artistic and administrative staff collaborates with participating orchestras, assisting with planning, program design, and execution. EarShot residencies include mentorship from the most accomplished orchestral composers in the country, orchestra readings, and musician and conductor feedback sessions. The program is customized to each host orchestra’s aesthetic, demographic, community, and educational interests.
EarShot Partners:
American Composers Orchestra (ACO), founded in 1977, is dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by American composers. With a commitment to diversity, disruption, and discovery, ACO produces concerts, middle school through college composer education programs, and composer advancement programs to foster a community of creators, audience, performers, collaborators, and funders. ACO identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music.
American Composers Forum envisions a world where living music creators are celebrated as essential to human culture. We are leading catalysts in an ecosystem that invites generations of composers, artists, advocates, and audiences to pursue this vision with us. Our Mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art.
League of American Orchestras leads, encourages, and supports America’s orchestras while communicating to the public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform. The League’s vision is to be a transformative and unifying force for the orchestra field—a catalyst for understanding and innovation, a place for conversations that matter, and a champion for orchestras.
New Music USA is the result of the merger between the American Music Center and Meet The Composer. Its mission to increase opportunities for composers, performers, and audiences is advanced through two basic kinds of activity: Support and Promotion. By providing financial and other support, it enables composers and other musical artists to create the new work that is the beating heart of our musical culture.
EARSHOT ALUMNI
Andy Akiho*
Andrea Chamizo Alberro
Mark Applebaum
Katherine Balch
Carlos Bandera*
Juan José Barcenas
Anthony Barrese
Jeremy Beck
Lembit Beecher*
Derek Bermel*
Emmanuel Berrido
Lisa Bielawa*
Andrew Bleckner
Jonathan Blumhoffer
Philippe Bodin
Daniel Bradshaw
Vincent Calianno*
Clifton Callendar
Rodrigo Castro
Ryan Chase+
Janet Jieru Chen
Lily Chen
Yihan Chen
Anthony Cheung
Louis Chiappetta
Nicolas Chuaqui
Jiyoun Chung
Anna Clyne*
Dan Coleman*
Cindy Cox
Juan Cuellar
Nathan Currier
Sebastian Currier*
James Diaz
Nick DiBerardino
Sakari Dixan
Vanderveer*
Michael Djupstrom
Mario Duarte
Melody Eötvös*
Tyler Echendal
Roshanne Etezady
Peter Fahey*
Horacio Fernández Vázquez
Michael Fiday*
inti figgis-viggis
Keith Fitch
Jennifer Fitzgerald
Michael-Thomas Foumai
Ivor Francis
Jason Freeman*
Kenneth Froelich
Paul Frucht+
Matthew Fuerst
Ruby Fulton*
Lee Gannon
Stacy Garrop
Robert Gates
Michael Gatonska*
Ralf Gawlick
Marisol Gentile
Sarah Gibson
Chambliss Giobbi
Anthony R. Green
Joshua Groffman
Robert Gross
Saad Haddad*
Matthew Halper
Amanda Harberg
Marian L. Harrison Stephens
Yuanyuan (Kay) He
Rafael Hernandez
David Hertzberg*
Jennifer Higdon*
Robert Honstein
Chia-yu Hsu
Jack Hughes*
Lance Hulme
Kenichi Ikuno
Deniz Ince
Takuma Itoh
Pierre Jalbert*
Jesse Jones
Paul Kerekes
Chris Kaufman
Daniel Kellogg
Martin Kennedy
Jihyun Kim*
Amy Kirsten*
John Kline
Emily Koh
Jiyoung Ko
Mukai Kôhei
Chelsea Komschlies
Matti Kovler
Jordan Kuspa
Kristin Kuster*
Sally Lamb
Spencer Lambright
Hannah Lash*
Andrew McKenna Lee
Paul Yeon Lee*
Scott Lee
Daniel Leo
Arthur Levering
Aaron Levin+
Leonard Lewis
Xinyan Li
Matthew Lima
Pin Hsin Lin
Erica Lindsay
Ryan Lindveit
Marina López
Piyawat Louilapprosert
Fang Man*
Robert Manthey
José G. Martínez R.
James Matheson
Scott McAllister
A.J. McCaffrey*
Lansing D. McLoskey
Clay Mettens
Jared Miller
Tamar Muskal
Xavier Muzik
Jeff Myers
Brian Raphael Nabors*
Eric Nathan
Polina Nazaykinskaya
Clint Needham*
Jeffrey Nevin
Jonathan Newman
Nathan Nokes
Paul Novak
Thomas Osborne
Norbert Palej
Carter Pann*
Milica Paranosic*
Robert Paterson
Jules Pegram
Joshua Penman
Joseph Pereira
P.Q. Phan*
Narong Prangcharoen*+
Paola Prestini*
Leanna Primiani
Robert Przytulski
Hilary Purrington*
Christian Quiñones
David Rakowski*
Marco-Adrián Ramos
Gity Razaz*
Andrea Reinkemeyer
Paul Richards
Sid Richardson
Carlos Rivera
Brian Robison*
Diana M. Rodriguez
John Fitz Rogers
Rodney Rogers
Ricardo Romaneiro+
Manly Romero*
Kyle Rotolo+
Daniel Bernard Roumain*
Paul Rudy
- Bryan Rulon
Huang Ruo*
Joel Rust
Eric Samuelson
Carlos Sanchez-Guiterre
Felicia Sandler
Igor Santos
Steven Sérpa
Tomas Peire Serrate+
Carl Schimmel
Sophia Serghi
Joseph Sheehan
Hsueh-Yung Shen*
Arlene Sierra
Carlos Simon*
Reynold Simpson
Michael Small
Brian Smith
Nicky Sohn
Kate Soper*
Keane Southard
Peter Spande
Gregory Spears*
Haralabos Stafylakis
Christopher Stark*
Ryan Streber
David Stovall
Benjamin Taylor
Stephen Taylor*
Zhou Tian
Anothony Tidd
Alexander Timofeev+
Matthew Tommasini
Christopher Trapani*
Thomas Tumulty
Ken Ueno
Liliya Ugay
Si Hyun Uhm
Daniel Visconti*
Melinda Wagner*
Wang A Mao*
Xi Wang*
Yucong Wang
Dalit Warshaw
Anna Weesner*
Dai Wei*
Jude Weirmeir
Stefan Weisman
Conrad Winslow*
Gregg Wramage
Randall Woolf*
Daniel Worley
Sam Wu
Kitty Xiao
Reiko Yamada
Kerwin Young
Nina C. Young+
Roger Zare*
Qinru Zhou
* Programmed/commissioned by ACO
+ Recipient of Audience Choice Award
DONORS AND SUPPORTERS
DONOR LIST
American Composers Orchestra is grateful to the many organizations and individuals who support our programs. Donations of $500 and above are included here. For our full list of donors, please visit www.americancomposers.org.
Francis Thorne Fund for Young and Emerging Composers
$100,000 or more
Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust
The Edward T. Cone Foundation
Peter and Mary Heller
Ellen and James S. Marcus
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thomas
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood
Institutional Supporters
Aaron Copland Fund for Music
Alice M. Ditson Fund
Amphion Foundation
ASCAP Foundation
BMI Foundation
BMI Inc
Cheswatyr Foundation
Communities Foundation of Texas
Edward T. Cone Foundation
Deutsche Bank
Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation
Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust
Fromm Music Foundation
Hearst Foundation Inc.
Howard Gilman Foundation
Jephson Educational Trusts
League of American Orchestras
Mellon Foundation
Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas)
National Endowment for the Arts
New Music USA
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
New York State Council on the Arts
Pacific Harmony Foundation
Rexford Fund
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Schlam Stone & Dolan LLP
Steven R. Gerber Trust
U.S Small Business Administration
Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
Individual Supporters
Francis Thorne Society
$25,000 or more
Anonymous
Ellen and James S. Marcus
Leadership Circle
$10,000-$24,999
Melanie and John Clarke
Marilyn D. Go and Richard Dolan
Tess Mateo and Gary Brewster
Samir Nikocevic and Charles Taylor
Susan and Elihu Rose
Michael J. Russell and Christina F. Russell
Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting
Frederick Wertheim and Angelo Chan
Benefactor
$5,000–$9,999
Astrid and John Baumgardner
Benjamin Hildner
Linda and Stuart Nelson
David and Krystyna Newman
Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation
Sameera and Christian Troesch
Patron
$1,000–$4,999
Anonymous
Jane Cavalier
NancyBell Coe
Dan Coleman
Lois Conway
Dennis Russell Davies
Scott Dunn
Danny Elfman
Michael Fehrman and Andrea Luciano
Lor and Michael Gehret
Philip Glass
Eugenie Cowan Havemeyer
Matthew D. Hoffman and Donald R. Crawshaw
Yolanda F. Johnson
John J. Kerr, Jr. and Nora Wren Kerr
Duncan and Nancy MacMillan
Yvonne Marcuse
Annette McEvoy and Harold Bronheim
Alfred P. Moore
Melissa Ngan
Yimin Ngan
Melanie and David Niemiec
Elmar Oliveira and Sandra Robbins
Dennis Powers
Sara Eisner Richter and Michael Richter
Jesse Rosen
Geoffroy van Raemdonck
Robert D. Taisey
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thomas
Jeffrey and Terilynn Walsh
Mr. and Mrs. Albert K. Webster
Maria Watson and David Reid
Donor
$500–$999
Derek Bermel and Andreia Pinto Correia
Thomas and Kamala Buckner
Diane Britz Lotti
Ralph S. and Elizabeth A. R. Brown
Bruce Bush and Judith Johnston
Anthony B. Creamer III
Norma Cirincione
Laura Conwesser
Pamela Drexel
Stephan Farber
Lynda Gould
Jonathan Bailey Holland
Susan Jolles
Peter Kroll
Jesun Paik
Inmo and Michael Parloff
Alexandra and Frederick Peters
Darrell Prescott
Jennifer and John Scribner
Anne-Marie Soulliere & Lindsey C.Y. Kiang
Toyin Spellman-Diaz
Paul Sperry
Judith R. and Michael E. Thoyer
Melinda Wagner and James Saporito
Lyndsay Werking and Peter Yip
Edward Yim and Erick Neher
ACO Commission Club 2021-2022 in support of Carlos Simon’s AMEN!
Pamela Drexel
Anthony Fogg
Thomas J. Griffin*
Diane Williams and Wolfgang Neumann
* indicates a sponsor for an ACO student memberships
List as of June 15, 2022
