Performances & Events

Audiences are invited to observe a collaborative session with orchestra, composers, and choreographers/dancers.The Next Festival’s 2023 Choreographer, Composer and Performance Fellows premiere new music and dance works, intermingling the world premiere of ACO EarShot compositions with a works-in-progress dance showing. This is the culmination of a week-long workshop, consisting of rehearsals, collaboration and spontaneous creation. ACO’s EarShot is the nation’s first ongoing program for creating relationships between orchestras and composers, in partnership with American Composers Forum, League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. Composer Mentors, the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis and “strikingly original” (The New York Times) Kamala Sankaram, along with Festival A.D. Peter Askim, will guide ACO’s Earshot Composer Fellows Michael R. Dudley Jr., Emil Ernström, and Akari Komura in the creation of new music. These new pieces will be played by the Festival’s String Performance Fellows. Choreography Mentor Sidra Bell will lead Choreographer Fellows Flora Ferguson, Jay Beardsley, and Ameeya Singh in the development of new dance work, in collaboration with EarShot Composer Fellows and String Performance Fellows.