Performances & Events

ACO’s Composer to Composer Talks are intergenerational discussions, which will begin by listening to and exploring a featured work selected by one of the composers, with one composer interviewing the other. Composer pairings have been inspired by existing collaborative, and student-mentor relationships between the writers. Volume One runs from October 21, 2020 through January 27, 2021 and includes composers George Lewis, Courtney Bryan, and Damon Holzborn (October 21); Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Kerwin Young (December 2); William Bolcom and Gabriela Lena Frank (January 13); and John Corigliano and Mason Bates (January 27).Attendees will gain insight to each work’s genesis, sound, and influence on the American orchestral canon, and will be invited to ask questions of the artists. Events will be live-streamed and available for on-demand viewing for seven days following the live event. The conversations will also be archived by Oral History of American Music (OHAM) within Yale University’s Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. Single tickets are available on a sliding scale of $15-30; subscriptions will range from $45-$90 for four events.Composer to Composer Talks – Volume One Schedule:October 21, 2020 at 5pm ET: George Lewis’s Virtual Concerto with George Lewis, Courtney Bryan, Damon HolzbornCourtney Bryan and Damon Holzborn talk with George Lewis about his Virtual Concerto from 2004, a piece for improvising computer piano soloist and orchestra.December 2, 2020 at 5pm ET: Chen Yi and Zhou Long’s Symphony “Humen 1839”with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Kerwin YoungKerwin Young talks with Chen Yi and Zhou Long about their co-composed work, Symphony “Humen 1839,” from 2009. The work commemorates the public burning of over 1000 tons of opium, an event which led to the First Opium War between Great Britain and China.January 13, 2021 at 5pm ET: William Bolcom’s Symphony No. 9with William Bolcom and Gabriela Lena FrankGabriela Lena Frank talks with William Bolcom about his Symphony No. 9, from 2012, of which Bolcom writes, “Today our greatest enemy is our inability to listen to each other, which seems to worsen with time. All we hear now is shouting, and nobody is listening because the din is so great. Yet there is a ‘still, small voice’ that refuses to disappear…I pin my hope on that voice. I search for it daily in life and in music – and possibly the ‘Ninth Symphony’ is a search for that soft sound.”January 27, 2021 at 5pm ET: John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1With John Corigliano and Mason BatesMason Bates talks with John Corigliano about his Symphony No. 1 from 1989, composed while he was in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Inspired in part by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the symphony seeks to memorialize Corigliano’s friends and colleagues who were lost during the AIDS crisis.