June 16, 2009
5 min read

Scores scores scores...

One of the most incredible things about opening up a call for scores is that you realize how many composers there really are out there. Unlike singers, performers, actors (some of whom are also composers...) the act of composition happens almost entirely behind closed doors and in solitude. When ACO, or EarShot, sends out the word that they are accepting submissions for a reading the response never fails to surprise. My phone starts ringing constantly with people calling from every state and towns I've never even heard of. There are composers everywhere.


It brings to mind a concert I went to a year or so ago which featured Tania Leon conducting the Chicago Sinfonietta. The idea was for her to lead the group in a survey of women composers. She did one better and focused on living women composers. Between pieces she talked to the audience in her typically casual and inviting way. One thing she said struck me then, and seems even truer now that I'm receiving scores for these orchestra readings: "Composers are everywhere," she said. "They are your mailman, your accountant, and your next door neighbor."
Without being too dreamy-eyed about it, as I look over the stacks and stacks of scores that are sitting on the floor in my office it is both surprising and encouraging to know that there are so many people working with such dilligence and craft on new music for the orchestra. Teaching an old dog new tricks.
-John Glover, Ops Manager

images:
1. some of the scores submitted for the Colorado EarShot Readings in my office.


American Composers Orchestra is grateful to the many organizations that make its programs possible including Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Fund, Altman Foundation, Amphion Foundation, Benevity, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, BMI Foundation, BMI, Inc., Charity Navigator's Giving Basket, Cheswatyr Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ford Foundation’s Good Neighbor Committee, Give Lively, Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust, Fromm Music Foundation, Steven R. Gerber Trust, G. Schirmer/Wise Music Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund, Jephson Educational Trusts, Jerome Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New Music USA’s Organization Fund, The New York Community Trust (Musical Arts Fund, Clara Lewisohn Rossin Trust, and Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund), Pacific Harmony Foundation, Paypal Giving Fund, Rexford Fund, Sphinx Venture Fund, TD Charitable Foundation, Turrell Fund, UKOGF Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Corporate gifts to match employee contributions are made by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Triton Container International Incorporated of North America, and Neiman Marcus.

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, Office of Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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