Composer Institute
The Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, co-presented each season by the Minnesota Orchestra and American Composers Forum, provides the opportunity for emerging symphonic composers from across the nation to participate in an intensive immersion into the world of a major American symphony orchestra. Directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, the 11th annual Composer Institute ran from January 2 to 7, 2012, highlighted by the sixth annual Future Classics concert of works by this year's six featured composers, conducted by Osmo Vänskä.
2011-12 Composer Institute Concert: Osmo Vänskä Conducts Future Classics
Friday, January 6, 2012, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
| BRIAN CIACH Bloomington, Indiana |
Collective Uncommon, Seven Orchestral Studies on Medical Oddities |
| MICHAEL R. HOLLOWAY Saint Paul, Minnesota |
Rhythm: Theta Beta Theta |
| ADRIAN KNIGHT Brooklyn, New York |
Manchester |
| HANNAH LASH New York City, New York |
God Music Bug Music |
| ANDREIA PINTO-CORREIA Boston, Massachusetts |
Xántara |
| SHEN YIWEN New York City, New York |
First Orchestral Essay |
Click here for program notes and composer profiles (PDF)
Composer Institute participant Hannah Lash's blog
Read composer Hannah Lash's daily blog reports from the 2011-12 Composer Institute, posted on NewMusicBox.org.
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
About the 2011-12 Composer Institute participants
Brian Ciach’s music has been premiered across the U.S., as well as in Germany and Italy, and has won recognition from such organizations as the National Federation of Music Clubs and American Liszt Society. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Indiana University, where he was also an associate instructor in music theory, and is active as a pianist specializing in performing new music. The Orchestra will perform his Collective Uncommon, Seven Orchestral Studies on Medical Oddities.
Michael R. Holloway writes music for concerts, television, film and radio, and has also spent time working with dancers and installations. His compositions combine a classical aesthetic with interests in the natural world, mathematics and physics. His recent works include Cantor, a string quartet exploring the mathematical theorems of Georg Cantor. He is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition at the McNally Smith College of Music. The Orchestra will perform his Rhythm: Theta Beta Theta.
Adrian Knight’s music has been performed across the East Coast and in Sweden. He has received grants from STIM and the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, as well as two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. He holds degrees from the Royal College of Music and Yale School of Music. Since 2008 he has operated the record label Pink Pamphlet. The Orchestra will perform his Manchester.
Hannah Lash has received numerous honors and prizes, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a past participant in the American Composers Orchestra’s Underwood New Music Readings; her chamber opera Blood Rose was recently presented by New York City Opera’s VOX. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University. The Orchestra will perform her God Music Bug Music.
Andreia Pinto-Correia’s music is distinguished by influences of Iberian folk traditions, particularly Arab-Andalusian poetic forms. Highlights of her upcoming season include the Carnegie Hall premiere of a work commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, and a residency with Portuguese chamber orchestra OrchestrUtópica. She is now working on her first opera. She is a teaching fellow and doctoral candidate at the New England Conservatory. The Orchestra will perform her Xantara.
Composer-pianist Shen Yiwen’s works have been performed by the Albany, American and Beijing Symphony Orchestras, De Capo Chamber Players, Colorado String Quartet, Talea Ensemble and Music from China Ensemble, among other ensembles. He is one of the first graduates from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where he earned degrees in music composition and German studies; he is now a graduate student at the Juilliard School. The Orchestra will perform his First Orchestral Essay.
Click here to read the press release announcing the selection of the 2012 Composer Institute participants.
More about the Composer Institute
The Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute is unique in the nation in its combination of orchestral rehearsals, public performance, and numerous targeted workshops with leading music industry professionals on musical, career, business and professional development issues. The Institute nurtures the participants’ musical acumen and broadens their career management skills, assisting in their growth as artists and community leaders. Seminar topics include many not offered elsewhere, including advanced instrumental and orchestral writing, copyrights, commissioning, licensing, publishing, promotion, music preparation, public speaking, working with conductors and union orchestras, community residencies, CD and media production, and working in educational settings, among others.
“The week at the Composer Institute was one of the best weeks in my life,” says Ming-Hsiu Yen, a 2008 Institute participant. “The first-rate music education system in the United States is what brought me here from Taiwan, and the conservatory training that I received has been invaluable in making me a better musician. There has been nothing, however, that could compare to what I learned in a week at the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.”
The Composer Institute is an outgrowth of the Orchestra’s “Perfect Pitch” program, an annual series of new music reading sessions for Minnesota composers launched during the 1995-96 season in collaboration with the American Composers Forum. Perfect Pitch was reformulated in 2001 as the Composer Institute, as the program’s focus broadened and national participation was invited.
Click here for information about past Composer Institutes.
About the 2011-12 Composer Institute leaders and seminar faculty
Composer Institute Director Aaron Jay Kernis, who founded the Institute in 2002, has enjoyed a close association with the Minnesota Orchestra since 1992; for ten seasons he served as the Orchestra’s new music advisor. His music is featured prominently on orchestral, chamber and recital programs around the world, and America’s foremost musical institutions and soloists have commissioned his work, from the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra to Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming. Among his many honors are a Pulitzer Prize and a Grawemeyer Award.
Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, now in his ninth season as the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director, has drawn acclaim for his performances with the Orchestra in Minnesota as well as on four major European tours and in concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. His recording projects with the Orchestra have also met with great success. He is in demand as a guest conductor of leading orchestras in the U.S., Europe and Japan. For 20 years he was music director of Finland’s Lahti Symphony. He began his career as a clarinetist, holding major posts with the Helsinki and Turku Philharmonic Orchestras.
Roger Frisch became a member of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1974 and was appointed associate concertmaster in 1995. He has been featured as soloist with the Orchestra in repertoire by composers ranging from Vivaldi to Corigliano, and he frequently appears as soloist with other orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. His e-book, The Orchestra Audition: How to Prepare, was published in 2003.
Ed Harsh was appointed president of Meet the Composer in 2007, after having served as vice president since 2005. He has 15 years of professional experience in the arts as program director, development officer, composer, teacher and writer. A founding member of the Common Sense Composer Collective, he has composed commissioned works for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles, and he has authored 20 published items.
William Holab owns Bill Holab Music, which engraves music and provides additional services for composers and publishers. It is the publishing agent for such composers as Richard Danielpour, Michael Daugherty and Michael Torke. He studied as a composer at the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School, has worked for several publishing firms and is an authority on plate engraving and the translation of its principles to computer-based note setting.
Attorney James M. Kendrick specializes in intellectual property matters with an emphasis on the music and audio-visual industries. He has acted as president of Schott Music/European American Music since 2002. He serves as a director and/or secretary for several institutions including the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and the Koussevitzky Music Foundations. Before studying law, he was trained as an oboist and helped found European American Music.
Kathy Kienzle joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1993 and became principal harp the following year. A frequent soloist with the Orchestra, she has premiered two major works: Rautavaara’s Harp Concerto and, with Sir James Galway, Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute and Harp. She has made two CDs with flutist Michele Frisch: O Bell’ Alma: Music from the Opera and La Belle Vie.
Peter Kogan was appointed principal timpani of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1986. He has been featured as soloist with the Orchestra in works of Schiff and Shchedrin. In 2009 he collaborated with Minnesota-based sculptor and artist Brian Leo to design and build historical replicas of a pair of Classical timpani, based on scholarly research and designed specifically for the Classical repertoire of Haydn through Schubert. Their success has led Kogan to build additional sets for sale under the name "Klassischewienerpauken™."
Brian Mount joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1997 and was named principal percussion in 1999. He has been part of chamber ensembles at several Orchestra concerts and was a soloist in recent seasons in works of Shchedrin and Peck. He spent four seasons as principal percussion of the Honolulu Symphony and has also performed with the National Repertory Orchestra.
John Nuechterlein has been president and CEO of the American Composers Forum since 2003. He is responsible for the strategic leadership and overall management of the national organization based in St. Paul, and provides oversight of its independent chapters. With a background in finance and marketing, he brings to the Forum more than 15 years of corporate management experience. He also serves on the board of Minnesota Citizen for the Arts.
Frank J. Oteri is the composer advocate at the American Music Center and the founding editor of its web magazine NewMusicBox, which has been online since 1999. A crusader for new music and the breaking down of barriers between genres, he has written for many publications and has hosted several music series. His own compositions have been performed in the U.S. and abroad.
Stephen Paulus has written 50-plus works for orchestra, ten operas and more than 200 choral works. He has been commissioned by such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra, and his operas have been performed by companies across the U.S. He is a co-founder of the American Composers Forum, and his music is published by his own firm, Paulus Publications, Inc., and by Schott Music Corp. of New York.
Composer Alex Shapiro’s acoustic and electro-acoustic chamber music is performed and broadcast across the U.S. and internationally. Her music is published by Activist Music, and is featured on more than 20 commercially-released CDs. An accomplished pianist, she is also an active guitarist. She was educated at the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, and has received many national honors and awards.
Composer Steven Stucky, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music, has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras and ensembles. He has taught at Cornell University since 1980, where he serves as Given Foundation professor of composition. He has also been associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than 20 years, and currently serves as consulting composer for new music.
Principal Viola Thomas Turner, a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1994, appears regularly with the Orchestra as soloist, performing such works as Berlioz’ Harold in Italy and Strauss’ Don Quixote in recent seasons. Before arriving in Minnesota he was principal viola of the Berlin Radio Symphony for 11 seasons.
We gratefully acknowledge the American Composers Forum as our partner in presenting the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
