MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA OPENS CALL FOR SCORES FOR 2027 COMPOSER INSTITUTE

Composer Institute offers opportunity for emerging composers to participate in four-day residency in Minneapolis, join mentoring sessions with composer Kevin Puts and hear their work performed by Music Director Thomas Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra 

 Application deadline is June 15, 2026 

The Minnesota Orchestra is now accepting applications for its 2027 Composer Institute, a unique opportunity for emerging composers to hear their work performed by Music Director Thomas Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra in a Future Classics concert on Friday, April 30, 2027. Selected Composer Institute participants will travel to Minneapolis for a four-day residency in April 2027 that also involves mentoring sessions with Søndergård and Composer Institute Director Kevin Puts, as well as a variety of practical music industry sessions, including with Universal Music Publishing Classics & Screen and Ricordi New York. Applications are due by June 15, 2026.

Interested composers are invited to submit up to two scores, each of which should not exceed 15 minutes. Recordings of submitted works are encouraged. Works should not include featured soloists or vocal soloists but may include solo parts within the piece. More application information is available at: https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/composerinstitute.

Four composers will be selected for the 2027 program and notified in the fall of 2026. 

Launched in 2002, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute—led by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts since 2015—has grown into one of the most respected programs of its kind in the U.S., with alumni of the Institute including Grammy Award nominees Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzoli and Zhou Tian, and Pulitzer Prize nominees Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne and Michael Gilbertson. 

Program participants will experience a multi-day immersion in the artistic life of the Orchestra, attending working sessions with Søndergård and Puts, honing public presentation skills and meeting with Orchestra music library staff and Ricordi/Universal Music Publishing professionals to assist in preparing scores and instrumental parts. The experience will culminate in a “Future Classics” concert at 8 p.m., Friday, April 30, 2027, led by Søndergård, featuring the emerging composers’ scores at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Composers will have the opportunity to introduce their music from the stage. All works will be recorded and subsequently released on YouTube.

About Kevin Puts 

A Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner, Kevin Puts is one of America’s leading composers, receiving commissions and performances from the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, and collaborating with artists such as Renée Fleming, Joshua Bell, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Marin Alsop. His opera The Hours was such a triumph when it premiered at the Met in 2022 that the company revived it in the next season. His breakthrough opera Silent Night—for which he won a 2012 Pulitzer Prize—was premiered in 2011 by the Minnesota Opera. Puts is a member of the composition faculty at the Peabody Institute and currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Juilliard School. His collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra on the Composer Institute began in 2015. 

About the Minnesota Orchestra 

Founded in 1903, the Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra is known for acclaimed performances in its home state and around the world; award-winning educational programs; and a commitment to building the orchestral repertoire of tomorrow, all based on the belief that music is for everyone. Each year, Minnesota Orchestra concerts and recordings are seen and heard by more than 2.5 million people via television, radio, digital streaming and on-demand platforms. Led by Music Director Thomas Søndergård, the Orchestra makes its home in the heart of downtown Minneapolis at Orchestra Hall, a venue renowned for its brilliant acoustics and modern design.

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