March 11 - Carnegie Hall Presents the American Composers Orchestra in Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us

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 Carnegie Hall Presents the American Composers Orchestra in Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us – March 11 

Led by Carolyn Kuan, ACO Commemorates the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Featuring Artists’ Musical Open Letters to America 

World Premieres: Joseph C. Phillips Jr.’s We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident; Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America, Featuring Soprano Karen Slack; Kite’s Cosmologyscape; and Shelley Washington’s Haymaker, Featuring Cellist Amanda Gookin

Plus, the New York Premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Procession,
featuring Percussionist Cynthia Yeh

"...exactly the band you want for complex new orchestral music..." – Classical Voice America 

www.americancomposers.org

New York, NY (February 4, 2026) –  On Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 7:30 PM, Carnegie Hall presents the American Composers Orchestra in Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us at Zankel Hall, part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. The program, which commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, focuses on artists’ musical open letters to America. These works reflect narratives around the summer homes of turn-of-the-century Black folk, Lakota Dream Kit symbology, unspoken emotions, rituals of celebration, and the writings of historic and current Black American women. 

Led by conductor Carolyn Kuan, this program features ACO commissions developed through EarShot CoLABoratory Residencies, which advance the work of composers whose work is experimental and/or rooted in musical traditions underrepresented in the orchestral repertoire. Over the course of a year, CoLABoratory provides a generative environment for composers from any and all musical backgrounds to create definition-expanding works for orchestra. Instead of a call for scores, composers are selected through a call for ideas to be developed in partnership with the orchestra through an artist-led process. The Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us program includes the world premiere of Joseph C. Phillips Jr.’s We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall); the world premiere of Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America (co-commissioned by Durham Symphony Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony), featuring soprano Karen Slack; the world premiere of Kite’s Cosmologyscape; the world premiere of Shelley Washington’s Haymaker, featuring cellist Amanda Gookin; and the New York premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Procession, featuring percussionist Cynthia Yeh.

We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (2025) is a four-movement Composition commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the American Composers Orchestra. Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us features the first two movements, along with a film by Malik Isasis, commissioned to accompany the premiere performance. The composition is part of a series of orchestral, choral, and chamber works which, while tied to various subjects in Phillips Jr.’s ongoing eight-opera 1619 cycle about the history of the U.S., also represent distinct, independent addenda and companions to the operas. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident highlights ideas of freedom for Black Americans within the country’s systemic inequalities and inequities—an expansion of the theme of the second opera in the cycle, Till Paths Be Wrought Through Wilds, which is currently being composed. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident’s first movement, “The Great Silence,” reflects physical aspects of freedom, inspired by Black-owned resorts and leisure spaces of the late 19th century through the 1970s. The second movement, “Stealing Away,” is inspired by spiritual aspects of freedom and those places–both internal and external–where one goes to understand the world and one’s place in it.

Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America (2025) was composed for soprano Karen Slack, featuring text composed by Traci Neal, A Memi Sei, and Green, co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, Durham Symphony Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony. “What would it feel like?” Green questions. “What beauty would emerge from the pain, frustration, and radical imagination of Black Women if our voices were heard, valued, and uplifted?” Letters to America is a four-movement work for soprano and orchestra that places the voices of present-day Black women in conversation with the Declaration of Independence through community-sourced letters. Through these pairings, the piece reclaims the agency and humanity of Black women past and present. It de-centers the voice of empire and re-centers the resistance and resilience of the very women whose labor and sacrifice have built and maintained this country. The significance of this work on the heels of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and its presentation in the classical space—a place that has excluded and diminished the artistic contributions of Black women—cannot be understated. 

Cosmologyscape (2025), written and performed by Kite alongside the improvisatory Cosmologyscape Ensemble, is a piece based on Black and Indigenous dreaming techniques, ways of knowing and creating which have survived slavery and genocide. “Cosmolologyscape.com uses 26 symbols to allow the dreamer to understand their dreams,” Kite states. “Lakota symbols are used for moving dreams from the other world into this one, and the African American symbols are used to communicate information for liberation and for remembering ancestry. Dreams that are submitted on Cosmolologyscape.com are translated into symbolic parameters that offer medicinal teas, and are carried into a dream score that unfolds them as a collective sonic dream through performance."

Shelley Washington’s Haymaker (2025) receives its world premiere on this program, featuring cello soloist Amanda Gookin, performing on cello as well as kick drum. Developed through the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot CoLABoratory Residency program, Washington’s 15-minute Haymaker takes its inspiration from an original poem of the same name, written by the composer—a celebration of female solidarity as survival and self-definition, set against systems that demand strength only on their own terms. 

Procession by Jessie Montgomery (2024, rev. 2026) was inspired by the idea of how people organize and participate in variations of processionals, including religious, political, celebratory, births, deaths, war, or fights for freedom. These rituals of synchronized movement and chant signify change, or a desire to do so. “We push on through, push it along, raise our fists and open our hearts to the rhythm. Pride is validated, and catharsis is set in motion by a steady march and unwavering calls and shouts,” Montgomery says. “I wanted to capture aspects of that steadiness and relentlessness.” The piece is in five sections, each exploring a different interpretation of this collective march, or procession, from melodic evocation to driving militaristic marches and bell choirs, fife and drum calls, and back again. The percussion soloist plays a dual role with their counterparts in the orchestra—sometimes as the leader and sometimes the follower of the call and response themes throughout—demonstrating the unique role percussion can play as both a blending color and the sheer sonic power it has to overtake the orchestra.

Program:
American Composers Orchestra Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/03/11/American-Composers-Orchestra-0730PM

Program:
Shelley Washington – Haymaker [World Premiere; ACO Commission, developed via EarShot CoLABoratory]
Joseph C. Phillips Jr. – We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident [World Premiere; Co-Commissioned by Carnegie Hall and ACO, developed via EarShot CoLABoratory]
Brittany J. Green – Letters to America [World Premiere; ACO Commission, developed via EarShot CoLABoratory]
Kite – Cosmologyscape [World Premiere; ACO Commission, developed via EarShot CoLABoratory]
Jessie Montgomery – Procession for solo percussionist and orchestra [New York Premiere]

American Composers Orchestra
Carolyn Kuan, Conductor
Karen Slack, Soprano
Amanda Gookin, Cello
Cynthia Yeh, Percussion
Cosmologyscape Ensemble 

About American Composers Orchestra
In 1977, a collective of fearless New York City musicians came together to form the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), an ensemble dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by American composers. With nearly 50 years committed to artistry, creativity, community, and equity, ACO has blossomed into a national institution that not only cultivates and develops the careers of living composers but also provides composers a direct pipeline to partnerships with many of America’s major symphony orchestras.

In addition to its annual season, presented by Carnegie Hall since 1987, the ACO serves as a New York City hub where the most forward-thinking experimental American musicians come together to hone and realize new art by developing talent, established composers, and underrepresented voices, increasing the regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music. ACO produces national educational programs for all ages, and composer advancement programs to foster a community of creators, audience, performers, collaborators, and funders – all dedicated to American composition.

To date, ACO has performed music by 800 American composers, including over 350 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Recent and notable commissioned composers include John Luther Adams, Andy Akiho, Clarice Assad, Carlos Bandera, Courtney Bryan, Valerie Coleman, Dai Wei, Du Yun, inti figgis-vizueta, Marcus Gilmore, Vijay Iyer, Yvette Janine Jackson, Joan La Barbara, Steve Lehman, Tania León, Paula Matthusen, Trevor New, Mendi Keith Obadike, Ellen Reid, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Carlos Simon, Henry Threadgill, and many more.

Now encompassing all of ACO’s composer advancement initiatives, EarShot is the first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on the national level. Through orchestral readings, CoLABoratory fellowships, consortium commissions, publishing, and professional development, EarShot ensures a vibrant musical future by investing in creativity today. Serving over 350 composers since its inception, ACO Readings in NYC began in 1991, and since 2008, national Readings have been offered in partnership with orchestras across the country in collaboration with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. EarShot Readings composers have gone on to win every major composition award, including the Pulitzer, GRAMMY®, Grawemeyer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Rome Prizes.

ACO’s world premiere recording of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s An American Soldier, released in May 2025 on Platoon, was nominated for a 2026 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Performance, marking the first GRAMMY® nomination in ACO’s history. Of the album, Gramophone Magazine wrote, “In this excellent premiere recording, An American Soldier emerges as powerful as any – and may well be with us for a long time, thanks to the libretto’s larger sociological perspectives coupled with the music’s high-octane conviction.”

ACO has received numerous awards for its work, including those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI Foundation, Inc., recognizing the orchestra’s outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded ACO its annual prize for adventurous programming 35 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States.” ACO received the inaugural MetLife Award for Excellence in Audience Engagement and a proclamation from the New York City Council.  Learn more at www.americancomposers.org.

*Photo Credits: Carolyn Kuan by Charlie Schuck, Amanda Gookin by Julia Comita, Cynthia Yeh by Todd Rosenberg, Karen Slack by Kia Caldwell

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We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident by Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Letters to America by Brittany J. Green, Cosmologyscape by Kite, and Haymaker by Shelley Washington were developed through the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot CoLABoratory program, with lead funding from TD Charitable Foundation.

Cosmologyscape for orchestra is commissioned by the Thomas family in honor of Dave Thomas's 70th birthday. The score generating engine at https://cosmologyscape.com/dream/add?location=carnegie-hall is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Wihanble S'a Center for Indigenous AI at Bard College, the Wagner Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts, and Abundant Intelligences (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, New Frontiers Research Fund).

The commission of Haymaker is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support for Haymaker was provided by the Jerome Foundation.

We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident by Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. was co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, and is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Letters to America was co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra with the support of Elizabeth & Justus Schlichting and Nina Wells, Durham Symphony Orchestra with support from The Clinton Family Fund and the City of Durham, and New Jersey Symphony.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Councilmember Julie Menin, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

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., CANVAS, 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, Peter Michael Gray Fund, Jephson Educational Trusts, Jerome Foundation, Koret Foundation, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, 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, and the 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.