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Press Releases
March 31: Meredith Monk & Missy Mazzoli in Composer to Composer Talk with American Composers Orchestra; New Professional Development Panels
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Press Contact: Christina Jensen, Jensen Artists
646.536.7864 x1 or christina@jensenartists.
American Composers Orchestra Presents Next Composer to Composer Talk
Meredith Monk & Missy Mazzoli
Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 5pm ET – Online
Registration & Information: http://bit.ly/
Free, registration recommended.
Photo of Meredith Monk by F. Scott Schafer
Photo of Missy Mazzoli by Caroline Tompkins
ACO Continues its Online Professional Development Panels
Equity in Orchestras – March 24, 2021 at 3pm ET
Conductor’s Roundtable with Mei-Ann Chen & Alan Gilbert – April 7, 2021 at 3pm ET
Recording Law & Licensing for Composers – April 21, 2021 at 1pm ET
Conductor’s Roundtable with Marin Alsop & George Manahan – May 5, 2021 at 5pm ET
Programming & Digital Curation – May 19, 2021 at 3pm ET
Registration & Information: http://bit.ly/
Free, registration required.
New York, NY – American Composers Orchestra (ACO) presents its next Composer to Composer Talk online with Meredith Monk and Missy Mazzoli on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 5pm ET. The talk, which will be hosted by ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel, will be live-streamed and available for on-demand viewing for seven days. Tickets are free; registration is highly encouraged. Registrants will receive links to join the event in advance.
ACO’s Composer to Composer series features major American composers in conversation with each other about their work and leading a creative life. The intergenerational discussions begin by exploring a single orchestral piece, with one composer interviewing the other. Attendees will gain insight into the work’s genesis, sound, influence on the American orchestral canon, and will be invited to ask questions of the artists.
On March 31, Missy Mazzoli talks with Meredith Monk about her work WEAVE, from 2010, of which Monk writes, “I conceived of WEAVE for Two Voices, Chamber Orchestra and Chorus as a continuous, seamless form in which layers that are at first part of a texture are gradually revealed, take on their own life and then are modified by the next layer that appears. Each passage evolves from the preceding one . . . There is an organic build of momentum in each passage of WEAVE leading naturally to the next, as indicated by the marked tempi. The ebb and flow of the piece depend on the relationship of tempi from one passage to another and the balance between the solo voices, instruments and chorus.”
ACO’s Composer to Composer Talks will be archived by Oral History of American Music (OHAM) within Yale University’s Irving S. Gilmore Music Library.
Upcoming Professional Development Panels:
ACO also continues its series of free Professional Development Panels co-presented with the American Composers Forum, featuring panel discussions by esteemed professionals in the industry about topics including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Entrepreneurship and Creating an Ensemble; Film Composition; Fundraising via Supportive Individuals; Programming and Digital Curation; Publishing, Self-Publishing, and Management; Recording Law and Practice; Project Production and Recording; and more. All panels are free and open to the public; registration is required.
Equity in Orchestras – March 24, 2021 at 3pm ET
A panel of experts converse about the role of race in orchestral culture, individual responsibility, and how racism manifests in the classical music industry. They will use Nebal Maysaud’s article, "It's Time to Let Classical Music Die'" as a jumping off point. Pratichi Shah, President and CEO, Flourish Talent Management Solutions, moderates the panel which includes Nebal Maysaud, composer and consultant; Melissa Ngan, American Composers Orchestra CEO & President; and Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer, violinist, educator. A Q&A with the audience will follow.
Conductor’s Roundtable with Mei-Ann Chen & Alan Gilbert – April 7, 2021 at 3pm ET
Orchestral conductors Mei-Ann Chen and Alan Gilbert provide insight into the conductor-composer relationship, programming new works, and other topics relevant to composers. A Q&A with the audience will follow.
Recording Law & Licensing for Composers – April 21, 2021 at 1pm ET
Chris Campbell, Director of Recordings at Innova Recordings, leads a panel covering the basics of recording law and licensing. The panel, which includes Meerenai Shim, flutist, artist, record producer, music educator, movement coach; and Ari Solotoff, Esq., entertainment lawyer / Founder & Managing Attorney, Solotoff Law Group, PLLC; will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Conductor’s Roundtable with Marin Alsop & George Manahan – May 5, 2021 at 5pm ET
Orchestral conductors Marin Alsop and George Manahan provide insight into the conductor-composer relationship, programming new works, and other topics relevant to composers, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Programming & Digital Curation – May 19, 2021 at 3pm ET
How does traditional programming change when it’s focused online? Where is classical music headed in the digital age? American Composers Orchestra CEO and President Melissa Ngan moderates a panel of experts including Keith Obadike, maker of music, art, and literature; Mendi Obadike, maker of music, art, and literature; Paola Prestini, composer, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust; and Kamala Sankaram, composer, performer. A Q&A with the audience will follow the panel discussion.
About the March 31 Composers – Meredith Monk & Missy Mazzoli
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, and creator of new opera and music-theater works. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique.” Celebrated internationally, her work has been presented at major venues around the world. Over the last six decades Ms. Monk has been hailed as one of National Public Radio’s 50 Great Voices and “one of America’s coolest composers.” Her numerous awards and honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and a National Medal of Arts. Most of her music can be heard on the ECM label, including the Grammy-nominated impermanence. Since the early 2000s, Monk has been creating vital new repertoire for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, with recent commissions from the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall where she held the 2014-15 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair in conjunction with her 50th Season of creating and performing. Currently Monk is developing Indra’s Net, the third part of a trilogy of music-theater works exploring our interdependent relationship with nature.
Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (New York Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2018, she became the first woman to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Composition. She is currently Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Her 2018 opera Proving Up, a commentary on the American dream commissioned and premiered by Washington National Opera, was deemed “harrowing… a true opera for its time” by The Washington Post. Her 2016 opera Breaking the Waves was called “one of the best 21st-century American operas yet” by Opera News and had its European premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival. Upcoming commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia, the National Ballet of Canada and Norwegian National Opera. In 2016, with composer Ellen Reid and in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center she founded Luna Lab, a mentorship program for young female, nonbinary and gender non-conforming composers. Her works are published by G. Schirmer.
About American Composers Orchestra
Founded in 1977, American Composers Orchestra (
ACO identifies and develops talent, performs established composers, champions those who are lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting gender, racial, ethnic, geographic, stylistic, and age diversity. To date, ACO has performed music by 800 American composers, including over 350 world premieres and newly commissioned works. ACO recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, InstantEncore, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.
ACO offers an array of programs for emerging composers including its own annual New Music Readings in New York City, which has served over 150 composers since its inception in 1991, and EarShot Readings, which since 2008 have been offered in partnership with orchestras across the country in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras, New Music USA and American Composers Forum. These Readings provide the rare opportunity for emerging composers to hear their original works played by a professional orchestra; the residencies, performances and composer-development programs speak directly to the orchestras’ communities and leverage local resources. Annually, ACO-produced Readings support 15-20 emerging composers, who receive mentorship and a professional orchestra reading and recording of their work. ACO’s New Music Readings in New York include a multi-performance commission awarded to the most promising participant through the Composing a New Orchestra Audience platform. 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.
Since 1999, ACO has brought composers and musical teaching artists into New York City public schools through Sonic Spark (formerly known as Music Factory). Sonic Spark aims to leverage composition as a platform for creativity, and creativity as a platform for achievement in all areas of student’s life. Students in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, work directly with professional composers to create and perform original music. ACO also offers the intensive Compose Yourself! seminars, during which high school and college composers participate in hands-on composition classes, culminating in a performance of student compositions played by ACO’s professional musicians.
ACO has received numerous awards for its work, including those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI 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.
More information about American Composers
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Institutional Support for American Composers
ACO programs are made possible with public funds 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 Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
American Composers Orchestra
Derek Bermel, Artistic Director | George Manahan, Music Director | Melissa Ngan, President
Dennis Russell Davies, Conductor Laureate | Robert Beaser, Artistic Director Laureate
494 8th Avenue, Suite 503 | New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212.977.8495 | Web: www.americancomposers.org
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