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Press Releases
April 28: Tania León and Angélica Negrón in American Composers Orchestra's Next Composer to Composer Talk
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Christina Jensen, Jensen Artists
646.536.7864 x1 | christina@jensenartists.com
American Composers Orchestra Presents Next Composer to Composer Talk
Tania León and Angélica Negrón
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 5pm ET – Online
Registration & Information: http://bit.ly/
Free, registration recommended.
Photo of Tania León by Michael Provost
Photo of Angélica Negrón by Catalina Kulczar
ACO Continues its Online Professional Development Panels
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 Tania León and Angélica Negrón on Wednesday, April 28, 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, as well as to recordings of featured works 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 April 28, Angélica Negrón talks with Tania León about León’s work Carabalí for orchestra, from 1991. James Melo writes in the note for the piece, “The title Carabalí refers to a people of West Africa who rebelled against slavery, and whose saga continued through the cimarrones in the Caribbean region. The quiet and introspective character of much of the piece belies something that stirs much more deeply below the surface in preparation for the final outburst, a carnavalesque frenzy that seems to release all the energy accumulated in the previous sections. The trumpets’ calls at the end acquire a heroic and defiant urgency.”
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.
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. ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel hosts.
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 April 28 Composers – Tania León and Angélica Negrón
Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer, conductor, educator and advisor to arts organizations. Recent commissions include works for New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Grossman Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and pianist Ursula Oppens with Cassatt String Quartet. Appearances as guest conductor include Philharmonic Orchestra of Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba. Upcoming premieres feature commissions for the NewMusic USA Amplifying Voices Program, the League of American Orchestras in honor of Jesse Rosen, The Musical Fund Society in Philadelphia to celebrate their 200th anniversary, and for The Crossing chamber choir with Claire Chase, flutist, among others. A founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals, was New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the founder/Artistic Director of the nonprofit and festival Composers Now. Her honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the ASCAP Victor Herbert Award, among others. She also received a proclamation for Composers Now by New York City Mayor, and the MadWoman Festival Award in Music (Spain). León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin and SUNY Purchase College, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A CUNY Professor Emerita, she was awarded a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship.
Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choir, and film. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, loadbang, MATA Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, So Percussion, American Composers Orchestra, and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. She has composed numerous film scores, including Landfall (2020) and Memories of a Penitent Heart (2016), in collaboration with filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo. Upcoming premieres include works for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, LA Philharmonic and NY Philharmonic Project 19 initiative.
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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