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Press Releases
Out Now! American Composers Orchestra's New Digital Album, Modern Yesterdays, on Platoon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
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American Composers Orchestra Announces New Album Modern Yesterdays
Featuring Works by Carlos Bandera,
Carlos Simon, and Kaki King, Orchestrated
by D.J. Sparr, with Guitarist Kaki King,
Conducted by Daniela Candillari
Out Now on All Digital Platforms via Platoon
“The American Composers Orchestra…[is] dedicated to championing a segment of creators whose work is often on the front lines of evolving political thought and sonic exploration."
– I Care If You Listen
New York, NY (September 23, 2026) – The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) released its latest album, Modern Yesterdays, digitally via Platoon on Friday, September 18, 2026. Led by conductor Daniela Candillari, the live recording pairs Carlos Simon's Fate Now Conquers with the world premiere performances of Carlos Bandera's Materia Prima and four movements from guitarist and composer Kaki King's Modern Yesterdays, heard here in new orchestral settings by D.J. Sparr with King as soloist. The album was recorded live in performance at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York on March 17, 2023.
"Time is a primary material of our lives, and our 'yesterdays' can both connect and distinguish us," says ACO Artistic Director Curtis Stewart. "The composers on this program look to recorded, imagined, and personal histories as a way of finding new meaning in the present. Each work approaches time from a different perspective, tracing what we carry from the past into the present."
This program includes the world premiere orchestral renderings of Kaki King's compositions by D.J. Sparr, including music from her album Modern Yesterdays, which explores the boundaries of the guitar and our attempts to find meaning within the patterns of the world. The work is a refinement of King's now-signature guitar-projection mapping performance. Bridging future-forward modernity with contemplative longing, Modern Yesterdays sends audiences on an audiovisual journey reset by our recent past, arriving at the emotional place we yearn to visit.
Carlos Bandera, who first connected with ACO through the Underwood New Music Readings, now EarShot, takes his inspiration for Materia Prima from the mythological motif of the cosmic ocean, a motif found in the creation stories of a strikingly wide variety of cultures and religions, describing the primordial and often chaotic waters from which the universe was created. The title is Latin for "prime matter," or "original matter," and refers to the substance viewed as the material cause of the universe. "There are two musical elements that form my piece: sustained sounds and brief impulses," writes Bandera. "The impulses act as drops of water in a still, vast sea, creating waves of activity that disrupt the stability of the sustained material." The harmonic structure is built on a similar opposition, set between the harmonic series of a low B-flat and the notes of the string instruments' open strings, particularly the violin's open A, the note from which the entire piece emerges. "The piece unfolds through gradual processes of transformation as it attempts to reconcile these opposing materials. At its core, Materia Prima strives to find serene spaces in a turbulent and chaotic world."
Carlos Simon's Fate Now Conquers takes its starting point from the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and a passage from the Iliad. "I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate – jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona," writes Simon. "Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us." As Simon observes, Beethoven strove to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail despite his ailments: "Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished to fate. Fate now conquers."
Modern Yesterdays marks ACO's fourth release with Platoon, part of a multi-year commitment to release commercial recordings of ACO's programming. ACO's world premiere recording of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang's An American Soldier, released May 23, 2025, was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Performance, and was followed by America in Weimar: On the Margins, released July 24, 2026 and 2023 EarShot Readings, out Friday, August 21, 2026.
Modern Yesterdays Track Listing
1. Carlos Bandera – Materia Prima* [24:22]
2. Carlos Simon – Fate Now Conquers [04:39]
3. Kaki King – Modern Yesterdays*, I. Default Shell (orch. D.J. Sparr) [04:30]
4. Kaki King – Modern Yesterdays*, II. Godchild (orch. D.J. Sparr) [05:39]
5. Kaki King – Modern Yesterdays*, III. Can't Touch This or That or You or My Face (orch. D.J. Sparr) [04:20]
6. Kaki King – Modern Yesterdays*, IV. Puzzle Me You (orch. D.J. Sparr) [04:29]
Total Time: 00:47:59
*World premiere
Kaki King, guitar
Daniela Candillari, conductor
American Composers Orchestra
Credits:
This recording was captured live in performance at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, New York, on March 17, 2023.
Photographer: Alfred Kan
Engineer: Wei Wang
Booklet Designer: Steven Alesso
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. Throughout 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, ACO serves as a New York City hub where the most forward-thinking experimental American musicians come together to hone and realize new art. 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.
ACO’s EarShot is the first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on the national level. EarShot ensures a vibrant musical future by investing in creativity today and has served over 390 composers since its inception, who have since won every major composition award, including the Pulitzer, GRAMMY, Grawemeyer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Rome Prizes.
ACO has received numerous awards for its work, and 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’s world premiere recording of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s An American Soldier (May 2025 Platoon) was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Performance, marking the first GRAMMY® nomination in ACO’s history. Learn more at www.americancomposers.org.
About Platoon Classical
Platoon Classical is home to a new generation of classical artists, recordings and creative partnerships. Part of Platoon, Apple’s boutique artist services company, the multi-award and GRAMMY® winning label works with exceptional artists and institutions, releasing music that speaks to both devoted classical listeners and new audiences.
Rooted in Platoon’s artist-first approach, and with a commitment to artistic excellence, premium sound, and bold storytelling, Platoon Classical brings outstanding classical music to listeners around the world. Its growing roster brings together world-class musicians, composers, orchestras, and ensembles, and includes conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Dalia Stasevska, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, violinists Anne Akiko Meyers and Pekka Kuusisto, pianist Kirill Gerstein, and composers Oliver Leith and Gabriela Ortiz. The Swedish label BIS Records was acquired by Platoon/Apple in September 2023. Together, they are redefining what classical music can look and sound like in the streaming era.
# # #
This recording was made possible with generous support from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University Recording Projects program. This project is supported in part 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 the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Altman Foundation, Amphion Foundation, Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, Bank of New York Mellon, BMI Foundation, BMI, Inc., Booth Ferris Foundation, CANVAS, Cheswatyr Foundation, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ford Foundation’s Good Neighbor Committee, Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust, Frederick Loewe Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, G. Schirmer/Wise Music Foundation, Give Lively Foundation, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Hearst Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jephson Educational Trusts, Jerome Foundation, Koret Foundation, League of American Orchestras, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Neiman Marcus, New Music USA’s Organization Fund, New York Community Trust (Musical Arts Fund, Clara Lewisohn Rossin Trust, and Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund), Pacific Harmony Foundation, PayPal Giving Fund, Sphinx Venture Fund, Steven R. Gerber Trust, TD Charitable Foundation, Turrell Fund and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Public funds are provided by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, 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.
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