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Press Releases
American Composers Orchestra presents two Composer Spotlights on Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program; Listening Party with Derek Bermel & Guests
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Christina Jensen, Jensen Artists
646.536.7864 x1, christina@jensenartists.
American Composers Orchestra Presents
Two Composer Spotlights on the Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 at 3pm ET & Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 3pm ET
Listening Party with Derek Bermel
and Special Guests John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Eugene Moye, and Melinda Wagner
Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 6pm ET
Registration and Information: www.americancomposers.org/
New York, NY – American Composers Orchestra (ACO) presents two online Composer Spotlights events for the Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program at 3pm ET on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 and Wednesday, July 7, 2021, streaming live on YouTube and Facebook. On Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 6pm, ACO will host an online Listening Party via Zoom with ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel and special guest composers John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Eugene Moye, and Melinda Wagner. Advance registration is required for the Listening Party; advance registration is recommended for the Composer Spotlights. General admission for all the events is free, with donation options available.
Central to its values of diversity, disruption, and discovery, ACO partners each year with orchestras nationwide through its EarShot program (formerly the New Music Readings), which has identified and championed some of the most important rising compositional voices in the orchestral field since its founding in 1991. To deepen the creative community around this work, the Virginia B. Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program (formerly the Women Composers Readings and Commissions Program), an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with ACO, has commissioned three EarShot alumni each year to write a new orchestral work that is premiered by participating orchestras across the country. The panels on June 23 and July 7 highlight eight composers whose pieces have been recently premiered, or will soon premiere, as part of the program. Get to know each artist, hear recordings of their music, and catch an inside look into the relationships they have built with the orchestras that will premiere their works.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 at 3pm ET
Moderators: Melissa Ngan, President & CEO, American Composers Orchestra & Alecia Lawyer, Founder, Artistic Director & Principal Oboe, ROCO
Composers, Works & Partner Orchestras:
Leanna Primiani, 1001, ROCO
Hilary Purrington, Harp of Nerves, Philadelphia Orchestra
Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Wang Jie, Symphony No. 1, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 3pm ET
Moderators: Melissa Ngan, President & CEO, American Composers Orchestra & Meghan Martineau, Vice President, Artistic Planning, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Composers, Works & Partner Orchestras:
Julia Adolphe, Underneath the Sheen, New York Philharmonic
Cindy Cox, Transfigurations of Grief, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Stacy Garrop, The Battle for the Ballot, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Niloufar Iravani, The Seven Valleys, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
On Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 6pm, ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel hosts an hour-long Listening Party of live archival recordings made from ACO performances in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium from 1985-2012, with special guests John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Eugene Moye, and Melinda Wagner. Registrants will listen to previously unheard audio recordings of the following works, along with commentary and history by Bermel and the special guests:
- David Diamond’s Symphony No. 9. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein (November 17, 1985)
- Hannibal Lokumbe’s African Portraits. Conducted by Paul Lustig Dunkel, ACO Co-Founder. (October 11, 1990)
- Earl Kim’s Violin Concerto with soloist Itzhak Perlman. Conducted by Paul Lustig Dunkel, ACO Co-Founder. (February 10, 1991)
- Melinda Wagner’s Falling Angels. Conducted by Paul Lustig Dunkel, ACO Co-Founder. (October 29, 1995)
- Derek Bermel’s Voices with Bermel on Clarinet. Conducted by Tan Dun (May 24, 1998)
- Laurie Anderson’s Songs for A E. Conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, ACO Co-Founder & Conductor Laureate (February 27, 2000)
- Frank Zappa’s Autumn Fall. Conducted by Steven Sloane (March 2, 2003)
- John Adams’ My Father Knew Charles Ives Conducted by John Adams (April 27, 2007)
- Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 9. Conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, ACO Co-Founder & Conductor Laureate (January 31, 2012)
Full recordings will be made available to donors who give $250 to this event. Recording links will be password-protected, hosted online, and available for on-demand streaming through August 31, 2021.
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
About the League of American Orchestras
The League of American Orchestras leads, supports, and champions America’s orchestras and the vitality of the music they perform. Its diverse membership of more than 1,800 organizations and individuals across North America runs the gamut from world-renowned orchestras to community groups, from summer festivals to student and youth ensembles, from conservatories to libraries, from businesses serving orchestras to individuals who love symphonic music. The national organization dedicated solely to the orchestral experience, the League is a nexus of knowledge and innovation, advocacy, and leadership advancement. Its conferences and events, award-winning Symphony magazine, website, and other publications inform people around the world about orchestral activity and developments. Founded in 1942 and chartered by Congress in 1962, the League links a national network of thousands of instrumentalists, conductors, managers and administrators, board members, volunteers, and business partners. Visit americanorchestras.org.
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