Music Alive Round I Extended Residencies:
Albany Symphony (Albany, NY)
Orchestra Website: Albany Symphony Orchestra
Dorothy Chang (Vancouver, British Columbia); Peter Child (Shokan, NY); George Tsontakis (Cambridge, MA); Carolyn Yarnell (Laguna Hills, CA)
 Dorothy Chang |
Listen (excerpt):Dorothy Chang's Fire Cycle (MP3)
Listen (excerpt):Carolyn Yarnell's The Same Sky (MP3) performed live by Kathleen Supové |
Central to the Residency, the Albany Symphony will perform both existing works as well as commissioned works by each composer. The orchestra will institute a reading session for the composers to try out their works in progress. Over the three years, each composer will participate in a newly created adult education forum designing their own composition workshop. Activities will range from adult composition workshops to music appreciation seminars around open rehearsals.
Each composer will also participate in the Albany Symphony's Adopt A School program. This new program brings symphony musicians into local schools for multiple visits each year over a number of years. ASO will work with the district music teachers and the resident composers to build an extensive composition curriculum to occupy the entire fourth year of the Adopt A School program. In addition to regular school visits, each composer will also design a compositional residency for the students.
 Peter Child |
The second year of the residency will be centered on a bold creative project celebrating the orchestra's relationship to the larger region. The Erie Canal Project will partner the four resident composers with four small communities along the Canal. During this year, each composer will spend time in the community, partnering with a resident arts organization such as a theater company, a dance group, a visual arts center or a children's chorus. The composer will create a collaborative work for his or her arts entity and a 25 member chamber orchestra of the ASO musicians.
 George Tsontakis |
The Symphony's chamber orchestra will embark on a four-day cruise on the Canal from Syracuse to Albany, stopping each evening in one of these communities and premiering the new collaborative work.
During the third year of the residency, the orchestra will create a Capital Heritage project exploring the rich cultural and historical life of Saratoga. The Capital Heritage project occurs annually during a month-long American Music Festival held each March.
 Carolyn Yarnell |
Each piece will be performed "on location" as it were, on the site that inspired the work, and each performance will be preceded by a brief historical introduction and a discussion by the composer.
Mobile Symphony Orchestra (Mobile, AL)
Orchestra Website: Mobile Symphony Orchestra
Mason Bates (Oakland, CA; Website); Kenji Bunch (Brooklyn, NY); Kevin Puts (Austin, TX)
 Mason Bates |
Mobile Symphony will begin a three-year residency project with composers Mason Bates; Kenji Bunch; Kevin Puts starting in the 2005-06 season.
The three-year residency will offer each composer the opportunity to create a new symphonic work; work extensively with the orchestra on their education activities; assist the orchestra in connecting symphonic music to the community; collaborating with other area cultural organizations; help expand relationships with current community partners; help build the "star" factor for Mobile Symphony musicians; and continue developing the artistic excellence of the orchestra.
During the 2005-06 season, the Orchestra will perform two existing works by Kevin Puts, his Concerto for Everyone on their Young People's Concert and his Marimba Concerto on their popular "Beethoven and Blue Jeans" concerts which is an evening concert with standard symphonic repertoire where both the orchestra and audience wear blue jeans.
 Kenji Bunch |
|
Listen (excerpt): Kenji Bunch's Arachnophobia for Chamber Orchestra (MP3) |
This annual concert traditionally attracts many new concert attendees. The 2005-06 season will also spotlight the new commissioned work by Puts which will be a 5-7 minute orchestral piece that spotlights the underappreciated instruments or those orchestral instruments that would not normally be featured as soloists.
The orchestra will also perform a chamber work by Mason Bates during the 2005-06 season. Bates will begin work on his new commissioned work a 5-7 minute work for percussion ensemble and orchestra. Kenji Bunch will also begin work on his new commissioned work a 5-7 minute work for viola and orchestra featuring the principal violist of the Mobile Symphony.
Both Bates and Puts will attend rehearsals for the preparation of their works being performed and begin to meet and spend time with the musicians they will be featuring in their new works, and both will participate in per-concert discussions before each performance featuring their works. In addition, Bates, Bunch and Puts will work with composition and other music students at the University of Southern Alabama and the University of Mobile as well as with younger music students at local elementary and high schools. All three composers are scheduled to appear on local radio programs to discuss their work as composers and residency work with the Mobile Symphony.
They will also take part in various activities involving the orchestra staff, board and other community groups close to the Mobile Symphony family.
The 2006-07 season will feature the premiere of Mason Bates new commissioned work for percussion ensemble and orchestra. Bates, Bunch and Puts will attend special orchestra readings of their works allowing the orchestra and composers time to hear the works before the first concert rehearsal and giving the musicians more time to ensure that the performance is a success. This will also allow an opportunity for the composers to provide feedback to each other and as well as from the musicians.
 Kevin Puts |
|
Listen (streaming audio excerpt): Kevin Puts' "it's not meant to be a strife" from Vespertine Symphonies performed by The Marin Symphony (5/04) |
In addition to the reading sessions, the composers will attend rehearsals for the preparation of their works being performed and will participate in per-concert discussions before each performance featuring their works. Each week will also allow for each composer to continue his residency activities started in the previous season.
The 2007-08 season will feature the premiere of Kenji Bunch's new commissioned work for viola and orchestra. This work will also celebrate the Mobile, its history and natural beauty, and the Mobile Symphony's ten-year anniversary. Bunch will continue his work started in the first two season with the numerous community and cultural partners of Mobile as well as the Symphony family. Mobile will also work with and encourage other cultural institutions such as the Art Museum, Library, Ballet, and Opera to use the same theme for their 2007-08 programming. By engaging others, Mobile Symphony helps to celebrate the arts on a greater level by having the entire arts community participate.
Nashville Chamber Orchestra (Nashville, TN)
Orchestra Website: Nashville Chamber Orchestra
David Balakrishnan (Albany, CA)
Composer David Balakrishnan will begin a three-year residency project with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra starting in 2005-06 season.
Over the three years, Balakrishnan will compose three new works for chamber orchestra and three works for string chamber ensemble, two of which will feature the Turtle Island String Quartet, an ensemble Balakrishnan founded and performs with.
Balakrishnan will help design and participate in the premiere of a new music festival, and extensive outreach and community engagement activities spearheaded by the NCO. He will also assist the NCO in strengthening its cross-genre performance practices and help in the development and production of the NCO's current recording program.
The Acoustic Café Series, an annual three-concert series that features cross-genre works performed by a 14-member string chamber orchestra made up of NCO musicians, will spotlight Balakrishnan three commissioned chamber works one featuring the Turtle Island String Quartet.
 David Balakrishnan |
In the second year of the residency Mr. Balakrishnan will be closely involved in the premiere of the NCO new music festival. Through the festival the NCO will heavily involve Mr. Balakrishnan in identifying and selecting composers for future NCO residencies or partnerships. The festival will be held over a two-week period and will include four concert programs - three chamber ensemble programs and one full orchestra program. Mr. Balakrishnan and the NCO artistic leadership will select the composer for the festival. The festival will provide the NCO an intimate preview of cross-genre composers that would be suitable for a residency, heighten the NCO's reputation, both locally and nationally as an innovative leader in new orchestral music, and provide cross-genre composers an opportunity to have their work performed by a professional orchestra.
Through his compositions, performances and recordings with Turtle Island String Quartet, Mr. Balakrishnan has developed connections to an extraordinary diverse music community. These connections will be vitally important to the NCO in identifying and inviting composers with a cross-genre musical language to participate in the festival.
|
Listen (excerpt): David Balakrishnan's Spider Dreams Suite (MP3) |
The NCO continues to commission works for consideration for the recording project developed and started by the NCO in collaboration with acclaimed guitarist John Jorgenson in their 2001-02 season. The recording repertory will be selected by Fall 2007, the beginning of Mr. Balakrishnan third year of his residency. The recording will take place during the fall and winter of the 2007-08 season for release at the NCO's Nashville Guitar Festival in April 2008. This performance will also feature Mr. Balakrishnan newly commissioned work for two guitars, violin and string orchestra, and will feature Jorgenson, Sharon Isbin and Mr. Balakrishnan as soloists.
Over the three years, Mr. Balakrishnan will also be actively involved in the NCO's education and community partnerships with several leading institutions. Music Director Paul Gambill, in consultation with Mr. Balakrishnan, will develop educational programs featuring Balakrishnan music in each year of the residency that will be featured at each of the institutions. Public events presenting discussions with the new music festival composers will also be an important part of the NCO's community engagement and a highlighted feature of the festival's programming.
Mr. Balakrishnan will also conduct master classes at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music and work with composition and other music students as a visiting composer and soloist.
He will also take part in the Humanities Outreach Tennessee, the NCO youth programs benefiting thousands of children from across the state.
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (Albuquerque, NM)
Orchestra Website: New Mexico Symphony Orchestra
Miguel del Aguila (Mayville, NY)
Miguel del Aguila will serve as composer-in-residence with the New Mexico Symphony beginning in the 2005-06 season.
 Miguel del Aguila |
Aguila will collaborate with author Rudolfo Anaya, a lifetime resident of Albuquerque, and recognized as one of the country's most prominent Hispanic authors, and NMSO music director Guillermo Figueroa to create a work that truly celebrates and recognizes the Barelas community.
The new work will be a full-evening length multi-media piece for musicians, actors, dancers and singers based on the history, stories and music of the Barelas community. Productions will be held in the Barelas neighborhood as well as the fully-staged performance at NMSO home.
|
Listen (excerpt): Miguel del Aguila's Piano Concerto (MP3) |
The two year project is a joint effort of a newly formed collaborative comprised of the NMSO, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the Downtown Action Team.
Through this residency the goal is to deepen the relationship of all three organizations with the people of the Barelas community.
