American Composers Orchestra Will Host 2024-2025 EarShot Readings, CoLABoratory Workshops, and More

The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces details of its 2024-2025 EarShot Readings, including at Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, EarShot Readings: American Composers Orchestra at Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, and Lawrence University Conservatory of Music; in addition to a call for scores for the New Jersey Symphony Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, presented in partnership with EarShot in 2025. Plus, EarShot CoLABoratory Workshops will include partnerships with Gateways Festival with New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow Jordyn Davis, Alarm Will Sound with Joseph C. Philips, Jr, and Boston Landmarks Orchestra with Horacio Fernández.

Encompassing all of ACO's composer advancement initiatives, EarShot is the first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on the national level. Serving over 390 composers since its inception, EarShot began in NYC with new music Readings in 1991. It expanded in 2008 to national Readings in partnership with orchestras nationwide in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum. EarShot has also included the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, CoLABoratory, Pathways, and more. Readings composer alumni have gone on to win every major composition award, including Pulitzer, GRAMMY, Grawemeyer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Rome Prizes. Since 2009, more than 25 works have been commissioned by partner orchestras from EarShot participants, and more than half of selected EarShot composers report receiving a commission directly resulting from their participation.

EarShot now includes orchestral readings, CoLABoratory fellowships, professional development, commissioning/consortia, and publishing. Its goal is to broaden the definition and role of the composer and build replicable models for co-created projects between composers, artists, and community partners. Artistic projects developed via EarShot form are a key component of ACO's concert programming. ACO's EarShot programs taking place in NYC serve as replicable models for organizations nationwide seeking to undertake similar work.

EarShot Readings, presented in partnership with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA, continues with debut workshops and performances on October 28-29, 2024 with Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. The readings will be led by Henry Kennedy, the Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra's newly-appointed Resident Conductor, alongside mentor composers Jimmy López Bellido, Ana Sokolovi?, and Dinuk Wijeratne. Selected composers from an international call for scores include Charles Chen, Edna Longoria, Estrella Cabildo, Osnat Netzer, Saman Shahi, and Shanti Sivarulrasa. This will be the first EarShot Readings event in Canada, following the international footsteps of predecessors in Mexico and China.

On June 5 and 6, 2025, American Composers Orchestra will present its own EarShot Readings at Neidorff-Karpati Hall at the Manhattan School of Music. Participating composers include Grace Ann Lee, Marie Douglas, Cheng Jin KOH, Lavell Blackwell, Shawn Johnson, and Arjan Singh, a 2024 BMI Composer Award Winner whose participation is made possible through a partnership with BMI Foundation, Inc. Violinist Curtis Stewart will be a mentor, with additional mentors to be announced soon. American Composers Orchestra will also award a $15,000 commission to one Readings participant.

After a highly successful EarShot Readings collaboration with Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music during the 2023-24 season, ACO partners with IU once again in a new model that will include an initial set of composer workshops with orchestra in March 2025, followed by EarShot Readings in the fall of 2025 featuring newly composed works emerging from the spring workshops and subsequent mentorship sessions. Mentor composers include Augusta Read Thomas, Han Lash, David Dzubay, and Curtis Stewart. Within this new model, working with IU faculty, ACO staff, and mentor composers, EarShot participants will have the opportunity to deepen both the collaborative processes and levels of creativity in the creation of new orchestral works. Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music is currently calling for scores, with a deadline of October 20, 2024. More information can be found here.

Additional calls for scores come from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, with a deadline of October 20, 2024. Mentor composers for this program include Joanne Metcalf, Asha Srinivasan, and Marcos Balter. This collaboration aims to workshop scores that fall outside of typical performance and notation standards; graphic scores, scores that engage improvisation, and scores with other components that are non-typical to Western musical notation will be prioritized. Lawrence University is seeking composers with works for new music ensemble, preferably featuring flexible instrumentation of 5 to 15 players (including saxophone), to be rehearsed, performed, and recorded in Appleton, WI, on May 12-13, 2025. Selected participants will develop and expand the new music ensemble compositions toward participation in EarShot Readings hosted by the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, scheduled for January 26-30, 2026. More information can be found here.

Also upcoming in December 2024 is the call for scores for the 2025 New Jersey Symphony Edward T. Cone Composition Institute with lead mentorship by Institute Director Steven Mackey, presented in partnership with ACO's EarShot program. More information about this year's Institute and winners can be found here.

EarShot CoLABoratory Workshops for the 2024-2025 season include Gateways Music Festival on October 16, 2024 with Jordyn Davis; Alarm Will Sound with Joseph C. Philips, Jr. at a date to be confirmed in 2025; Boston Landmarks Orchestra with Horacio Fernández in 2025, date to be determined; and American Composers Orchestra with Edmar Castañeda (October 31, 2024), Mali Irene (January 20, 2025), Mazz Swift (March 5 & 7, 2025), and Kian Ravaei and Horacio Fernández (May 8, 2025). CoLABoratory provides a generative environment for composers from any and all musical backgrounds to create definition-expanding works for orchestra. Commissioned artists develop their ideas in partnership with ACO and partner ensembles through an artist-led process.

Composer and bassist Jordyn Davis's upcoming composition Each One Teach One will be workshopped by Gateways Music Festival artists at Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY on October 16, 2024. During Gateways' Fall Festival, Gateways String Artists and Gateways Brass Collective collaborate with Davis to explore new sonic possibilities to shape an innovative orchestral composition. Gateways Artists will provide feedback about the parts and directions to Davis in person. There will be a public portion of the presentation open to the Rochester composition and Eastman School of Music communities.

In 2025, Alarm Will Sound will workshop Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.'s We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident. The composition is the first in a series of orchestral, choral, and chamber works which, while tied to the various themes of his eight-opera 1619 cycle, will also represent distinct, independent addendums and companions to the operas. The composition highlights the physical, spiritual, intellectual, and imaginative ideas of freedom for Black Americans and how the desire of 'what could be' is actualized as resistance to the strictures of Black life within the country's systemic inequalities and inequities. To inform the composition process and create a companion film, Phillips is looking for community submissions of images, videos, and stories. The submission form is available online. Alarm Will Sound's upcoming work with the American Composers Orchestra's Earshot program aligns with their broader mission of championing new music and fostering emerging composers. The partnership with the Earshot program, which also focuses on supporting new talent and giving composers hands-on experience with professional ensembles, reinforces Alarm Will Sound's dedication to nurturing the next generation of musical voices and expanding the boundaries of contemporary music performance.

A CoLABoratory commission by Horacio Fernández will be workshopped by Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2025, exact date to be determined later. Vázquez shares, "In the CoLABoratory initiative, I aspire to delve into intriguing questions that push the boundaries of orchestral possibilities within the intersection of classical and Latin pop music. Workshops become a space where the synergy between classical and Latin pop music is not only explored but also amplified through the collective expertise and creativity of orchestral collaboration."

Future EarShot opportunities are available to those who attend or complete the programs. Following EarShot Readings with ACO in NYC, New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow Malachi Brown received the 2024 ACO EarShot Commission, and Anuj Bhutani was selected to participate in Composer's Atelier Program, hosted by the Korean National Symphony Orchestra from November 3-5, 2025 in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea. Following participation in their respective Readings, Patricia Leonard was commissioned for a ROCO EarShot Readings Commission, conducted by Anthony Parnther on Saturday, February 7, 2026 at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, and Sepehr Pirasteh received an Illinois Philharmonic EarShot Commission.

EarShot Publishing, in partnership with Boosey & Hawkes, has announced eight artists have been selected to publish works for professional orchestra; four of these pieces will be arranged for youth orchestra. All of the composers have created teaching modules/lesson plans that can be implemented during residences and site visits with orchestras’ community partners or schools. The selected artists are Edmar Castañeda, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, James Díaz, Rufus Reid, Mali Irene, Mazz Swift, Marina López, and Joseph Sowa. 

Finally, ACO has launched its searchable online Composer & Works Database at www.americancomposers.org. For over 40 years, ACO has championed composers at all stages of their careers including Philip Glass, Tania León, Joan Tower, Wynton Marsalis, Paola Prestini, Du Yun, Alex Temple, and Carlos Simon. The newly-launched database lists 1,000+ composers and 1,500+ works amplified by ACO since its founding via concerts across NYC at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, via EarShot Readings and CoLABoratory Residencies across the country, and via EarShot Publishing. This publicly-available resource brings ACO's rich history to all creative listeners, including those who are positioned to support artists with repeat performances and commissions.

 

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