Delta David Gier, Oliver Hagen to Replace Gil Rose at American Composers Orchestra's (JCOI) Readings

Conductors Delta David Gier and Oliver Hagen will replace Gil Rose for American Composers Orchestra's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI) Readings on Monday, June 3 at 10am (working rehearsal) and Tuesday, June 4 at 7:30pm(run-through) at Columbia University's Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway). Rose has withdrawn with regrets, due to a family emergency. Both events are free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested. ACO is one of three orchestras participating this year in JCOI Readings - the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (April 23 & 24) and La Jolla Symphony & Chorus (September 19 & 20) are also workshopping, rehearsing, and giving public readings of new works for symphony orchestra by jazz composers.

The ACO JCOI Readings are presented in partnership with The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University (CJS) and EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discovery Network. ACO's mentor composers are George Lewis (Columbia University), Anne LeBaron (California Institute of the Arts), and Paul Chihara (UCLA). The Readings will feature works by composers Jennifer Bellor,José Beviá, Courtney Bryan, Ingrid Laubrock, Andy Milne, Richard Sussman, and Sumi Tonooka.

The 2013 JCOI Readings are a national expansion of the prototype JCOI program held in New York City in 2010-2011. The new Readings are the culmination of a process that began in August 2012, when 37 composers were selected from a national pool of applicants to attend the weeklong JCOI Intensive, a series of workshops and seminars devoted to orchestral composition held at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles. After completing the Intensive, seventeen composers were given the opportunity to put what they learned into practice by composing a new symphonic work for the JCOI Readings. The composers, working in jazz, improvised, and creative music, were chosen based on their excellent musicianship, originality, and potential for future growth in orchestral composition.

Each composer participating in the JCOI Readings receives coaching from mentor composers and a professional music engraver as they write their new pieces. Once completed, each piece will be workshopped, rehearsed, and performed by one of the three host orchestras through the EarShot program. The new works will be heard in rehearsal, open public readings, and a public performance. Composers receive travel and an honorarium, as well as feedback from orchestra principal musicians, conductors, librarians, and mentor composers, and an archival recording of their work.

JCOI is a new development in the jazz field. While many jazz composers seek to write for the symphony orchestra, opportunities for hands-on experience are few. JCOI aims to provide new resources for both jazz and classical music, promoting the emergence of composers trained in both jazz and new orchestral techniques. The first JCOI, which took place in New York during the 2010-2011 season, was the subject of two features on National Public Radio, which reported that what the composers discovered while at the Institute has "the potential to shift the course of concert music." Listen online at: www.npr.org/2010/12/19/132146455/teaching-the-symphony-to-swing

Delta David Gier has been called a dynamic voice on the American music scene, recognized widely for his penetrating interpretations of the standard repertoire and his passionate commitment to exploring new music and engaging new audiences. Gier made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2000 with an acclaimed performance including Stravinsky's Firebird (1945) that further solidified his long-standing relationship with the orchestra. Chosen by Maestro Kurt Masur as an assistant conductor in 1994, Gier also worked under Lorin Maazel and went on to conduct over 20 performances with the New York Philharmonic, including two complete seasons of Young People's Concerts, the first conductor to do so in over 50 years.

As Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra since 2004, Gier has taken a bold approach to programming that has broadened the orchestra's repertoire and positioned it on the national forefront of new orchestral music. Under his direction, the SDSO has won the coveted ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for six seasons in a row, largely due to a series of concerts featuring works of Pulitzer Prize-winning composers - a program heralded by the Wall Street Journal as "an unprecedented programming innovation." Pulitzer prize-winning composers Paul Moravec and Steven Stucky have had residencies with the SDSO. Gier himself has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize twice, once as Chairman, and for the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Composition Prize. His balanced vision for the orchestra has also given rise to a popular annual Mahler celebration and highly successful operatic performances each season.

During Gier's tenure, the SDSO has also led the way with programs aimed at assimilating immigrant cultures, including African refugees and the Middle Eastern community. His perceptive approach to new music can be heard in his recording of American composer Carson Kievman's Symphony No. 2 (42) with the Polish National Radio Symphony. Released under the New Albion label, the performance was lauded by the Denver Post as "the kind of performance composers live for." The SDSO premiered a new composition by Kievman in 2008.

A gifted and energetic teacher, Gier has taught and conducted for many highly regarded music schools, this season conducting twice at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He has served as visiting professor at the Yale School of Music, the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, the San Francisco Conservatory, and SUNY Stony Brook. To learn more about David Delta Gier, please visitwww.sdsymphony.org/artistic-direction.

Conductor and pianist Oliver Hagen, born in New York City in 1986, has quickly gained international recognition for his laudable abilities both on the podium and at the piano. In 2010, he was named Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris. During his time there, he assisted music director Susanna Mälkki, and worked with conductors Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher, and Ludovic Morlot. In April and May of 2012, Hagen served as Assistant Conductor at the Paris Opéra Comique, conducting staging rehearsals for a world premiere opera by Marco Stroppa, Re Orso. Earlier this season, he made his début with the musicians of the National Orchestra of Lyon, conducting Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with former Bayreuth soprano, Anja Silja.

Hagen has appeared in concert with American and French ensembles that include the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble soundinitiative, the Firebird Ensemble, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, and the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the last of whom he conducted in at New York City's Symphony Space for the 75th Anniversary Celebration concert of the American Composers' Alliance. He was the Assistant Conductor to Pierre Boulez, David Robertson, and Peter Eötvös at the Lucerne Festival Academy; he conducted the Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble, performing Stockhausen's Kontra-punkte andKreuzspiel. As part of his duties as Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, he served as Assistant Conductor for the Paris Conservatory Orchestra on several concerts. Currently, he is the Assistant Conductor of the Kaufman Center's Face the Music Ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble for high school students in New York City.

As a pianist of the new music ensemble Signal, which performs under the direction of Brad Lubman, Hagen has worked closely with composers such as Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Charles Wuorinen, and Oliver Knussen. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet and composition, and a Master of Music degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music.