Louisville Orchestra Reveals Composers For 2023-24 and 2024-25 Creators Corps

Building on the success of the inaugural year of the Louisville Orchestra (LO) Creators Corps, the LO has announced the appointment of Creators through the 2024-25 season. The 2023-24 Creators are Alex Berko, Nkeiru Okoye and Tanner Porter, and the 2024-25 Creators will be Baldwin Giang, Brittany J. Green and Oswald Huỳnh.

A first-of-its-kind program that deeply integrates artists in the city of Louisville and with the orchestra, the Creators Corps selects three Creators each year to move to Louisville for the upcoming season and live in the Shelby Park neighborhood for at least 30 weeks. The Creators serve as LO staff members, receiving an annual salary, health insurance, housing, and custom-built studio workspaces. Throughout their residencies, the Creators compose new works to be performed by the orchestra, participate in educational and community engagement activities, and become active, engaged citizens of Louisville.

The Creators Corps initiative builds on the Louisville Orchestra's earliest history and personality as an institution. Starting in 1947, the orchestra began an ambitious and unprecedented project of commissioning new orchestral works from composers worldwide. At a time when even the most prestigious orchestras were offering few pieces by living composers, the Louisville Orchestra commissioned and premiered 21 works in just three seasons. With the launch of First Edition Records in 1955, the LO became the first American orchestra to own a recording label when it received a Rockefeller grant of $500,000 to commission, record, and premiere music by living composers. Known as a pioneer in new music ever since, the orchestra has commissioned more than 150 works from luminary composers, including Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, Jacques Ibert, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and a host of others. From 1947 to the 1977-78 season, no other orchestra equaled the impact of the Louisville Orchestra in bringing to life the works of contemporary composers.

Conceived as a successor project to First Edition Records, the Creators Corps also represents a giant leap forward. The initiative asks the three invited Creators to act as artist-leaders, developing meaningful relationships with neighborhood residents and embodying the orchestra's conviction that music is a fundamental part of civic life.

As in the 2022-23 season of the Creators Corps program, original works by the composers will be presented throughout the season in the LO Classics Series and in the “Music Without Borders” and “Once Upon An Orchestra” concerts of the orchestra's Education and Community Partnership initiatives. The 2023-24 season will conclude in May 2024 with a festival of music showcasing world premieres by the Creators Corps that have been composed for the Louisville Orchestra and inspired by their residency in Louisville.

Louisville Orchestra Chief Executive Graham Parker explains, "Since our founding in 1937 and continuing with our ground-breaking First Edition Commissions and Recordings, the Louisville Orchestra has been singular in its dedication to the support of composers and the creation of new music. Therefore, building from the success of our first year of the Creators Corps, we are so excited to be able to announce the next two classes of Creators who will expand our legacy. These six distinct voices in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 classes will bring unique perspectives to the Louisville community, inspiring us all to be the most creative city we could imagine."

The Creators Corps program has been funded by a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation and from the generous support of additional individual donors locally and nationally.