Seven Composers Selected For 2022 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute

Seven emerging composers have been selected as participants for the Minnesota Orchestra's 18th annual Composer Institute, the Orchestra announced today. The selected composers, whose works encompass a wide variety of musical styles, were chosen from a pool of about 300 applicants and will be part of a deeply immersive experience in Minneapolis from May 2-6, 2022, as they participate in rehearsals, seminars and mentoring sessions. For the first time ever, the culminating "MusicMakers" performance of their works will be shared live on the Orchestra's website and social media channels on Friday, May 6, 2022. The performance also marks an ending: it will be the final MusicMakers concert under Music Director Osmo Vänskä's baton before he steps down from his leadership role at the end of the 2021-22 season.

The 18th annual Composer Institute participants are Henry L. Dorn of Little Rock, Arkansas; Adeliia Faizullina of Providence, Rhode Island; Bobby Ge of Shanghai, China; Ryan Lindveit of Lake Jackson, Texas; Molly Joyce of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Nina Shekhar of Detroit, Michigan; and Sam Wu of Melbourne, Australia.

"This is a landmark year for the Composer Institute," said composer Kevin Puts, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who serves as its director. "In addition to presenting these exciting new works-and their creators!- in a live concert and live radio broadcast, we are now also able to reach new audiences through a livestream shared on the Orchestra's website and social channels which will broaden the exposure for these talented composers at a crucial period in their careers. We'll be paying tribute to Osmo with these concerts, too. He has been a great champion of this project and the dozens of composers who have participated in it since 2001, always treating their work with the utmost respect and commitment, and we are honored he will conduct the May 6 MusicMakers performance."

Puts chaired the Institute's selection committee, which included Composer Institute alumni Katherine Balch and Viet Cuong, as well as composer Roberto Sierra.

The Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, widely recognized as a leading professional training program for emerging symphonic composers, grew from the Orchestra's "Perfect Pitch" program, a series of new music reading sessions for Minnesota composers launched in 1996 in collaboration with the American Composers Forum. Perfect Pitch was reformulated in 2001 as the Composer Institute to broaden the program's focus and invite national participation. In 2006, Music Director Osmo Vänskä added a public concert of the composers' new works, originally called Future Classics and later renamed MusicMakers, which he led himself each year. Composer Aaron Jay Kernis directed the program for its first 11 seasons and was succeeded by Kevin Puts in 2015. In 2020, the American Composers Orchestra became the new co-presenter of the Composer Institute.

Many of the 148 composers who have previously taken part in the program have gone on to impressive careers, earning prestigious commissions and high honors, including multiple Grammy nominations and two shortlists for the Pulitzer Prize.

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