Anne Clyne Selected For Music Alive Three-Year Residency Award

Berkeley Symphony and composer Anna Clyne have been chosen from a field of 59 applicant pairs to participate in a three-year composer-orchestra residency program, Music Alive, created by the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. Berkeley Symphony and Clyne are one of only five composer-orchestra pairs to be selected by their peers, who represent a cross-section the U.S. orchestra world. The other four new Music Alive composer-orchestra pairings are Lembit Beecher and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Stacy Garrop and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Hannibal Lokumbe and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Jerod Tate and South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

Beginning in January 2017 and continuing for three seasons, the Music Alive program prioritizes collaborative work and immersive experiences for composers, orchestra musicians, artistic leadership, and community members. Music Alive hopes to demonstrate, through active partnership with the participants, the power and value of living composers working at the center of American orchestras.

"Anna Clyne's collaborations with filmmakers, visual artists, and choreographers bring exciting

possibilities to Berkeley Symphony, not just in terms of the work that will arise, but also how her

residency will influence and shape the relationship of the Symphony with the Bay Area community," said Berkeley Symphony Executive Director René Mandel. "Anna Clyne's vivid imagination and creative process will have full expression in the Berkeley community. Our long-established relationships give us great opportunities for new potential collaborations with local arts and educational institutions and organizations. The possibilities include developing collaborations between young composers, choreographers and filmmakers as part of a reinvigorated and renewed Under Construction; augmenting the Music in the Schools program with workshops to introduce young musicians to the extraordinary creation of the graphic score; collaborating with local arts institutions to program multi-media orchestral compositions that incorporate film, visual art, and electronics; exploring innovative electroacoustic compositions in unusual spaces; and helping develop experimental, multi-genre stage performances to reach audiences of various other art forms."

Well-established as a presenter of major contemporary orchestral works, Berkeley Symphony and Music Director Joana Carneirocontinue their steadfast commitment to presenting original and unique programs with new music commissioned by living composers, many of whom Berkeley Symphony has developed an ongoing creative and collaborative relationship. Since its 1979-80 season, Berkeley Symphony has performed 65 world premieres, 28 U.S. premieres, and 21 West Coast premieres. In recognition of its leadership in commissioning and creating new music, the Orchestra has received the prestigious ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award in 10 of the past 13 seasons. In addition to the December 2016 U.S. premiere of Sir James MacMillan's Symphony No. 4, a co-commission with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony will perform the Bay Area premiere of Mason Bates' Cello Concerto, with Joshua Roman as soloist, in January 2017. In May 2017, the Orchestra performs Shostakovich's epic Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar", with bass Denis Sedov and alumni of choruses including the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir Academy, and members of the St. John of San Francisco Russian Orthodox Chorale, led by Marika Kuzma.

London-born Anna Clyne is a Grammy-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Now based in New York, she has been described as a "composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods" in a New York Times profile and as "dazzlingly inventive" by Time Out New York. Clyne's work often includes collaborations with cutting-edge choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians worldwide. Appointed by Music Director Riccardo Muti, Clyne served as a Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2015. She served as Composer-in-Residence for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra during the 2015-2016 season and for L'Orchestre national d'Île-de-France from 2014-2016. She has been commissioned by such renowned organizations as American Composers Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, BBC Scottish Symphony, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and the Southbank Centre, and her work has been championed by such world-renowned conductors as Marin Alsop, Pablo Heras-Casado, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

"I am delighted and honored to have received a New Music USA Music Alive Grant with the Berkeley Symphony," said Clyne. "Something that immediately drew me to this partnership with Joana Carneiro and the Berkeley Symphony's artistic team, is their openness to exploring new projects, ideas and collaborations, and a commitment to performing music by living composers - not just once, but often multiple times, which is an incredible opportunity for emerging composers to really hone their skills. I am also very much looking forward to exploring the unique and already vibrant arts scene in the Bay Area - both in music, film and dance - other art forms that inspire a lot of my music, and that opens possibilities for new collaborations and projects for younger artists within the community. Having a chance to work with Joana is also something that I'm very much looking forward to - it will be our first time working together, and I love her passion for exploring new projects, and her commitment to new music and innovative programming."

"Berkeley Symphony's commitment to new music, and its embrace of the composer as central to its

very existence, has been my inspiration since coming on as music director in 2009," said Music Director Joana Carneiro. "It has been my dream to establish concrete relationships between audiences, composers, artists, and musicians. I want audiences to become familiar with contemporary classical composers in the same way that they are familiar with more traditional composers.

"Music evolves as composers develop the language they have been given through centuries of history into language of their own. We recognize this in great composers of all times. I believe Anna Clyne is one of those great composers, and it is a blessing and privilege (and a personal dream come true) to be working with Anna in creating something new: a reflection of who we are today in history, thought, and art. Her sensitive and open spirit is exactly what Berkeley Symphony is about."

Anna Clyne was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her double violin concerto, Prince of Clouds. She is also the recipient of several prestigious awards including the 2016 Hindemith Prize; a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; awards from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Jerome Foundation; and prizes from ASCAP and SEAMUS. She was nominated for the 2014 Times Breakthrough Award (UK) and is the recipient of a grant from Opera America to develop a new opera, Eva.

Other recent highlights include the world premieres of Masquerade for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop at the Last Night of the Proms; This Lunar Beauty for the Britten Sinfonia and soprano Julia Doyle; RIFT, a symphonic ballet in collaboration with choreographer Kitty McNamee for Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra; Pocket Book VIII for Roomful of Teeth; Threads & Traces for 100 cellos, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and performed at Disney Hall; and her violin concerto, The Seamstress, performed by Jennifer Koh with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

The newly configured Music Alive program was reimagined as a result of an extensive survey of leading professionals deeply experienced in relationships between composers and orchestras. The survey culminated in a 2015 convening by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras hosted by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Colleagues in the new music and orchestra worlds met to identify and discuss critical challenges that the program could address directly. This iteration of Music Alive, and its residency priorities, directly emerged from these conversations.

More than visiting artists, the composers in residence will be centrally embedded within their orchestras, and their roles will be incorporated directly into the orchestras' operations, programming and curatorial decisions, and activities in their communities. Dedicated funding will be attached to the residency priorities, including workshopping, rehearsing, and developing new works or performing existing works by living composers; mentoring emerging composers through readings, shadowing, and other mentoring opportunities; and creating public access to the artistic process through open rehearsals, access to various media, and other points of entry.

Review criteria for the residencies were artistry, or the artistic merit of the composer's work and orchestra's performances; opportunity, or the partnership's potential for depth and innovation in residency work and in tackling the thematic priorities; and capacity and commitment, the ability of the orchestra and composer to make the residency a success and to adhere to two core commitments: having a centrally embedded composer and a cohort-based planning process.

"We live in an era of unsurpassed compositional invention, as composers break musical barriers and redefine the rules," said League of American Orchestras President and CEO Jesse Rosen. "This new iteration of Music Alive takes engagement several steps further, building opportunities for cohorts of composers to learn from each other, and for entire orchestra staffs and musicians, as well as their communities, to interact closely with these talented composers-in-residence."

"Music Alive is driven by a belief in the power of new work," said New Music USA President and CEO

Ed Harsh. "These new residencies will demonstrate even more powerfully than ever before the role that collaboration with living artists can play in vitalizing orchestras' connections to their communities."

Panelists for the residencies were Jenny Bilfield, President and CEO, Washington Performing Arts;

Avner Dorman, composer and Music Director, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra; Sarah Lutman, Founder, Lutman & Associates; Shulamit Ran, composer and Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and President, Artis-Naples.

About Music Alive

Launched in 1999 as a joint program between Meet The Composer (now New Music USA) and the League of American Orchestras, Music Alive has been a steward and partner in a multitude of projects that foster strong working relationships between American orchestras and accomplished composers across the country. In its 17 years, the program has supported 115 composers, 77 orchestras, and 119 distinct residencies. Music Alive is made possible due to a $1.5 million lead grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Amphion Foundation, and The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.

The League of American Orchestras leads, supports, and champions America's orchestras and the vitality of the music they perform. Its diverse membership of more than 2,000 organizations and individuals across North America runs the gamut from world-renowned symphonies to community groups, from summer festivals to student and youth ensembles, from conservatories to libraries, from businesses serving orchestras to individuals who love symphonic music. The only national organization dedicated solely to the orchestral experience, the League is a nexus of knowledge and innovation, advocacy, and leadership advancement. Its conferences and events, award-winning Symphony magazine, website, and other publications inform people around the world about orchestral activity and developments. Founded in 1942 and chartered by Congress in 1962, the League links a national network of thousands of instrumentalists, conductors, managers and administrators, board members, volunteers, and business partners. Visit americanorchestras.org.

New Music USA is devoted to fostering the creation, dissemination, and enjoyment of new American music. New Music USA places special emphasis on broadening the public community for the music and musicians whom we serve. Advocacy in the broadest sense is at the heart of all of New Music USA's work. It is inherent in the work of the online magazine NewMusicBox and radio station Counterstream, in all of New Music USA's grantmaking activity-which distributes more than one million dollars each year to the field-and in New Music USA's role as a key voice in the national and international scenes. NewMusicUSA.org