Library of Congress Reveals Recipients of 2024 Music Commissions From Koussevitzky Foundation

The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress has awarded commissions for new musical works to eight composers. The commissions are granted jointly by the foundation and the performing organizations that will present the world premiere of each work.

Winning composers for 2024 and the groups co-sponsoring their commissions are Andy Akiho and Sandbox Percussion; Donnacha Dennehy and F-Plus Trio; Ted Hearne and WildUp; Pierre Jalbert and the Morgenstern Trio; Thomas Larcher and the New York Philharmonic; Sky Macklay and Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet; Kurt Rohde and Brightwork New Music; and Hans Thomalla and ~Nois.

In commemoration of Serge Koussevitzky's 150th birthday, celebrated in 2024, the Koussevitzky Foundation designated Jalbert's new commission for piano trio to be written for the Morgenstern Trio. To mark Koussevitzky's 150th, the Library also released a new digital collection of the Serge Koussevitzky Archive, with more than 500 items representing the vast archive of 200,000-plus items held by the Music Division.

The Library and the Koussevitzky Foundation are honored to have been chosen by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to offer three composer grants in 2024 made possible by the Otto and Catherine Brunson Luening Awards Fund. Composers selected for this distinction are Andy Akiho, Ted Hearne and Sky Macklay. The new commissions will be dedicated to renowned composer Otto Luening (1990-1996) and his wife, music teacher Catherine Brunson Luening (1922-2021).

The Koussevitzky Foundation was once again able to grant a commission in memory of composer Andrew W. Imbrie (1921-2007), a longtime member of the board. This commission, inaugurated in 2021, is made possible through a gift from Barbara Cushing Imbrie and Andrew Philip Imbrie. Composer Kurt Rohde, sponsored by Brightwork New Music, is the 2024 recipient of the Imbrie commission.

Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, was a leading champion of contemporary music. Throughout his distinguished career, he played a vital role in the creation of new works by commissioning composers such as Béla Bartók, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. He established the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1942 and passed operations to the Library in 1949 to continue his lifelong commitment to composers and new music. Original manuscripts of works commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation comprise an integral part of the Library's unparalleled music collections.

Applications for commissions are accepted annually. The next deadline for submissions is Jan. 15, 2025. Please visit koussevitzky.org for more information.

2024 Koussevitzky Commission Recipients

Andy Akiho produces bold works that expand the traditional boundaries of classical music. He has earned acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the theatricality of live performance. Nominated for multiple Grammy Awards, Akiho's recent work includes a new interdisciplinary work for Omaha Symphony honoring visual artist Jun Kaneko and performances of “Seven Pillars” at Théâtre du Châtelet, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied and performed by Sandbox Percussion and LA Dance Project. Equally at home writing chamber music and symphonies, Akiho was the Oregon Symphony's 2023-2024 composer-in-residence. Active as a steel pan performer, Akiho's physical connection with this instrument shapes his compositions and informs his nontraditional route as a composer: having spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and New York City, Akiho only began writing music at age 28.

The music of Donnacha Dennehy has been featured in festivals and venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, Muziekgebouw, the Royal Opera House, Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, and more. Commissions and premieres have come from leading ensembles Alarm Will Sound, Bang On A Can, Crash Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others. He is credited with a long list of large-scale works, including a trilogy of operas with the writer/director Enda Walsh: “The Last Hotel” (2015), “The Second Violinist” (2017) and “The First Child” (2021). The composer won the FEDORA-Generali Prize for Opera and he has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Dennehy resides in New Jersey and is a professor of music at Princeton University.

Ted Hearne is a composer, singer, bandleader and recording artist. He creates multi-dimensional works that explore unconventional interactions of text and music, often inspired by current events. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Barbican Centre, and Beth Morrison Projects, Hearne's 2018 work “Place,” scored for 18 instrumentalists and six singers, was performed to acclaim at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Other works have been written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the European Contemporary Orchestra, A Far Cry, and the Albany Symphony. His “Katrina Ballads,” a modern-day oratorio with a primary source libretto, was awarded the 2009 Gaudeamus Prize in composition. Hearne has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, and his works have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a member of the composition faculty at the University of Southern California. Among his many collaborators are poets Dorothea Lasky and Jena Osman, visual artists Sanford Biggers and Rachel Perry, directors Daniel Fish and Patricia McGregor, and filmmakers Bill Morrison and Jonathan David Kane.

Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, American composer Pierre Jalbert has developed a musical language that is engaging and highly expressive. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jalbert draws inspiration from a variety of sources, ranging from plainchant melodies to nature. His works have been performed by the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, violinist Midori, and the Emerson String Quartet. Jalbert is professor of music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, where he has taught since 1996.

Thomas Larcher is a leading composer of classical music, with his inventive style that combines traditional and experimental techniques. Growing up in Austria, while hearing the ever-present works of Mozart, Bach and Schubert, Larcher became fascinated by American jazz giants such as Ornette Coleman and Gil Evans. Larcher's mature works combine his childhood influences of classical European style along with free jazz elements and rhythms. His large-scale works have been commissioned and performed by the world's most well-known orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and the orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. His list of chamber works includes five string quartets as well as numerous song cycles. Larcher's music has received the Great Austrian State Prize, Le Prix de Composition Musicale der Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, a British Composer Award and The Elise L. Stoeger Prize of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Sky Macklay is a composer, oboist and installation artist. Some of Macklay's pieces incorporate narratives beyond the usual boundaries of musical language. Her works have been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, and Kronos Quartet's “50 for the Future” project. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021, Macklay's other awards have come from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Civitella Ranieri. As an installation artist, Macklay designed and built an award-winning series of kinetic environments featuring robot sculptures that create sound by channeling air through deconstructed harmonicas. Macklay is on the composition faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Musician Kurt Rohde plays viola, teaches, and composes. Rohde is Artistic Advisor with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Artistic Director of the Composers Conference, and teaches Music Composition and Theory at the University of California Davis. He has received the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, fellowships from the Radcliffe-Harvard Institute for Advanced Study and Guggenheim Foundation, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Barlow, and Fromm Foundations. Rohde has spearheaded several initiatives to help create opportunities for gifted composers who do not have access to traditional paths to success. This marks Rohde's second Koussevitzky Foundation commission.

Hans Thomalla, a German-American who divides his time between Chicago and Berlin, is professor of composition at the University of Chicago. He has a long association with the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, an international venue for the exchange of contemporary and experimental music composition, practice, and ideas. Thomalla's music is written for orchestra and chamber ensembles, though with special emphasis on composing music for the stage, notably in his four operas. His awards and fellowships include the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, the Composer Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Musiksiftung, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. This year he will be a fellow at the German Academy “Rome Villa Massimo,” one of the most important awards offered by the German State to artists abroad. Thomalla is co-founder of the Chicago-based record label Sideband Records.

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

To post a comment, you must register and login.