Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions Finalists Announced

Eight finalists for this year’s Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute have been selected from a total of 174 entries from 39 states. The eight are:

J. Anthony Allen (Minneapolis, MN)
Mark Dancigers (New Haven, CN)
Matthew H. Fields (Ann Arbor, MI)
Ed Martin (Urbana, IL)
Norbert Palej (Ithaca, NY)
Sean Shepherd (Ithaca, NY)
Reynold Tharp (Evanston, IL)
Zhou Tian (Philadelphia, PA)

Under the guidance of composer Aaron Jay Kernis, the eight finalists will have their works read by the Minnesota Orchestra. The orchestra’s music director Osmo Vänskä will conduct the sessions along with David Alan Miller.

The reading sessions are free and open to the public and will be held at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on May 9, 2006 (10 a.m. and 1:35 p.m.), and May 11, 2006 (2 p.m.).

The Composer Institute will run from May 6 – 11, 2006, and is presented by the American Composers Forum in cooperation with the American Music Center. The eight finalists will participate in a series of professional workshops dealing with career and audience/community outreach issues. Participants in these workshops will include orchestra musicians and music industry professionals.

Six composers were selected as alternates in case any of the eight finalists are unable to participate as planned: Minsoo Cho (Champaign, IL); Elizabeth Hoffman (New York, NY); Kohei Mukai (Kansas City, MO); Doug Opel (Fort Wayne, IN); Philip Rothman (New York, NY); and Gregory Spears (New York, NY).

Eleven additional Composer Institute applicants were singled out for Honorable Mention: Peter Askim (Cumberland, ME); Christopher Biggs (Tucson, AZ); Suzanne Farrin (New York, NY); Aaron Holloway-Nahum (Evanston, IL); Darren Jones (San Francisco, CA); Andrew McKenna Lee (Princeton, NJ); Jeff Myers (Ann Arbor, MI); Erika Nelson (Ann Arbor, MI); Joshua Penman (Ann Arbor, MI); Richard Presley (Minneapolis, MN); and Natasha Sinha (Milton, MA).