New Music News Wire

New Music News Wire

Boosey & Hawkes launches an emerging composer program with signings of Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun. The American Composers Orchestra launches a national orchestral composition discovery network.

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

Boosey & Hawkes Launches Emerging Composer Program

 

Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun

Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. (B&H) has announced the launch of a new sponsorship program, Boosey & Hawkes Emerging Composers, to provide publishing, promotion, and career support to a select group of young composers. The first three composers who have been signed are Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun.

The three inaugural composers involved in the program share an interest in multi-media and each have an eclectic and wide-ranging musical vocabulary. Oscar Bettison creates music for a variety of idioms encompassing traditional ensembles and rock bands as well as what he has described as “cinderella instruments”—either creating his own instruments or re-imagining ones that already exist. Born in Jersey, U.K., Bettison is currently based in the U.S. where he is finishing his PhD at Princeton University. London-born/Brooklyn-based Anna Clyne’s work frequently involves electronics and collaborations with choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists. Her music has recently been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the American Composers Orchestra. Du Yun’s music has been performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Born and raised in Shanghai, Ms. Du is currently based in New York City.

According to Zizi Mueller, B&H’s Director of Composers & Repertoire, the new initiative is “an investment opportunity in 21st century repertoire and therefore in our community as a whole. The program allows for substantial flexibility for both B&H and the composers to see how the relationship develops and may continue over time. It is our hope that this cycle will be the beginning of a long-term relationship between B&H and each one of these composers.”

ACO Launches National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network

 

EarShot Logo

The American Composers Orchestra in collaboration with the American Music Center, American Composers Forum, Meet The Composer, and the League of American Orchestras has launched EarShot, the first-ever national partnership created to strengthen and support orchestras in their commitment to up-and-coming American composers and their music. The program will identify emerging American orchestral composers, provide composers with professional-level working experience with orchestras from every region of the country, and increase awareness of these composers and access to their music throughout the industry.

A key priority of EarShot is to build partnerships with orchestras around the country to establish and promote a national network of New Music Readings that will introduce audiences to and provide professional advancement for American composers and their work. Other EarShot projects will include workshops, residency design, commissioning consortia, consulting, and related composer development programs. In collaboration with partner orchestras around the country, EarShot will help plan, announce, and coordinate readings; handle the processing and adjudication of submissions; and make available mentor-composers, conductors, supplementary workshops and technical assistance. EarShot will provide production subsidies directly to participating orchestras to help cover direct production expenses. The New Music Readings planned around the country will be built on highly successful models such as ACO’s annual Underwood New Music Readings and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute.

EarShot is working with orchestras around the country (including the Baltimore Symphony, Denver Young Artists, Memphis Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, and South Dakota Symphony), providing consulting, production, and administrative support for these organizations to undertake their own readings, residencies, and related composer-development programs in their communities. Additional activities with multiple orchestras are now under discussion.

EarShot is a project of the New Strategies Lab, a program of EmcArts, made possible with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support has come from the New York State Council on the Arts.

(Edited and Compiled by Frank J. Oteri)