Even as I was signing up for the American Composers Orchestra’s “Compose Yourself” classes last year, I wasn’t sure it was because I wanted to compose; but I hear a lot of new music and sometimes write about it, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get inside the composer’s head, to understand more of the process and therefore have more insight into the music.

As a group, Native Americans who write music churn out work in genres from classical to hip-hop, and those in the classical business write in styles from neo-romantic to electro-acoustic and pretty much everything in between.

“Good art is difficult, time consuming, and risky,” Chris Patton noted in his profile on the American Composers Forum website. Patton, 57, passed away peacefully last week after a sudden illness at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C….

Ten composers stitch together new settings of traditional American songs into a cohesive set.

What do you get when you cross 16 pianos and a kitchen-sink collection of percussion with robots at the helm? Here, take a listen…

Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina gets a warm reception under Slatkin’s baton.

The Washington, D.C., music scene welcomes the new Great Noise Ensemble.