2nd Annual BPYO Young Composers Initiative Set for Today at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra announces the 2nd annual BPYO Young Composers Initiative, set for today, March 21st from 2:30pm-6:30pm at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, 41 Berkeley Street, Boston. Free and open to the public.

The acclaimed BPYO will rehearse and record the works of five selected area composers in the 2nd annual Young Composers Initiative. This initiative was created last year by current Zander Fellow James Blachly, whose Rite of Spring Dance Party caused a sensation in Boston in January.

The five selected composers are:

Andrew Harlan "Amplification;decay" (Berklee College of Music)
Douglas Friedman "A Consequence of Flight" (Walden School)
Victor Kong "White Funeral" (Boston Conservatory)
Sam Wu "Homecoming Shanghai, 2075" (Harvard College)
Danielle Galler Rabinowitz "Rappaccini's Daughter" (New England Conservatory)

The composition panel consists of: Michael Gandolfi (New England Conservatory), Andy Vores (Boston Conservatory), D.J. Sparr (Walden School), Richard Beaudoin (Harvard University), and Arnold Friedman (Berklee College of Music).

Mr. Blachly will host and conduct the event, inviting suggestions and modifications from the composers and panelists as appropriate, and keeping the audience engaged in this fascinating process of new music coming to life before them.

Composers from Harvard University, the Berklee School of Music, Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory have been selected, along with a national competition selected by the Walden School, a summer composition program based in New Hampshire.

The chairs of each department will be present to serve as an advisory panel during the session, and both students and faculty will gather following the session for a private round-table discussion about orchestral composition.

The selected composers were chosen from a large pool of applicants, each school determining its own selection process. Participants were chosen by the Boston Philharmonic from each school's finalists.

For more information, visit bostonphil.org/events/young-composers-initiative-0.

Current Zander Fellow James Blachly notes, "This is a thrilling opportunity for a major youth orchestra to play and record music of their immediate contemporaries, and a chance for them to meet and work with the composers in person as well. For the composers, there is nothing more exciting than the experience of hearing an orchestral work live for the first time. The energy around the event will be palpable, and the benefit to all musicians will be significant and long-lasting."

Boston Conservatory Chair of Composition Dr. Andy Vores praises the initiative, saying, "The only sure-fire way for a composer to grow is through hearing his or her music performed live, and for orchestral works there are very few opportunities for this to happen. How splendid then that at the Young Composers Initiative, there are many young performers playing young composers' music -- it is a valuable and inspiring project to be involved in."

Seth Brenzel, Executive Director of The Walden School, remarks, "The Walden School is honored to participate in this year's Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra composers' project and partner with Maestro Blachly. As an organization that nurtures, trains, and inspires creative musicians of all ages, Walden is particularly excited to offer an opportunity like this to our talented alumni. We are confident that Douglas Friedman, an alumnus of both Walden's Young Musicians Program and the School's Creative Musicians Retreat for adult musicians, will benefit greatly from the experience."

About the BPYO - Now in its third season, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra has already established itself as a significant feature in the cultural and educational fabric of Boston and beyond.

BPYO made its Carnegie Hall debut in December 2013. The New York Times review of that concert noted that the members of BPYO "play with a maturity and cohesion well beyond their years," and described their performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony as "a brilliantly played, fervently felt account, enriched with silken strings, robust brass and eloquent solos." This performance was recorded and subsequently released on Linn Records in November 2014, with a high-quality studio master download available at www.linnrecords.com.

The inaugural 2012-13 season of the BPYO culminated in a 5-city concert tour of the Netherlands, featuring a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In the course of the 12-day tour, the orchestra received two superlative five-star reviews in national papers, collaborated with an orchestra of 600 12-year-olds, and was featured in the International Koorbiënnale Haarlem. Following the success of this amazing tour, the BPYO will embark on a 3-country European tour in June 2015, where players will bring their remarkable talent to international audiences and engage in cultural exchange and outreach activities.

BPYO's motto is "shaping future leaders through music." Complementing their musical assignments, BPYO members receive weekly leadership assignments from Mr. Zander. The orchestra members carry on a dialogue with Mr. Zander through weekly "white sheets," wherein they are invited to reflect on the leadership assignments, and offer feedback about the rehearsal process and their musical and life experiences. These conversations often lead to stimulating discussions on personal leadership and effective contribution.

BPYO members participate as musical mentors in the Crescendo! programs of the BPO, working with younger musicians in local schools and El Sistema-inspired programs. BPYO co-hosted the first annual El Sistema Greater Boston showcase in 2013, which culminated in a side-by-side performance with musicians from BPYO and the Conservatory Lab Charter School.

The 112 members of the BPYO range in age from 12 to 21, and are chosen through a highly selective audition process. They reside or attend school throughout New England, and come together on Saturday afternoons for sectionals and full orchestra rehearsals at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, in Boston's South End.

About the selected composers:

Sam Wu (b. 1995) is a composer, arranger, and conductor currently attending Harvard University. He has studied composition under Tan Dun, Chaya Czernowin, Libby Larsen, Robert Brownlow, and Paul Coleman; conducting under Andrew Clark. Winner of the Oklahoma City University's Project21 Prize for Composition, Interlochen Fine Arts Best Composer Award, as well as a finalist for the 2014 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, his music has been performed in New York City, Boston, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Rochester, Interlochen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, and Melbourne, and has been commissioned by the Shanghai Int'l Arts Festival, Shanghai Conservatory Youth Symphony, Anda Union Mongolian Ensemble, Juventas Ensemble, Brattle Street Chamber Players, River Charles Ensemble, Harvard Wind Ensemble, Princeton Pianists' Ensemble, Trio Fiori, Hyperion Shakespeare Company, and members of the Harvard Ballet Company. As arranger, Sam has written for the Italian Philharmonic, Melbourne, China National, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xi'an Symphonies, as well as Xinjiang musician Alimjan.

In addition to composing, Sam serves as the assistant conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, conductor of the Mozart Society Orchestra, and music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Sam furthermore acts as musical assistant and arts administration intern under Tan Dun.

Douglas Friedman (b. 1993) is a composer and percussionist currently residing in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. His compositional endeavors have led him to write for a wide range of ensembles, but his focus is unceasingly to fuse the diverse styles that inspire his work. Recent performances have been given during the Atlantic Music Festival, the Dynamic Music Festival and Bard College's Music Alive series. Upcoming projects include an orchestral work to be performed by the American Symphony Orchestra in May 2015, as well as a string quartet commissioned by the Deer Valley Music Festival as part of their Emerging Quartets and Composers program. Douglas regularly performs in New York-based bands The Sifters, Esterhazy, and his own project, Hemispheres. He has attended several summer music programs including the Atlantic Music Festival, The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat and The Walden School Young Musicians Program. Currently in his last year of undergraduate study, Douglas will graduate in May 2015 from Bard College with a degree in music, having studied composition with George Tsontakis, Joan Tower and Kyle Gann.

Danielle Galler Rabinowitz is currently completing her final semester of the joint five-year Harvard University-New England Conservatory AB/MM Program for Music Composition. She began playing piano at the age of four and composing at the age of 11 under the guidance of Alla Elana Cohen. In September 2010, she began composition studies with Dr. Kati Agocs at New England Conservatory and has since joined the studio of Dr. Michael Gandolfi, Composition Department Chair.

Danielle has written over 50 original compositions and is the recipient of numerous awards for both composition and piano performance. She is a five-time finalist and winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, a National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts Young Arts honorable mention awardee, 3-time national finalist of the Music Teachers' National Association Competition, Pikes Peak Composition Competition first place winner, New York Art Ensemble Emerging Composer and a winner of the Karen Sokolof Javitch International Composition Competition. She participated in the 2008 Young Artists Composition Program at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox (MA), the 2012 European-American Musical Alliance Program in Paris (France), Fifth House Ensemble's 2013 Fresh Inc Festival in Chicago (IL), and the 2014 soundSCAPE Composition and Performance exchange in Maccagno (Italy).

Her musical work has been described as "equal parts sultry and adventurous," "majestic," and focused on "creating a natural dialogue between instruments."

Andrew Harlan (b. 1995) is a composer, improviser, and bassist born and raised in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in composition at The Boston Conservatory. He composes instrumental, electronic, vocal, and dance music. An avid reader, Harlan creates work heavily influenced by literature.

His primary teachers while at the conservatory have been Jan Swafford (composition), Curtis K. Hughes (composition), and Marc McAneny (orchestration). In high school, he also studied composition with Christopher Frye at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. He has participated in master classes with Claire Chase, Louis Andriessen, and Keeril Makan. He has received commissions from Shelly Mohr, Sofija Sibinovic, and Bryan Hayslett, among other instrumentalists. Harlan has had his works performed throughout the United States, as well as in Europe.

The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra is a not-for-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. Its mission is "passionate music-making without boundaries," and this initiative is in keeping with that sweeping inclusion and welcome. www.bostonphil.org