Five Music Alive Composer Residencies Announced by League of American Orchestras and New Music USA

The League of American Orchestras and New Music USA have announced grants to five orchestras and ten composers to participate in the Music Alive program. Now in its 14th year, Music Alive supports composer residencies in the concert halls and communities of orchestras throughout the country by providing funding and resources for multi-year orchestra-composer collaborations.

"We are in the midst of a unique cultural moment, one that includes an extraordinary range of compositional talent with an unprecedented variety of expressive language and genres," said League President and CEO Jesse Rosen. "The Music Alive program is providing a platform for both young and established composers, while helping orchestras and their audiences benefit from this creative energy."

Five composer residencies will begin in the 2013-2014 season:

• Albany Symphony and Sleeping Giant Collective (six composers: Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, Ted Hearne, Robert Honstein,and Andrew Norman)
• Dayton Performing Arts Alliance and Stella Sung
• Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Gabriela Lena Frank
• Pacific Symphony and Narong Prangcharoen
• Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Trimpin

A total of approximately $900,000 will be distributed over three years to orchestras and composers who demonstrated depth and innovation in their plans for developing, implementing, and promoting the residencies. The orchestras will introduce the composers into their communities through a variety of creative means and approaches, including interdisciplinary concert productions, performances in alternative venues, cultural integration, education and community engagement programs, workshops, online events, and co-created community collaborations.

Since 1999, there have been 98 Music Alive orchestral residencies; that number includes 67 individual orchestras and 88 individual composers (several orchestras and composers have participated multiple times). The goals of the program are to help orchestras increase new music opportunities for audiences, artists, and administrators; to identify model practices for sustained partnerships between artists and communities; to help orchestras fully and comprehensively achieve their missions; and to enrich orchestral repertoire with fresh and inventive music of our time.

More information on Music Alive is available here.

Funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.