SPCO, MPR & ACF Announce Lineup for Second Season of Composer Conversation Series

-The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), and American Composers Forum (ACF) are pleased to announce the second season of the Composer Conversation Series, events of which will take place at Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown Saint PaulSeptember 2013 through April 2014. A co-presentation of the SPCO, MPR and ACF, the Composer Conversation Series is intended for music lovers of all stripes. The series will feature some of today's most original, prominent, and prestigious voices in composition discussing their worldviews, artistic perspectives, and how their life experiences have shaped them into the artists they are today. The 2013-14 season will feature live interviews with distinctive creators John Harbison; Shawn Jaeger and Dawn Upshaw; Matthias Pintscher; Serengeti, Son Lux, and Sufjan Stevens with visual artist Jim Hodges (at The Walker Art Center); Timo Andres with Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci; John Luther Adams; and Vivian Fung. The events will include time devoted for audience Q&A and informal pre- and post-show receptions.

Composer Conversation Series events are free but reservations are required (tickets available approximately one month prior to each event; dates listed below).

Details at http://www.thespco.org/concerts-tickets/composer-conversation-series

2013-14 season schedule of events

John Harbison
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 7:00pm
Celebrated composer John Harbison is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation's prestigious "genius" award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. He is considered to be "original, varied, and absorbing - relatively easy for audiences to grasp and yet formal and complex enough to hold our interest through repeated hearings - his style boasts both lucidity and logic" (Fanfare). Harbison is also a gifted commentator on the art and craft of composition.

Tickets available August 19, 2013

Dawn Upshaw and Shawn Jaeger
Wednesday, October 22, 2013 at 7:00pmIn 2007 soprano Dawn Upshaw was the first vocal artist to be awarded the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beyond her captivating vocal performances, she is well known for being a vigorous champion of the music of today. Composers such as John Harbison, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Osvaldo Golijov have written works especially for her.

Composer Shawn Jaeger's music has been described as "introspective, mournful [...] evocative" by The New York Times, and often draws inspiration from Appalachian ballad singing and Old Regular Baptist hymnody. In 2010, Jaeger received a commission from Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute as part of a Professional Training Workshop led by soprano Dawn Upshaw and composer Donnacha Dennehy.

Tickets available September 23, 2013

Matthias Pintscher
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 at 7:00pm
Matthias Pintscher sees his two main spheres of activity, composing and conducting, as entirely complementary. He has created significant works for the world's leading orchestras, and his intrinsic understanding of the score from the composer's perspective informs his ability to communicate on the podium. He may justly be called the most sought-after German composer of his generation, and his music is championed by some of today's finest performing artists, orchestras and conductors.

Tickets available December 16, 2013

Serengeti, Son Lux, and Sufjan Stevens with Jim Hodges
Saturday, February 15, 2014 at 2:00pm (This event takes place at The Walker Art Center)Tickets available January 20, 2014
"Music's least likely supergroup" (Paste Magazine), comprised of Chicago-based rapper Serengeti, LA-based composer/producer Son Lux and Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/composer/indie darling Sufjan Stevens (S/S/S), offers listeners "an odd mix of personalities and musical styles [resulting in] something quite beautiful" (The Consequence of Sound). Inspired by the work of contemporary visual artist Jim Hodges, the trio will release its sophomore EP in conjunction with the first museum exhibition survey of Hodges' career in the U.S., opening at the Walker Art Center February 15, 2014. Bill Arning, Director of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, will moderate a discussion with all four artists- absolute forces in contemporary art and music and each absolutely unique in their approach, focus and medium.

Timo Andres with Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci
Thursday, March 20 at 7:00pmTickets available February 20, 2014
Composer-performers Timo Andres, Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens and Nathan Koci represent five of today's liveliest new voices in chamber music making. Project to project, their unique strengths as instrumentalists, accompanists, lead vocalists and singular composers are highlighted with varying emphasis, displaying their incredible range as performers and speaking to the expanding capacities of a new generation of classical creators.

John Luther Adams
Wednesday, April 2 at 7pm
Called "one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), John Luther Adams is a composer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world. A recipient of the Heinz Award for his contributions to raising environmental awareness, Adams has also been honored with the Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University "for melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique artistic vision that transcends stylistic boundaries."

Tickets available March 3, 2014

Vivian Fung
Wednesday, April 9 at 7pm
Canadian composer Vivian Fung has distinguished herself as a composer with a powerful compositional voice, whose music often merges Western forms with non-Western influences such as Balinese and Javanese gamelan and folk songs from minority regions of China. National Public Radio has called her, "one of today's most eclectic composers". Fung's Violin Concerto earned her a 2013 JUNO Award for "Classical Composition of the Year." As a composer whose travels often inspire her music, Fung has explored diverse cultures in China, North Vietnam, Spain, and Bali, Indonesia.

Tickets available March 10, 2013