EarShot & BPO Select Composers for Buffalo Philharmonic New Music Readings This Week

Tonight, February 10, through February 12, 2015, EarShot (the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network) and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO), JoAnn Falletta, Music Director, will present the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Readings at Kleinhans Music Hall (3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo).

Tomorrow, February 11 at 7pm at Kleinhans Hall, the public will have the opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing brand new orchestral works to life, as music by the four selected composers is read by the BPO under the baton of associate conductor, Stefan Sanders. The composers - Cody Forrest, Jay Hurst, Yuan-Chen Li, and Scott Ordway - were selected through a national call for scores, and during the Readings will receive feedback from BPO Musicians, Sanders, and mentor composers Robert Beaser of The Juilliard School and artistic director laureate of American Composers Orchestra, Rob Deemer from SUNY Fredonia, and Pulitzer Prize winner Melinda Wagner. Afterwards, the audience is invited to be a part of a discussion Q&A with the young composers, the conductor, and mentor composers.

Composers will have their music rehearsed, performed, and professionally recorded for archival use. In-depth sessions with the conductor, mentor-composers, and musicians from Buffalo Philharmonic will provide guidance and feedback. Between the sessions, composers will have the opportunity to edit and adjust their works based on critical feedback. Composers will also participate in professional development workshops and feedback sessions covering such topics as copyright, contracts and commissioning agreements; publicity and promotion; music copying, publishing and engraving; and fundraising for composers.

The EarShot Buffalo Philharmonic New Music Readings will also include professional development workshops for composers and composition students from 12pm-5pm tomorrow, February 11 in Kleinhans Music Hall. The workshops will feature a range of presenters including John Nuechterlein (American Composers Forum), Bill Holab (Bill Holab Music Publishing), Scott Winship (New Music USA), and Steven Swartz (DOTDOTDOTMUSIC) discussing essential topics for an emerging composer including publishing, copyright issues, publicity, fundraising, grant requirements, and more. To register for the workshops, RSVP via email to Robin Parkinson at rparkinson@bpo.org by February 4, 2015. A light lunch will be served.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Readings are a part of EarShot, a nationwide network of new music readings and composer-development programs organized by American Composers Orchestra, in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum. Additional EarShot partnerships during the 2014-2015 season also include Chicago Symphony (April 2015) and Berkeley Symphony (May 2015). ACO continues its own Underwood New Music Readings for the 24th year in New York at the DiMenna Center (May 6-8, 2015). To date over fifty composers have been selected for EarShot new music readings with orchestras across the country including the New York Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Pioneer Valley Symphony (MA), New York Youth Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony.

Cody Forrest: To See the Stars Again

Cody W. Forrest (b. 1988) is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at New England Conservatory, where his string quartet, Book of Prayers, was a winner of the 2013 Honors Ensemble Competition. His music has been performed by the Syracuse University Wind Ensemble, Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Concerti Ensemble, hornist William Scharnberg, and harpsichordist Christoph Hammer, and he has been commissioned by Daniel Hege, the University of North Texas Theatre Department, and Kyle Hutchins of AVIDduo. Also of note, Cody was a recipient of the 2014 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for his piece To See the Stars Again.

Cody holds an M.M. from Syracuse University and a B.M. from the University of North Texas, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. At Syracuse University, he was a recipient of the Heaton Fellowship, and at UNT he received the Martin Mailman Scholarship and the Outstanding Undergraduate in Composition Award his senior year. His composition teachers have included Kati Agócs, Malcolm Peyton, Daniel Godfrey, Andrew Waggoner, and Cindy McTee.

The composer says, "Writing this piece turned out to be a struggle worthy of its subject matter. I began amassing material for the work in the summer of 2012 at the Atlantic Music Festival. It is often my goal to portray a spiritual journey in my music, which turned out to be the case with this work. The story is one of a soul's revolt, its ensuing struggle to reconcile with the forces that brought it to that extreme, and ultimately its search for redemption. This soul is represented in the music by the melody line of the opening string chorale. Over the course of the piece, this motive takes on many emotional colors - from peaceful to uncertain, raging to joyous. Although the emotional scope of this motive is vast, the actual melodic cell usually remains unchanged; rather, it is the context surrounding this motive that is constantly in flux. Intermingled are other ideas that play supporting roles along the course of this soul's journey."

Jay Hurst: Still Lives

Jay Hurst (b. 1989) is a composer from Cape Canaveral, FL and currently lives in Bloomington, IN. His music has been performed at the International U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, Midwest Composers Symposium, Accent11, ACES/ECA NewMusicNewSounds, and the Brevard Music Festival.

Jay is pursuing a DM at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he also serves as an Associate Instructor in Composition. He also holds degrees from Indiana University (MM '13) and Stetson University (BM '11) in DeLand, FL. Jay has studied with Sven-David Sandström, Claude Baker, P.Q. Phan, David Dzubay, Aaron Travers, Don Freund, and Sydney Hodkinson. Jay is a member of ASCAP and is the co-founder of These Hands Publishing.

The composer says, "Screens are everywhere now. Looking around a crowded room, chances are that you will see many people standing or sitting next to each other with their faces buried in their phones - the great contradiction being that technology interconnects us more than ever before, but our lives become isolated and still by tapping in to that connection. In Still Lives, that contradiction is played out in two contrasting movements. The first movement, reunion, is anxious and blurry, featuring an obsessive rising gesture introduced by the violins. The second movement, wire tap, crackles with energy as pitches are gradually added to the open-fifth gesture of the strings, a buzzing mass of overtones and noise. Still Lives was completed in July of 2014 in Brevard, North Carolina, and is dedicated to Lee and Hannah Curtis and their son, Shepard, who was born during the first revisions of this piece."

Yuan-Chen Li: On Aldebaran

Yuan-Chen Li's (b.1980, Taiwan) musical style and language is cultivated through a sensitivity to human expression. Her Taiwanese upbringing, a Buddhist spirit, Western musical knowledge, and the symbolic aspects of nature and art, have inspired her work. The sense of time and momentum in her music is not easily categorized as purely classical or contemporary. Her appreciation of principles about transformation, often found in classical Chinese poetry, brings an inclusiveness to modern music valuing both discipline and emancipation.

The range of Yuan-Chen's repertoire extends from large-scale force, such as orchestra and concerto to more sensitive chamber and solo music. Western and Chinese instruments have been used in selected pieces: Awakening premiered by Tokyo Philharmonia Orchestra (2003), Intermezzo: SHANG commissioned by National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan) premiered by Maestro Nicholas Milton (2012), the Guzheng concerto Hovering in the Air receiving an Israeli premiere during the conference and festival of Asian Composers' League (2012), and Spell for solo saxophone performed by acclaimed saxophonist Timothy McAllister at Northwestern University New Music Conference (2014). Digitally cataloged in the classical score library by Alexander Street Press, Yuan-Chen's works have been programmed and researched by musicians and musicologists around the world.

Yuan-Chen holds a B.A. and M.A. in music composition and theory from the Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan) and an Artist Diploma from the Yale University School of Music. She is completing a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, studying composition with Marta Ptaszynska and orchestration with conductor Cliff Colnot. Relevant honors, awards, and grants include Artist Residency at Cite Internationale des Arts, Jacob Druckman Scholarship, University of Chicago Scholarship, and National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan).

The composer says, "Imagine a journey under celestial sky. Such as the reddish star of Aldebaran, among many, symbolizes the eternity. The traveler follows it. But depending on the altitude and the latitude, the traveler's viewpoint during his ongoing journey in relation to the star has never been the same. Ever changing is therefore the nature of unchanging. The focal pitch of On Aldebaran is F#. Its pitch identity is ambiguous and arbitrary, implied by the constant conflict among multiple sets of harmonic patterns in different rhythms moving alongside. The tone color of F# is composed by mixed ensemble, either well blended or extremely contrasted. The form of the piece is also open to interpretation, not limited to be perceived as a composed-through movement or multiple sections. On Aldebaran draws composer's memory of the tune from Nan-quan music and tributes to Japanese Gagaku. The orchestration grants the harmony a greater role to form stratum, eventually becomes a conflux of everything without boundaries."

Scott Ordway: Symphony No. 3

Scott Ordway (b. 1984, California) is an American composer and conductor. In 2014, he joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During the 2013-14 season, his orchestral, choral, chamber, and multimedia works were heard on 35 concerts in eleven states and in Europe. Season highlights include the European premiere of his tone poem Detroit at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, and the premiere of Brotherly Love, a multimedia collaboration with more than 100 Philadelphia schoolchildren funded by the American Composers Forum. His chamber music has been presented recently by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble (San Antonio), Boston Musica Viva, Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Michigan Recital Project, and the Momenta and Arneis String Quartets.

Scott has spent summers at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, the Accademia Chigiana in Tuscany, June in Buffalo, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Freie Universität Berlin, and as a two-time Artist-in-Residence at the Foundation House in Bel Air, California. In recent seasons, he has worked with graduates of America's leading musical institutions, including the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music, as well as ensembles such as Fireworks, Counter)induction, So Percussion, and the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.

Scott's Symphony No. 3 was composed between July 2012 and March 2013 in Aspen, Philadelphia, and NYC. It unfolds in a single movement over twenty-two minutes. The first performance was given in 2013 by the Bates College Orchestra with the composer conducting. It has also been recorded by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Hayes. Though the work is abstract, the music is characterized by a sense of open space and gradual unfolding. The symphonic argument traces the distinction between the vast external permanence of natural landscape and the volatile subjectivity of our own inner lives.

Stefan Sanders, associate conductor

Stefan Sanders is as an imaginative conductor, devoted educator and ardent champion of many types of music. He has collaborated with an array of distinguished artists such as violinist Gil Shaham, Fred Childs from public radio' s Performance Today, country sensation The Texas Tenors and the esteemed Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, to name a few.

Guest conducting engagements in the U.S and abroad include the San Antonio Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria (Syracuse, NY), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (CZ), Austin Lyric Opera, Corpus Christi Opera and the Round Top International Festival Institute.

Sanders is currently the Music Director and Conductor for the Round Rock Symphony (TX) where he is attracting much praise for innovative programming, new venues and collaborations with local arts organizations, attracting broader audiences and redefining the orchestra's role in its community. Past positions have included Assistant Conductor for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the University Orchestra at the University of Texas at Austin and Apprentice Conductor for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Prior to a career as a conductor, Sanders was an internationally renowned trombonist, having performed as a soloist in the United States, Asia and Europe. His performance of Eric Ewazen's Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra, with the Czech Philharmonic, can be heard on the Albany Records label. Sanders was a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic's trombone section for seven seasons and has performed with several orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Opera's 2001 production of Wagner's Ring Cycle and the Florida Orchestra. Sanders was also invited by Sir Elton John to play in the orchestra for his Radio City Music Hall concerts in 2004 recorded for the Bravo Television Network.

Beginning formal conducting studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Sanders continued his studies as a fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen under the tutelage of maestros Robert Spano, Larry Rachleff and Hugh Wolff. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Juilliard School.

About the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - As Buffalo's cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the leadership of music director JoAnn Falletta presents more than 100 concerts each year. Since 1940, the orchestra's home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark with a reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States. During the tenure of JoAnn Falletta, the BPO has rekindled its history of radio broadcasts and recordings, including the release of 31 new recordings on the Naxos and Beau Fleuve labels. For more information about the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, visit www.bpo.org.

About the EarShot Partners:

American Composers Orchestra

Now in its 38th season, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers. ACO makes the creation of new opportunities for American composers and new American orchestral music its central purpose. Through concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, internet and radio broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO identifies today's brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music. To date, ACO has performed music by more than 700 American composers, including 300 world premieres and newly commissioned works. More information about American Composers Orchestra is available online at www.americancomposers.org.

American Composers Forum

The American Composers Forum is committed to supporting composers and developing new markets for their music. Through granting, commissioning, and performance programs, the Forum provides composers at all stages of their careers with valuable resources for professional and artistic development. By linking communities with composers and performers, the Forum fosters a demand for new music, enriches communities, and helps develop the next generation of composers, musicians, and music patrons. For more information, go to www.composersforum.org.

The League of American Orchestras

Founded in 1942, and chartered by Congress in 1962, the League of American Orchestras leads, encourages, and supports America's orchestras while communicating to the public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform. The League's vision is to be a transformative and unifying force for the orchestra field-a catalyst for understanding and innovation, a place for conversations that matter, and a champion for orchestras. More information can be found at www.americanorchestras.org.

New Music USA

On November 8, 2011 a merger was completed between two eminent champions of new music in the United States, the American Music Center and Meet The Composer. The result is an exciting new organization that will serve music-makers and their audiences in the twenty-first century. Its mission is to increase opportunities for composers, performers and audiences by fostering the creation, dissemination, and enjoyment of new American music, both nationally and internationally. New Music USA places special emphasis on broadening the public community for the music and musicians they serve. New Music USA will maintain all core programming of AMC and MTC. More information can be found at www.newmusicusa.org.