League of American Orchestras Renews Women Composers Initiative

The League of American Orchestras' program supporting women composers will be renewed for a second year, the League and EarShot, the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network, announced today. Administered by New York's American Composers Orchestra and made possible by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, the initiative aims to increase opportunities for women composers through a series of orchestral readings and commissions.

The program is integrated into this year's EarShot composer readings with Buffalo Philharmonic (February 10-12, 2015); Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (April 28-30, 2015); and Berkeley Symphony (May 2-5, 2015); as well as American Composers Orchestra's Underwood New Music Reading Sessions (May 6-8, 2015). During the readings composers are mentored by established composers and participate in career development workshops. Two of the participating composers will be selected to receive orchestral commissions of $15,000 each, with premiere details to be announced at a future date. New this year, all female composers who have participated in previous EarShot readings - even those from years past - are eligible for commission consideration, significantly expanding the applicant pool.

The League and EarShot also announced today that, in a future season, American Composers Orchestra will premiere a new work by Melody Eötvös and the New York Philharmonic will premiere a new viola concerto for Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps by Julia Adolphe. The two composers are 2014 commission recipients.

Jesse Rosen, the League's President and CEO, said, "We are grateful to the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for their support, and thrilled to continue this important work, now with an expanded focus. Additionally, the participation of both American Composers Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic is very exciting, and another sign of the field's acknowledgement of the importance of new work and innovation."

Michael Geller, President & CEO, American Composers Orchestra, says, "Creating opportunities for American composers is the 'heart and soul' of what ACO does. We are especially honored that our EarShot program plays such an integral part in this important initiative to encourage and support women composers. It builds on a record that dates back to our earliest years, when ACO commissioned Joan Tower to write her very first orchestral music, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her ACO-commissioned work."

Twenty-six year old composer Julia Adolphe's music has been described as "colorful, mercurial, deftly orchestrated" (The New York Times) and a "mastery of dynamic as well as harmonic complexity" (Financial Times). Born in New York and currently residing in Los Angeles, her works have received performances across the U.S. and abroad by renowned groups such as the New York Philharmonic, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, the USC Thornton Symphony, JACK Quartet violinist Christopher Otto and cellist Kevin McFarland, Nouveau Classical Project, and Great Noise Ensemble, among others. Current projects include a solo work for Grammy-nominated pianist Aron Kallay and an opera set in present-day Iran with librettist Nahal Navidar.

In a review of Julia Adolphe's Dark Sand, Sifting Light, her piece performed by the New York Philharmonic in the EarShot reading during the orchestra's NY PHIL BIENNIAL in spring 2014, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, "Adolphe's work was alive with invention. Plaintive strands of near-tonal melody floated in an eerie, wide-open space defined at its edges by groaning bass timbres, wayward piano figures, and the rustlings of maracas, vibraslap, snare drum, and other percussion. It felt like an encampment encircled by watchful eyes, and toward the end a violent frenzy broke out. Adolphe is in the doctoral program at U.S.C., and this is her first full-orchestra piece. It is remarkably assured and, like the Biennial itself, seems an upbeat to something grander." The work imagines a piano playing in the distance, overheard through an open apartment window. As the listener poised beneath the window begins to daydream, the piano sounds take on larger orchestral colors.

Melody Eötvös was born in 1984 in Australia and is now based in Bloomington, Indiana. Her work draws on both multimedia and traditional instrumental contexts, as well substantial extra-musical references to a broad range of philosophical topics and late 19th century literature. She has studied with composers including Gerardo Dirié, Simon Bainbridge, Claude Baker, Jeffrey Hass, John Gibson, and Alicyn Warren. Eötvös has been the recipient of various awards including the 3MBS National Composers Award (Australia 2009), an APRA PDA (Australia 2009), and the Soundstream National Composer Award (2012). Her music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian String Quartet. She holds a DM (2014) from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a MM (2008) from the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Melody Eötvös's work Beetles, Dragons, and Dreamers was called "simmering" by the New York Times' Zachary Woolfe when it was performed by the American Composers Orchestra this spring during ACO's 23rd annual Underwood New Music Readings. The work draws its inspiration from the concept of four mythological or ancient relics that, over the ages, have been carried into the present time but with transformed meanings. In the words of music blog Lucid Culture, "An 'inherent sense of creepiness,' as Eötvös put it, permeated her quartet Beetles, Dragons & Dreamers. With its relentless unease and occasional explosiveness, it made for a sensationally good centerpiece. The opening theme, "Draconian Measures," had a tense lushness, rippling cascades and then what was by now the expected pursuit segment. "Lilith, Begone" was both the most accessible and menacing piece on the bill, followed by a restless tone poem, "The Inanimate Spider" and then a lingering, knife's-edge conclusion, "Trojan Horse." Over and over, Eotvos punctured shifting, atmospheric sheets from the strings with sudden, jagged motives from throughout the orchestra to max out the suspense factor."

EarShot, a nationwide network of new music readings and composer-development programs, is the nation's first ongoing, systematic program for identifying emerging orchestral composers. EarShot provides professional-level working experience with orchestras from every region of the country and increases awareness of the participating emerging composers and access to their music throughout the industry. Recent and upcoming Earshot programs have included the Detroit, Berkeley, La Jolla, Nashville, Memphis, Colorado, San Diego Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The program is administered by American Composers Orchestra with partner organizations the American Composers Forum, League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA.

The League of American Orchestras leads, supports, and champions America's orchestras and the vitality of the music they perform. Its diverse membership of approximately 800 orchestras across North America runs the gamut from world-renowned symphonies to community orchestras, from summer festivals to student and youth ensembles. The only national organization dedicated solely to the orchestral experience, the League is a nexus of knowledge and innovation, advocacy, and leadership advancement for managers, musicians, volunteers, and boards. Its conferences and events, award-winning Symphony magazine, website, and other publications inform music lovers around the world about orchestral activity and developments. Founded in 1942 and chartered by Congress in 1962, the League links a national network of thousands of instrumentalists, conductors, managers and administrators, board members, volunteers, and business partners. Visitamericanorchestras.org to learn more.