Copland House Announces New CULTIVATE Composer Fellows

Copland House has just announced the six fellows chosen to participate in CULTIVATE, its new, annual emerging composers institute. Launched last year to considerable acclaim, CULTIVATE is a week-long, all-scholarship creative workshop and mentoring program for highly-gifted composers in the earliest stages of their professional careers.

The CULTIVATE Fellows for 2013 are Tyler Capp (Friends of Copland House Fellow), Louis Chiappetta (Westchester Community Foundation Valentine and Clark Fellow), William Dougherty (Sheila and Richard J. Schwartz Honorary Fellowship), Takuma Itoh (Friends of Copland House Fellow), Loren Loiacono (ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fellow, and Nathan Shields (Westchester Community Foundation Valentine and Clark Fellow). They were selected out of 95 applications from 25 states by CULTIVATE Director Derek Bermel and an eminent panel of composers Robert Beaser, Sebastian Currier, and Lucio Gregoretti.

CULTIVATE 2013 takes place between June 3 and 8 in northern Westchester County, NY, at Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark in Cortlandt Manor and at Westchester County's vast Merestead estate in nearby Mount Kisco. The institute offers a period of concentrated, reflective work within the kind of collegial, nurturing environment that Copland always fostered.

"At the heart of CULTIVATE is the idea of community," Bermel explained; "that was something that Copland really valued. There are so few moments in life for artists to have the chance to think about the process, making the pieces come alive throughout the week, and joining together in a community to make our work the best that it can be. That's what CULTIVATE is really about." Roger Zare, last year's ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fellow, remarked, "this kind of prolonged, hands-on interaction with performers is very rare among other composition programs, and it is something that will makeCULTIVATE one of the standout opportunities for emergent composers in America."

Fellows each write a brief chamber composition that will serve as the focus of their work at CULTIVATE. They will spend the week in daily individual and collective sessions working closely with Bermel and the acclaimed Music from Copland House ensemble, honing their new compositions. Evening discussion sessions will focus on practical and professional aspects of being a composer, and will feature prominent, innovative arts leaders who are actively re-thinking and helping to re-shape the future of concert music. This year, these conversations will be led by Limor Tomer, Concert Director at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Dean Richard Kessler of the New School's Mannes College of Music. Composer Fellows also benefit from pre- and post-CULTIVATE creative and professional guidance. All costs of composer participation, working sessions and rehearsals, travel, accommodations, and meals are covered by CULTIVATE.

CULTIVATE concludes with a public concert on Sunday afternoon, June 9 at 3pm at Merestead, performed by the Music from Copland House ensemble and featuring the World Premieres of all the new works. The concert will be recorded and delayed broadcast by Copland House's media partner, Radio Station WWFM in Princeton, NJ.

Major support for CULTIVATE comes from the ASCAP Foundation, Westchester Community Foundation Valentine and Clark Scholarship Fund, John G. Strugar. Additional support comes from Leslie Cecil and Creighton Michael, Edward Dworetzky, and the Friends of Copland House.