Items

• White Water (String Quartet No. 5)

  Joan Tower
• Angels (String Quartet No. 4)

  Joan Tower
• Power Dance

  Joan Tower
• Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman

  Joan Tower
• Second String Force

  Joan Tower
• Joan Tower

  Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today. During a career spanning more than fifty years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life in the United States as composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Her works have been commissioned by major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras, including the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, Paul Neubauer, and John Browning; and the orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Nashville, Albany NY, and Washington DC among others. In 2019 the League of American Orchestras awarded her its highest honor, the Gold Baton, at the League's 74th national conference. Tower is the first composer chosen for a Ford Made in America consortium commission of sixty-five orchestras. Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony recorded Made in America in 2008 (along with Tambor and Concerto for Orchestra). The album collected three Grammy awards: Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best Classical Album, and Best Orchestral Performance. Nashville’s latest all-Tower recording includes Stroke, which received a 2016 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. In 1990 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Silver Ladders, a piece she wrote for the St. Louis Symphony where she was Composer-in-Residence from 1985-88. Other residencies with orchestras include a 10-year residency with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (1997-2007) and the Pittsburgh Symphony (2010-11). She was the Albany Symphony’s Mentor Composer partner in the 2013-14 season. Tower was cofounder and pianist for the Naumburg Award winning Da Capo Chamber Players from 1970-85. She has received honorary doctorates from Smith College, the New England Conservatory, and Illinois State University. She is Asher Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972.
• Voices from the Killing Jar

  Kate Soper
• Run in a Graveyard

  Du Yun
• Du Yun

  Du Yun, born and raised in Shanghai, China and currently based in New York City, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, activist, and curator for new music, who works at the intersection of orchestral, opera, chamber music, theatre, cabaret, musical theater, oral tradition, public performances, sound installation, electronics, visual arts, and noise. Known for her “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience” (The New Yorker), Du Yun’s second opera, Angel’s Bone, won a Pulitzer Prize for music in 2017; in 2018 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow; and in 2019 she was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Composition category. She has been hailed by the New York Times as a groundbreaking artist, was listed by the Washington Post as one of their Top 35 female composers. Known as chameleonic in her protean artistic outputs, Du Yun’s works are championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, ensembles, orchestras, museums, and organizations around the world. Her albums Dinosaur Scar and Angel’s Bone were named in the New Yorker’s list of Top 10 Albums of the Year in 2018 and 2017, respectively. As a featured composer, selected commissions and venues: LA Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Carnegie Hall, London Southbank Centre, Kennedy Center, Whitney Museum, Baltimore Symphony, Festival d’Avignon, Ultima Norway, Salle Playel Paris, Darmstadt, Musica Nova Helsinki, Lincoln Center, RedCat, Kimmel Center, Cabrillo Festival, Detroit Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Opera Orchestra, Beijing Music Festival, Hong Kong New Vision Festival, Mann Center for the Performing Arts (Philadelphia), Trinity Wall Street, Beth Morrison Projects, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Salzburg Aspekte Festival, the Bolshoi Orchestra (Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow), and BAM NextWave. An alumna of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College (BM), and Harvard University (MA, PhD), Du Yun is currently Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and distinguished visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a curator and activist for new music and art, she was a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); served as the Artistic Director of MATA Festival (2014-2018); conceived the Pan Asia Sounding Festival (inaugurated at National Sawdust); and founded an ongoing multi-year FutureTradition Initiative in China where she works with folk musicians from around the world in order to champion more cross-regional collaborations. Future curatorial engagements include the LA Phil Green Umbrella Series (March 2020), Göteborg Art Sounds Festival (Sweden, Oct 2020), the centennial edition at the Donaueschingen Festival (Germany, Oct 2021), and a forthcoming article in OnCurating, edited by Rob Young. In 2018 Du Yun was named one of 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Foundation, and in 2019 the Beijing Music Festival named her “Artist of the Year.”
• Dorchadas

  Ann Cleare
• Ann Cleare

  Ann Cleare is an Irish composer working in the areas of concert music, opera, extended sonic environments, and hybrid instrumental design. Her work explores the static and sculptural nature of sound, probing the extremities of timbre, texture, colour, and form. She creates highly psychological and corporeal sonic spaces that encourage a listener to contemplate the complexity of the lives we exist within, exploring poetries of communication, transformation, and perception. A recipient of a 2019 Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize, her work has been commissioned and presented by major broadcasters such as the BBC, NPR, ORF, RTÉ, SWR, WDR for festivals such as Gaudeamus Week, The Wittenertage fur Neue Kammermusik, International Music Institute Darmstadt, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, IMATRONIC Festival of Electronic Music at ZKM, MATA Festival, Taschenopernfestival, Sound Reasons Festival in India, Shanghai New Music Week, Transit Belgium, GAIDA, Totally Huge New Music in Perth, Trattorie Parma, Rainy Days in Luxembourg, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Ultraschall. Through working with some of the most progressive musicians of our time, she has established a reputation for creating innovative forms of music, both in its presentation, and within the music itself. She has worked with groups such as Ensemble SurPlus, 175 East, The Crash Ensemble, The Callithumpian Consort, Quatuor Diotima, The International Contemporary Ensemble, The Chiara String Quartet, Collegium Novum Zürich, ELISION, The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Divertimento Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Apparat, Ensemble Nikel, The Curious Chamber Players, Yarn/Wire, ensemble mosaik, The Experimental Ensemble of the SWR Studios, Talea Ensemble, österreichisches ensemble für neue music, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, ensemble recherche, TAK, Vertixe Sonore, Ensemble Garage, Argento Chamber Ensemble, The Fidelio Trio, oh ton-ensemble, Distractfold, Longleash Trio, Riot Ensemble, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, Vortex Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemblekollektiv, WasteLAnd, and soloists such as Carol McGonnell, Richard Craig, Heather Roche, Bill Schimmel, Benjamin Marks, Patrick Stadler, Carlos Cordeiro, Ryan Muncy, Richard Haynes, William Lang, Laura Cocks, Lina Andonovska, Samuel Stoll, and Callum G’Froerer. Recent projects have focused on creating experiential environments where sound is given a visual as well as sonic dimension, such works include eyam i-v, a series of five attacca pieces, centred around clarinet and flute writing in various solo, ensemble, electronic, and orchestral settings, spanning just over two hours of music that is continuously transformed in shape, time, and motion around the listener; rinn, a time travel chamber opera involving a multichannel sonic sculpture that the singers and actors wear, interact with, and are amplified by; spatially choreographed chamber pieces such as I should live in wires for leaving you behind, anchor me to the land, and on magnetic fields; a newly-designed instrument that a musician simultaneously wears and plays in eöl; surface stations, multi-layered theatre involving the staging of extended brass instruments, vocal ensemble, and visuals. Current and future projects include new works for a series of songs for voice and piano for The Irish Language Art Song Project, a choral work for Galway European City of Culture 2020, a chamber piece for the National Concert Hall of Ireland’s Beethoven 2020 celebrations, a solo flute work for Claire Chase, an evening-length work for ELISION, a large scale work for soloists, chorus, orchestra, and electronics for New Music Dublin 2021, a DVD of filmed works released by Kairos, a video opera version of her opera rinn, and the creation of outdoor sonic sculptures with sculptor Brian Byrne. Ann studied at University College Cork, IRCAM, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In October 2019, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland for her contribution to music. Her scores are published by Project Schott New York and she is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland (CMC). She is Assistant Professor of Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin. As an artistic collaborator with Dublin Sound Lab, she will work on developing their programming and production of electronic music over the coming years. Ann is Projects Officer with Sounding the Feminists (#STF), a collective championing principles of equality, fairness, inclusivity, and diversity in Irish musical life.
• Toque

  Tania León
• De Memorias

  Tania León
• Tzigane

  Valerie Coleman
• Portraits of Josephine: Suite for Woodwind Quintet

  Valerie Coleman
• The Wildflower Songbook

  Rhian Samuel
• And the Fallen Petals

  Chou Wen-Chung
• All in the Spring Wind

  Chou Wen-Chung
• Landscapes

  Chou Wen-Chung
• Skin

  Gemma Peacocke
• Gemma Peacocke

  Hi! I am a composer and I live in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in New Zealand and my childhood bedroom in Hamilton was occupied before me by Richard O'Brien (who wrote the Rocky Horror Picture Show). I hope I get to meet him one day.​ My song cycle, Waves & Lines, which was adapted from Afghan women's folk poems in Eliza Griswold's book I Am the Beggar of the World, is available as a studio album now on New Amsterdam via Bandcamp or on CD. Along with Shelley Washington, I'm co-founder of Kinds of Kings, a composer collective focused on amplifying under-heard voices and producing immersive and transporting new music shows. Kinds of Kings is an artist-in residence at National Sawdust in 2019-2020 with our season, Equilibrium and Disturbance. Before moving to the US I worked in arts administration and project management for almost a decade. I've lived in Austria, England, France, and Japan. In addition to my music degrees, I also have a degree in English Literature, and any time I get to interact with writers and theatre people I find myself in my happy place. I also studied industrial design once upon a time and I mostly use the skills I learned to design posters and draw pictures of dogs.
• Tania León

  Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba), a vital personality on today’s music scene, is highly regarded as a composer and conductor and for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. She has been the subject of profiles on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, BB3, Telemundo, independent films, and Univision, including their noted series “Orgullo Hispano,” which celebrates living American Latinos whose contributions in society have been invaluable. In July 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and U2. León’s orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Recent premieres include Ser for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Pasajes for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra; Ritmicas for The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition's Grossman Ensemble; Anima for Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together in response to the Coronavirus pandemic; Mujer, Define Mujer for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus with lyrics by N.Y. Young Poet Laureate Aaliyah C. Daniels; and Pa’lante for the International Contemporary Ensemble and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). In May 2022, Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt, Germany) performed Happy New Ears, a portrait of composer Tania León, and in June 2022, León was a Featured Composer at the Kreatives Multitasking conference (Basel, Switzerland), with works performed by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo and ensemble oktopus. Upcoming commissions feature a new work to be performed by a consortium of symphony orchestras for the New Music USA Amplifying Voices Program; an orchestral work for the League of American Orchestras; a song cycle for Curtis Institute’s Ensemble 20/21 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of The Musical Fund Society in Philadelphia; and a work for Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove. León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received over 20 performances throughout Europe and Mexico. Commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and the city of Munich for the Fourth Munich Biennale, it took home the coveted BMW Prize, and the aria “Oh Yemanja” (“Mother's Prayer”) was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD, The World So Wide. Past commissions include works for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Arts, NDR Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Fest der Kontinente (Hamburg, Germany), The Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, Los Angeles Master Chorale, DanceBrazil, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. León’s compositions have been performed by such orchestras and ensembles as the Gewandhausorchester, NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble Modern (Germany); Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Basel Sinfonietta (Switzerland); London Sinfonietta (England); China National Symphony; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy (France); and Orquesta del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico). León has collaborated with poets, writers and directors, including John Ashbery, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Wendy Kesselman, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Lamos, Fae Myenne Ng, Julie Taymor, Derek Walcott, and Robert Wilson. Past highlights include a Composer Portrait at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York City, and the hour-long, multimedia work Drummin', featuring percussionists of diverse cultures and performed by New World Symphony in Miami and members of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany. León was one of the first artists to be featured by Harlem Stage in Aaron Davis Hall’s initiative WaterWorks, and her work was featured in the celebration of some of the most prestigious composers of our time, including Pierre Boulez’s 80th birthday, “Gyorgy Ligeti’s 80th Birthday, and the Copland Centennial. As a guest conductor, Tania León has appeared with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Marseille and Colonne Orchestra (France), Beethovenhalle Orchestra (Germany), Geneva Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias and Orquesta y Coro de la Communidad de Madrid (Spain), Santa Cecilia Orchestra (Italy), Sadler's Wells Orchestra (England), Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), Orquesta Sinfónica de El Salvador (El Salvador), Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (South Africa), and the New York Philharmonic, among others. In 1969, Tania León became a founding member and first Music Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, establishing the Dance Theatre’s Music Department, Music School and Orchestra. She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1978, and founded the Sampler Concerts series presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art at Atria. In 1994, in her capacity of Latin American Music Advisor, she co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas festivals. From 1993 to 1997, she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Tania León is the founder and Artistic Director of the nonprofit organization and festival Composers Now, created in New York City in 2010. Composers Now is dedicated to the empowerment of living composers by celebrating the diversity of their voices and honoring the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society. In 2017, a proclamation on behalf of Mayor Bill de Blasio was presented to Composers Now in recognition of their contributions to living composers (composersnow.org). León has lectured at the prestigious Mosse-Lectures at Humboldt-University in Berlin and at Harvard University and University of Chicago. In 2012, she was the Andrew Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Scholar at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been Visiting Professor at Yale University, Chicago University, University of Michigan, University of Kansas, Purchase College, and the Musikschule in Hamburg, Germany, among others, and she served as Composer’s Mentor at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute. She was also a Guest Composer/Conductor at the Musikschule in Hamburg, and at Central Conservatory of music in Beijing, China. In 2020, she was the Robert M. Trotter Lecturer at College Music Society. León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A Professor at Brooklyn College and at The Graduate Center, CUNY since 1985, she was named the Claire and Leonard Tow Professor in Music in 2000, Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York in 2006, and Professor Emerita in September 2019. Honors include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award; American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Music; fellowships and awards from The Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, NYSCA, Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, ASCAP and Meet the Composer; Symphony Space's Access to the Arts; and artist residencies at Bellagio, Citivella Ranieri, MacDowell, and the American Academy in Rome in Italy, among others. León was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010 and the American Academy of Arts and sciences in 2018. Inura for voices, strings and percussion received nominations from the Grammy’s and the Latin Grammy’s “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” in 2012. León is also the recipient of the 2013 ASCAP Victor Herbert Award, the 2017 MadWoman Festival Award in Music in Madrid, Spain, and a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship. Most recently, she received the Chamber Music America’s 2022 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award for her significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field. León serves as an honorary chair for the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing. She is a Member of the Boards of Directors of New York Philharmonic and The ASCAP Foundation.
• Twilight Butterfly

  Augusta Read Thomas
• Spells

  Augusta Read Thomas