Seven Young Composers Participate in 2008 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute

The 2008 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, presented by the Minnesota Orchestra and American Composers Forum in cooperation with the American Music Center, will take place in Minneapolis from 1 to 8 November. The Institute provides the opportunity for up to nine composers from across the nation to participate in an intensive week-long immersion into the world of a major American symphony orchestra. The Institute features orchestral rehearsals — after which composers receive feedback from Pulitzer Prize and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, co-director of the Institute, Minnesota Orchestra members, and Music Director Osmo Vänskä, as well as targeted training workshops, which all culminate in Future Classics!—a  public subscription concert by the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Vänskä featuring each of the participating composers' works. This year's participating composers are: Antonio Carlos DeFeo (Pelham Manor, NY), Ted Hearne (New Haven, CT), Wang Lu (New York, NY), Andrew McManus (Rochester, NY), Justin Merritt (Northfield, MN), David Schneider (Bloomington, IN), and Ming-Hsiu Yen (Ann Arbor, MI).

Originally launched in 1995 as an annual series of reading sessions for orchestral works by Minnesota-based emerging composers, the sessions gradually expanded into an opportunity for composers from a wider geographical area. By 2002, under the co-direction of Kernis and Minnesota Orchestra Artistic Planning Associate Beth Cowart, the Composer Institute became a national program and since 2006 has included a full concert performance. Also in 2002, the American Music Center joined the program and has subsequently presented its professional development workshops, Tuning Up Your Career, which features leading music industry professionals sharing their expertise on musical, career, and business issues. For more details, log on the Composer Institute.

Photo Caption:
Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra at the October 26, 2007 Composer Institute Future Classics! concert.
Photo by Greg Helgeson, Courtesy Minnesota Orchestra