Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute

Program Description:

Unfortunately, due to on-going contract negotiations between the administration and the musicians of The Minnesota Orchestra, the 2013 Composer Institute has been cancelled. The composers who were selected to participate in the 2013 Institute will now have their pieces performed at the 2014 Composer Institute, January 5-10, 2014. As a result of this decision, the next Call for Scores--which will be for the 2015 Institute--will not be posted until later this year.

The 2014 Composer Institute participants are:

• Canadian-born Kati Agócs of Boston, Massachusetts
• Latvia native Eugene Birman of Oxford, England
• South Korean-born Texu Kim of Bloomington, Indiana
• Loren Loiacono of Ithaca, New York
• Evan Meier of College Park, Maryland
• North Dakota native Matthew Peterson of Stockholm, Sweden
• and Michael Schachter of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Aaron Jay Kernis, Institute Director, chaired the selection panel. Other panel members included composers Augusta Read Thomas, 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Puts, Minnesota Orchestra Principal Conductor of Pops and Presentations Sarah Hicks and 2006 Institute alumnus Sean Shepherd.

The Composer Institute, widely recognized as a leading professional training program for emerging symphonic composers, is presented by the Minnesota Orchestra and the American Composers Forum, in cooperation with New Music USA.  Directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Kernis, the Institute is an outgrowth of the Orchestra’s Perfect Pitch program, an annual series of new music reading sessions for Minnesota composers launched during the 1995-96 season.  Many of the 106 composers who have previously taken part in Perfect Pitch and the Composer Institute have gone on to receive major commissions, awards, grants and additional performances of their works.  Continuing a partnership that began with the 2012 Composer Institute, Subito Music Corporation will aid the composers in producing performance materials and will offer a one-year fellowship to one selected Composer Institute participant.

In addition to the seven composers chosen to participate in the 2014 Composer Institute, the panel named the following composers as alternates:

• Alexandra Bryant
• Saad Haddad
• Michael Lee
• Nicholas Pavkovic
• Chris Rogerson

In addition, these composers were designated as runners-up:

• Adam Zahller Brown
• Hermes Camacho
• Daniel Davis
• Stephen Feigenbaum
• Gregg Kallor
• Jordan Kuspa
• Tonia Ko
• Yuan-Chen Li
• Douglas Pew
• Benjamin Sabey
• Daniel Swilley
• Justin Tierney

Cited for honorable mention are:

• Brian Baxter
• Joshua Bornfield
• Alican Camci
• Stefan Cwik
• Paul Dooley
• Michael Djupstrom
• Joshua Groffman
• Mark Jacobs
• Nicolai Jacobsen
• Ji Young Kim
• Grant Luhmann
• Kenji Oh
• Jim Peterman
• Sidney Richardson
• Leanna Sterio-Primiani
• Phil Taylor
• Fay Wang

For more information contact:

Craig Carnahan
Email Craig
(651) 251-2833