American Composers Forum Announces 2026-27 Slate of Recomposing America Artists

(ST. PAUL, MN, Oct. 20, 2026) – Today, we are proud to announce that Recomposing America is now American Composers Forum’s permanent signature program, building on the momentum of its first year and continuing to expand its reach in the years ahead. As we begin this exciting new chapter, we are delighted to introduce the remarkable artists whose voices and creative visions will shape the initiative’s 2026-27 season.

In 2025, American Composers Forum launched Recomposing America, a multi-year initiative commissioning new works that explore the diverse artistic perspectives and stories that shape the United States. Conceived in response to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the initiative seeks to reexamine and reimagine the “who,” “what,” and “why” of America through music and creative expression. Featuring a mix of direct commissions, institutional collaborations, and public dialogue, Recomposing America celebrates the breadth of artistic voices and traditions that define the nation’s cultural landscape. During its inaugural 2025-26 season, the initiative presented ten world premieres spanning orchestral and chamber music, jazz, film, a hip-hop EP, and multimedia works, reflecting ACF’s expansive understanding of what composition is and can be.

The extraordinary impact of Recomposing America’s first season demonstrated the importance of this work to ACF’s mission and has inspired a lasting commitment to its future. “When we launched Recomposing America last year, I had no idea the response would be so enormous,” said ACF Executive Director Loki Karuna. “Now that we’ve established it as an ongoing program of ACF, I’m excited for the role it will play in our continued efforts to broaden the definition of ‘composer’ while supporting artists whose work reimagines ‘American classical’ music. This year’s artists fully embody this, representing both where ACF has been and where ACF is going.”

2026-27 ACF Recomposing America Artists

• Juhi Bansal is a composer whose music spans genres and influences to create deeply expressive, evocative sound worlds. ACF has commissioned a new work, Currents Will Carry Our Rebellion, for Del Sol Quartet. The piece will be part of their Angel Island Concert Series held at the former immigration processing and detention center in the San Francisco Bay.

• HUNTER BDM blends elements of soul, house, hip-hop, and experimental production into the distinctive sound of Bodhisattva dance music. For his Recomposing America project, ACF has commissioned a new album titled Heart of a Lion King 3 that fuses hip-hop, punk, and soul.

• Natalie Brown is a composer, playwright, and performer who works across theatre, contemporary songwriting, and classical music. ACF has commissioned a new blues opera titled 90 Miles from Anywhere that is set among Black migrant farmworkers on Long Island during the winter of 1965–66.

• Zeelie Brown is a jazz cellist and multimedia artist whose work investigates the vernacular culture of the Black Gulf and Global South. Their Recomposing America residency includes the creation of a new work titled americasongs. The collection of pieces for choir also includes a site-specific installation of found objects gathered around the Twin Cities.

• L.A. Buckner is a drummer and half of the duo WHITEBOYSUMMER, along with guitarist Thomas Abban. The duo’s music explores the entire spectrum of the African diaspora with reckless abandon. Their Recomposing America project, in partnership with the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, is part social experiment, part American popular music masterclass, featuring drums, guitar, piano, sampling, DJing, singing, and rapping.

• Gilad Cohen & Ronvé O’Daniel’s Recomposing America collaboration, Here We Stand, is inspired by the life of 20th-century actor and activist Paul Robeson. Honoring the 50th anniversary of Robeson’s death, the work features two rapper-singers, choir, and orchestra in a blend of artistic and cultural influences. Cohen is an active composer, performer, and theorist in genres including concert music, rock, and music for theater. O’Daniel is an award-winning songwriter, playwright, actor, director, and hip-hop recording artist. The world premiere is presented in partnership with Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s Affiliate Ensemble, and the Princeton University Glee Club.

• Christine Gangelhoff is a flutist, scholar, and educator recognized for her work in Caribbean classical music. Her chamber ensemble C Force’s residency will explore classical music of the Caribbean and its connections to the broader Americas through performance, education, and community collaboration in Minnesota.

• Jeffrey “Thee Phantom” McNeill’s music combines the raw passion and energy of hip-hop with the beautiful, sweeping sounds of live orchestral accompaniment. ACF has commissioned a new composition for hip-hop orchestra titled Maniac Maestro for his ensemble, The Illharmonic Orchestra. Part Rachmaninoff and part Rakim, Maniac Maestro finds Thee Phantom caught between two musical worlds in a tug of war between the maestro and the MC.

• Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific Black, Haitian-American composer and performer known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic and African-American music influences. For his Recomposing America project, ACF has co-commissioned a new work titled Black Joy Verses for Castle of Our Skins.

• Taylor Ngiri Seaberg is a queer, third-generation Kenyan-American community organizer and multi-instrumentalist based in Minneapolis. For their Recomposing America project, ACF has commissioned a new cross-cultural album titled Black Lilies that features global artists across the African diaspora.

America’s score is still being written. We invite you to follow along. Please visit www.recomposingamerica.org to learn more.

About American Composers Forum

ACF’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. Based in Minnesota with programs, initiatives, and activations across the United States, ACF is a composer-centered community that includes artists, programmers, presenters, teachers, funders, and audiences that share our vision for an ecosystem that challenges and dismantles systemic manifestations of racist ideologies and the status quo by centering an expanded, decolonized definition of “composer” that affirms and supports all music creators. ACF provides resources, creative models, and advocacy to cultivate equitable opportunities for living composers to share not only their art, but their stories.

Through its annual programs and resources, ACF serves more than 1,500 artists, including those whose work falls outside of Western definitions of “the composer.” As such, recent ACF commissions include works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, jazz, and hip hop by Black, Indigenous, and Asian artists. ACF’s well-established and forward-facing anti-racist approach broadens the scope of “the composer”, with the majority of the artists we support coming from historically marginalized groups and artistic practices.

Support for Recomposing America

Recomposing America is supported, in part, by the Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Thelma Hunter Fund, the Fred Noah Gordon Charitable Fund, Augusta Gross and Leslie Samuels, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation.

This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

For more information:
Rocky Jones
Director of Marketing and Communications
rjones@composersforum.org, (612) 643-0242
www.composersforum.org