Tuesday, October 7th, 2025
Today, we’re excited to announce Recomposing America, a multi-year initiative that considers the role of music in the narrative of our nation’s founding and future. This large-scale project will highlight artistic perspectives unique to the United States through direct commissions, institutional collaborations, and public dialogue. Timed with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Recomposing America aims to refresh and reimagine the “who,” “what,” and “why” of the United States, and the stories therein.
Music has always told the story of the United States. From anthems that forged unity and protest songs that challenged power, to the intimate soundtracks of our daily lives, music composition is a vessel to chart the stories, ideas, and origins of people and communities. Recomposing America is a platform that expands on this legacy by centering the role of music in our past and future stories — an evolving score shaped by many people and cultures across the U.S.
Recomposing America is our vision for a bold first draft of the musical composition of tomorrow. This season, the initiative will include commissions for orchestras, chamber ensembles, jazz collectives, and a hip-hop EP, showcasing the diversity of ways that we at American Composers Forum define “composition.”
Our first round of announced projects include commissioning collaborations that have been facilitated by ACF. Composer, arranger, and pianist Kavyesh Kaviraj will develop and perform a new jazz ensemble work with Walker|West Music Academy that highlights the unique history of jazz within American culture and the global context of improvised music. Cellist and composer Malachi Brown’s new work for Sugar Hill Salon will examine the history of Harlem and its intersection with Black and Afro-American music. In two new works for the activist orchestra Protestra, composers JL Marlor and Danielle Jagelski will explore girlhood and womanhood as these concepts relate to the history and future of the United States. A hip-hop EP from singer-songwriter and producer Tufawon will accompany the Duluth Art Institute’s 2026 exhibit “We Hold These Truths,” with the option for museum visitors to listen to the music while experiencing the exhibit.
Other co-commissions and partnerships include the Chicago Philharmonic world premiere of a new piano concerto by Stacy Garrop at Ear Taxi Festival, a new multimedia work by Queen Drea that examines the impact of the Great Migration through the lens of that artist’s mother, a Minnesota performance by Argentina’s Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies in partnership with Indigenous Roots, and public screenings of the documentary Opus Cope by director Jae Shim with accompanying community conversations.
All Recomposing America activities will be documented on social media, the ACF website, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, where artists will be sharing the ways they’re responding to the idea of “America” in this moment. Additional projects will be announced as the initiative continues to develop.
This activity is 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.
Recomposing America is supported, in part, by the Jerome Foundation, 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.
Additional support is made possible with the outstanding generosity of the following individuals through American Composers Forum’s ACF | connect program: Jane Anfinson, Thomas Arneson, Suzanne Asher, Carol Barnett, Pearl and Bob Bergad, Margee and Will Bracken, Karen Brooks, Richard Cisek and Kay Fredericks, Dee Ann and Kent Crossley, Julia W. Dayton, C. Lee Essrig, Rosemary & David Good Family Foundation, Katherine Goodale, Jeff and Hyun Mee Graves, Carol Heen, Steve Heitzeg and Gwen Pappas, Kathleen Henschel and John Dewes, Linda and Jack Hoeschler, Leaetta Hough and Bob Muschewske, Sam Hsu and Sally Cheng, Hella Mears Hueg Estate Gift, Thelma Hunter Estate Gift, John and Ruth Huss, George Frederick Jewett Foundation East, Art and Martha Kaemmer, Jennifer Leopold and Stephen Katz, Jon Lewis and Lisa Merklin, Mike and Kay McCarthy, Greg McNeely, Alfred and Ann Moore, Louis and Gloria Nuechterlein, John Nuechterlein and Dan Monson, John and Debbie Orenstein, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation in memory of Thelma Hunter, David and Judy Ranheim, Denice Rippentrop, Vanessa Rose, Bill and Susan Sands, Gale Sharpe, Doug and Kathy Skor, Dan and Ellie Thomas, Stephen and Jayne Usery, Kathleen van Bergen, Janika Vandervelde, Jim Wafler, and Margaret and Angus Wurtele.