written by Tim Hansen In the 19th century, the Age of Enlightenment, there was a great leap forward in science and medicine; many of the standard practices that make up […]
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ACF’s 2016 summer development intern, Henry Dykstal, conducted a series of interviews with our incoming cohort of board members. Meet Asha Srinivasan! After reading her interview, learn even more about […]
Continue Readingwritten by Tim Hansen In the email ping-pong prefacing this article, JFund awardee Sean Harold warned me that his biographies “tended to be heavy on the sarcasm and light on […]
Continue Readingwritten by Tim Hansen The Vietnam War. An international clash of ideologies fought in the theatre of a small southeast Asian country. And it sucked. For everyone. Scarcely a person […]
Continue Readingwritten by Tim Hansen When JFund awardee James Everest was three years old, he composed a thunderstorm on his parents’ upright piano. He recalls the “crashing thunder on clusters of […]
Continue Readingwritten by Tim Hansen “My music is almost always several times removed from its inspiration,” states vocalist and JFund awardee Tiffany Skidmore. Both prolific and versatile, Skidmore has produced an […]
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by Tim Hansen Composer Alex Temple is fascinated by cheese. Not the dairy kind. The musical kind. Faux world-music. TV news themes. General midi instruments. Sound logos. That music your […]
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by Tim Hansen Contemporary art photographer artist Bill Henson is a wizard with a camera. Internationally renowned for his sometimes controversial exhibitions, the Australian artist is famous for creating textures […]
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written by Tim Hansen If one wants to gain an insight into a composer’s brain, reading their bio is a good place to start. Usually these are carefully curated […]
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by Tim Hansen In 1942 Aaron Copland was commissioned to write a new ballet for Martha Graham with broad brief of creating something “American themed”. No prizes for guessing the […]
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by Tim Hansen Kids who grew up in the ’80s came of age when, for the first time since the industrial revolution kicked off, the international community began to ask […]
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by Tim Hansen Every non-American school kid like me grows up knowing a handful of US geographic icons. I can’t remember a time I didn’t know about the Grand Canyon, […]
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By Tim Hansen Composers are generally a diversely intellectual bunch. In addition to their music training, it’s common for them to have undertaken some other form of study or have […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Until a few years ago, composer, saxophonist and JFund awardee Erin Rogers did not have an especial bent towards science fiction; a childhood smattered with the […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Galway Kinnell’s 1973 epic poem The Book of Nightmares is, to put it mildly, bleak. For the most part, it is a horrifying critique of the […]
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Tim Hansen As a teenager, Masatora Goya was more interested in playing rugby than the piano. Born in Malaysia but raised in Japan, Masatora says his home life “wasn’t […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Fresh-faced young wannabe composers arriving at college are told in Composing 101: find your voice. Refine it down. Success means choosing a niche and painstakingly carving […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Rejection is the pits. All artists experience it at some point, and there’s no denying that rejection can sting. And yet sometimes a rejection can be […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Composer Christopher Trapani had a typically active upbringing for an aspiring musician growing up in New Orleans: playing guitar in coffeehouses one day and gospel piano […]
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Written by Tim Hansen American Composers Forum held a friendly soiree in New York this November for ACF members, hosted by president John Nuechterlein. The night was an informal opportunity […]
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Written by Tim Hansen It’s a warm September night and I’m in seated in the pews of Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Brooklyn. The place is pretty spectacular. The […]
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Written by Tim Hansen Composer and JFund awardee Mary Kouyoumdjian is drawn to colliding worlds. As a first-generation Armenian-American, Kouyoumdjian is perfectly poised to take advantage of the old and […]
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Stephen Schwartz (SS): The American Composers Forum is quite lucky to have you as part of the board of directors. What made you decide to become a part of the […]
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David Conte is a composer and Professor of Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. David serves on the ACF board of directors and the program committee. The American […]
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Written by Tim Hansen The Jerome Foundation’s Jerome Fund for New Music – the JFund – has been instrumental in launching the careers of emerging composers for thirty years, and […]
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