American Composers Forum

CHAMBER SOIRÉE: SHALL WE DANCE?
2021-10-10 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago)
Members of Sarasota Orchestra present a chamber recital of dance-inspired works from ballet to the ballroom. This season, each program is inspired by a poem and will feature a recitation by a company member from the Florida Studio Theatre.
The program opens with Quinn Mason‘s ( a NextNotes creator) 2013 String Quartet No. 2, a rhythmically complex work that bursts with joyous energy. The Danza de Mediodía for winds by Mexico’s Arturo Márquez and Astor Piazzolla‘s L’Histoire du Tango for violin and marimba add Latin flair to the program. “Slow Dancing on the Highway: The Trip North” by Elizabeth Hobbs provides the inspiration for a concert that invites listeners to channel their inner Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
2021-10-09 19:30 - 20:30
The Ottumwa Symphony Orchestra is hosting its fall concert and will also feature the Indian Hills Community College Chorus. The concert opens with “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland. Other selections include “American Salute” by Morton Gould, “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein, “Bugler’s Holiday” by Leroy Anderson, “El Salon Mexico” by Copland, and “Sate Street Strut” by James “Red” McLeod.
The chorus will then join the symphony for “America the Beautiful” by Samuel Ward. After that, the chorus will perform “Shenandoah” by James Erb and “Goin’ to Boston” arranged by Alice Parker (a ChoralQuest composer). The finale, which brings both groups back together, is “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Date & Time: Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Gulf Coast Chamber Orchestra Opening Night!
2021-10-09 18:30 - 19:30
This year the Gulf Coast Chamber Orchestra opens its 2021-2022 season with the works of four award winning composers Joan Tower, Vivian Fung, Libby Larson and Florence Beatrice Price.
Joan Tower Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer) Solo Symphony No. 5
Vivian Fung Dust Devils
Florence Price Symphony No. 1
Date & Time: Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more here.

New Music for String Trio: Chartreuse
2021-10-09 08:00 - 17:00
The path to the post-regime music may exhibit one or more of the following features:

A balance of space and light.
An imbalance of space and light in favor of space.
An imbalance of space and light in favor of light.
A quaternion utopia that transcends both space and light.
A superposition of smooth waves.
An utterance of the Aramaic phrase, “Avra Kehdabra”: I will create as I speak.
Dithyrambic exaltations.
A cryptogram assembled out of torn pages from a first edition Areopagitica.

Our data analytics have produced the following divergent summation:
ζ(−1) = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ….. = -1/12
Date & Time:

Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 7 PM CT
Sunday, October 10, 20201 at 2 PM CT

Learn more and get tickets here.

Chartreuse string trio is violinist Myra Hinrichs, violist Carrie Frey, and cellist Helen Newby. Uniquely committed to repeat performances and developing the string trio repertoire through adventurous commissions, Chartreuse has premiered works by dozens of composers and toured extensively in the U.S. Northeast, Midwest, and California, as well as in Norway. Cleveland Classical described the trio in concert as a maelstrom almost tactile in its grittiness and as much fun to watch as to listen to.

LACO SUMMERFEST 2021: KIMANI BRIDGES + CLAUDE DEBUSSY
2021-10-08 16:00 - 17:00
This program features The Flower by 2019/20 Luna Composition Lab Fellow, KiMani Bridges ( a NextNotes creator), and Claude Debussy‘s ethereal Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun from a performance at The Huntington on July 1, 2021.
Date & time: Friday, October 8, 2021 at 4 PM CT | 6 PM PT
Learn more here.

The Trumpet Soars! Concert
2021-10-07 08:00 - 17:00
Concert Program

Gioachino Rossini: Overture to the Italian in Algiers
Gao Hong (an ACF innova artist and board member) : Celebration

Note: World Premier and Recipient of the Minnesota Sinfonia Call for Scores with Support from the McKnight Foundation

Dmitry Shostakovich: The Little Ballerina
Giacomo Puccini: Crisantemi
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in c minor

Date & Time:

Friday, October 15, 2021 at 7 PM CT
Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 1:45 PM CT

Find location information and learn more here.

sounding light chamber choir
2021-10-03 15:00 - 16:00
sounding light is a professional chamber choir made up of talented, expressive singers gathered together from seven states. The ensemble will be in residence in Lincoln for a single week in intense preparation for this concert. The choir’s program delivers a powerful message of hope and resilience in the face of struggle.
The choir’s program delivers a powerful message of hope and resilience in the face of struggle. Eclectic, colorful music by composers Felix Mendelssohn, Rosephanye Powell (a ChoralQuest composer), Jake Runestad, Joel Thompson, William Byrd and Charles Stanford provides counterpoint to a collection of spiritual and Gospel songs arranged by Josephine Poelinitz, Donald Lawrence, Alexander Lloyd Blake, and Lincoln’s own Marques Garrett.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 3, 2021, at 3 PM CT
SNEAK PREVIEW: https://youtu.be/HvvXpB6aBvQ
Learn more here.

Alicia Waller & Judith Sloan Double Bill: Migration, Refuge & Finding Home
2021-10-03 14:00 - 16:00
Outdoor concert featuring music, songs and poetry by vocalist/soprano Alicia Waller, and writer/performer Judith Sloan with guest singers.
Alicia Waller is recognized for her work as bandleader for the jazz fusion ensemble Alicia Waller & The Excursion and Judith Sloan is known for her veteran contributions to the New York City performance scene, most recently presenting a play-in-progress, It Can Happen Here.
They will bring a music and poetry performance focusing on migration, refuge and finding home, to Jamaica, New York in the Borough of Queens on Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET.
The performance will take place outdoors at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, at 3 PM ET. JPAC is located at 153 Jamaica Avenue, Queens New York. It is free and open to the public.
Learn more and get tickets here.

Beethoven’s Fifth & Rhapsody
2021-10-03 14:00 - 15:00, 2021-10-02 18:30 - 19:30
The season launches with two giants from the symphonic repertoire: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Described as a “compelling, sparkling virtuoso,” Michelle Cann will grace the ASO stage with Gershwin’s Rhapsody. The concert also features Copland’s inspired Fanfare for the Common Man and Umoja by Valerie Coleman (a BandQuest composer), recently commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Dates & Times:

Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET

Get tickets here.

World Doctors Orchestra with Evelyn Glennie
2021-10-03 12:00 - 13:00
The World Doctors Orchestra, formed in 2008, is an ensemble of physicians from all over the world who meet three to four times a year to perform concerts raising money for medical charities.
They are delighted to be making their first appearance on a UK stage with Dame Evelyn Glennie, raising money for Pathway UK who support healthcare for the homeless.
The orchestra will be performing a concoction of British and American music with optimistic and often humorous aspects to the works.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 12 PM CT | 6 PM British Summer Time
Programme:
Malcom Arnold – A Grand, Grand Festival Overture 08:08
Michael Daugherty (a BandQuest composer) – Dreamachine, for solo percussion and orchestra 34:26
Arnold Bax – Tintagel 14:40
Edward Elgar – Enigma Variations 35:00
Learn more and get tickets here.

SLO Symphony: Classics Reimagined – String Glory
2021-10-02 21:30 - 22:30
The Symphony’s return to the stage, in celebration of their 60th anniversary, will take place on Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 9:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM PT at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo.
In light of new guidelines from San Luis Obispo County Health Officials, the previously planned program has been modified. The new program, Maestro Andrew Sewell’s Classics Reimagined – String Glory, includes Michael Daugherty’s (a BandQuest composer) Strut, Claude Debussy’s Danses, Marcel Grandjany’s Aria in Classical Style, Gustav Mahler’s sublime Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 for strings and harp with soloist and principal harpist Marcia Dickstein (Los Angeles), and Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite (suite in olden style).
Learn more and get tickets here.

Signature Concert #1 - Fury, Contemplation & Hope
2021-10-02 20:30 - 21:30
Your Fort Collins Symphony returns to the Lincoln Center’s Main Stage after a year of virtual performances. The opening night of our 2021-2022 Season will guide you through a range of emotions that include passion, contemplation, and hope. We present Rodion Shchedrin’s fiery Carmen Suite, Leonard Bernstein’s thoughtful Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, and Jessie Montgomery’s expectant Banner, a re-imagining of the Star-Spangled Banner for the 21st
Banner – Jessie Montgomery
Serenade after Plato’s Symposium – Leonard Bernstein,
Featuring Guest Violinist Linda Wang
Carmen Suite – Rodion Shchedrin
Date & Time: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 8:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM MDT
Get tickets here.

Experiential Orchestra presents Renewal: An Evening with Louise Toppin
2021-10-02 19:00 - 20:30
Fresh from winning its first Grammy Award, Experiential Orchestra (EXO), led by Music Director James Blachly, opens its 2021-22 season with a concert highlighting its partnership with the African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP). Featuring ADMP Founder and Editor, celebrated soprano Dr. Louise Toppin, the program includes two New York premieres by 20th century African-American composer Julia Perry – her Prelude for Strings from 1946, revised 1962 and newly orchestrated by Roger Zahab, and Symphony for Violas and Basses from 1961, a substantial one-movement work.
The concert also includes Quinn Mason’s (a NextNotes creator) Reflections on a Memorial (2020), Jessica Meyer’s Through Which We Flow (2017), and three works for voice – “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” by David Baker from his cycle Wisdom (1990), recorded by Toppin; “Golden Days” by William Grant Still from his opera Costaso (1950); and Jessie Montgomery’s I Want to Go Home (2015), premiered with the composer, Julia Bullock, and Blachly in 2015.
A conversation with Toppin will follow the concert, focusing on her remarkable career as a world-renowned soprano and scholar with more than 30 works written for her by composers including Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), Julius Williams, and many others.
Date & Time: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

CLASSICS: A CONCERT FOR UNITY
2021-10-02 19:00 - 20:00
Louisville native Valerie Coleman (a BandQuest composer) wrote her piece and titled it “UMOJA” as a gesture of love between good friends. As we strive to create unity within our families, our city, our nation, and our world, we present this concert as an embrace and lifting up of the joys and sorrows of our community. We search for healing connections and offer welcome to all. Local musicians join the orchestra to reflect on the last year through song before Teddy leads Tchaikovsky’s searing Sixth Symphony.
Date & Time: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Returning Color to Our World, Flute and Piano Recital
2021-10-01 19:30 - 20:30
The Gustavus Department of Music presents Returning Color to Our World with the Chatterton-McCright Duo. Longtime musical partners Linda Chatterton, flute, and Matthew McCright, piano, present a colorful and joyous program to help us emerge from the gloom of pandemic life. The concert will be presented on Friday, October 1st, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT. in Jussi Björling Concert Hal and is free to all attending.
Hear the sweeping landscape of Kentucky, Jewish Klezmer, the wooden bamboo flute, and popular music filtered through the international duo’s style and flair. The repertoire presented includes music works by Gaubert, Chen Yi (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) , Dan Welcher, and Paul Schoenfield.
The concert will also be live streamed here on the Fine Arts YouTube page.
A digital program can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/39KUyeC

Family Plan CD Release Show
2021-09-30 17:30 - 20:00
Collective Chilean-Canadian piano trio “Family Plan” (featuring Andrew Boudreau on piano, Simón Willson on bass, and Vicente Hansen on drums) releases their debut CD at Green Oasis garden in New York City. Official release is September 24th, via Endectomorph Music

Date & Time: Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 5:30 PM CT | 6:30 PM ET
Visit website here.

LOOM•ROOM•HARP
2021-09-30 14:00 - 15:30
Fırat Erdim & Paula Matthusen & Olivia Valentine
Panel Discussion
LOOM · ROOM · HARP weaves together inside and outside, near and far, visible and invisible, artifacts of the past and actions in the present, through the infilled colonnade of the Anderson Gallery at Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa. This site-specific installation and series of performances taking place periodically from September 2 through October 15, 2021, is a collaboration between Fırat Erdim, Paula Matthusen, and Olivia Valentine.
The performances are accessible both in-person and online, via the loom-room-harp.space website and Sunship, the website of the Arts Letters & Numbers 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale Italian Virtual Pavilion at artslettersandnumbers.org.
Throughout the course of the exhibition, the gallery contains dynamic visual and audio artifacts of the periodic performances. Together, these artifacts, performances, and other components of the installation seek to permeate interior with exterior, here with there, now with then.
Date & Time: Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 2 PM CT
Register and get tickets here.

Recap: ‘Count to Five’ Album Release Show
2021-09-29 19:00 - 20:00
The percussion quartet known as Recap– Arlene Acevedo, Alexis Carter, Tiahna Sterling, and Aline Vasquez –celebrates the release of their debut album “Count to Five”, out Friday, September 24 on Innova Recordings. To develop the album, Recap worked closely with composers Angélica Negrón, Allison Loggins-Hull, Ellen Reid, Lesley Flanigan, Mary Kouyoumdjian (an ACF board member, ACF create winner (previously known as JFund) and ACF Connect winner), and Caroline Shaw, refining their interpretations through national and local performances.
To mark the release of Count to Five, Recap will perform music from the album on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET at Tenri Cultural Institute, NYC.
Learn more here.

Welcome Back Family and Friends Chamber Concert
2021-09-28 18:00 - 19:00
ACO musicians including violinist Karen Kim, cellist Eugene Moye, pianist Christopher Oldfather, flutist Laura Conwesser, clarinetist Liam Burke, and percussionist Javier Diaz will perform music by a broad array of composers, many of whom are close to the orchestra – including current and former ACO Board of Directors members Alvin Singleton (a BandQuest composer), Augusta Gross, Melinda Wagner, Robert Beaser, and Jonathan Bailey Holland.
The program features the New York premieres of Augusta Gross’s Towards Night, Karen Lefrak’s Daybreak; When, and Jonathan Bailey Holland’s Mobius. It also includes Steven Gerber’s Five Greek Folksongs (after Ravel), Alvin Singleton’s Argoru VIII, Melinda Wagner’s Unsung Chordata, Edward Thomas’s Reflections, and selections from Robert Beaser’s Souvenirs.
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Location: DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W. 37th St. | NYC
General Admission Tickets: $25
Get tickets here.

Salastina: Main Series Concert No. 1 - Transfiguration
2021-09-26 22:00 - 23:00, 2021-09-25 22:00 - 23:00
Salastina’s season-opener centers around themes of transcendence, renewal, sublimation, and growth.
They will play the music of four guest composers who dropped into the group’s virtual series — Michi and Paul Wiancko, Kenji Bunch (an innova artist), and Judd Greenstein (a ChoralQuest composer)— along with a chamber classic, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. These in-person performances will be at courtyard venues, a mixed indoor-outdoor approach Salastina is taking for all of its concerts this season.
Date & Time: Friday to Sunday, September 24 – 26, 2021 at 10 PM CT | 8 PM PT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Premier of The Garden Sept. 24th-26th, 2021
2021-09-26 19:00 - 21:00, 2021-09-25 19:00 - 21:00
Premier of Open Flame Theatre’s THE GARDEN – an original queer, surrealist opera.
After the initial postponement of Open Flame Theatre’s 2020 premiere at the Southern, they will be premiering THE GARDEN at Philadelphia Community Farm from Friday, September 24, 2021 to Sunday, September 26, 2021 at 7 PM CT each night.
Content warnings for this show & description include: transphobia, suicide
“The Garden” is an original queer, surrealist opera conceived by Walken Schweigert and created by Open Flame Theatre. The culture of capitalism attempts to control nature in order to utilize it. “The Garden” investigates white-supremacist and colonizer culture’s desire to beautify, manage and control nature (which, of course, includes people) and reveals the horror that ensues when it does. For our all-transgender/gender-non-conforming ensemble, this performance is a ritual act to reclaim all the parts of ourselves we are told are shameful and monstrous. The heart of this performance asks: how do you uproot oppression? This question is a journey; one that begins with looking at how internalized transphobia manifests in us as individuals, and in our communities.
Get tickets here.

American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) presented by the Morris Museum's Lot of Strings Festival
2021-09-26 18:00 - 19:00
ACME presents a suite of pieces that reflect upon the Autumn Equinox; from here forward, the days are getting shorter and colder as winter approaches. These works invite contemplation and quiet thoughtfulness as we welcome the new season.
Jóhann Jóhannsson – selections of works for strings
Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight
Schubert – String Quintet in C Major, II. Adagio
Caroline Shaw – In manus tuas
Clarice Jensen – For this from that will be filled (a)
Ingram Marshall – Entrada
Date & Time: Sunday, September 26, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Get tickets here.
About ACME: Over the past fifteen years, led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest young stars in the field. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.”
The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Duke Performances, The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow’s Parties in England,Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears in Knoxville, TN.
The ACME players for this concert are Ben Russell & Laura Lutzke, violins; Caleb Burhans, viola; Paul Wiancko, cellos; and Clarice Jensen, cello and ACME artistic director.

ReMembering: Singing Water
2021-09-25 19:00 - 20:00
ReMembering: Singing Water is an original choral film that explores Minnesota as a place of both home and exile for immigrants, LGBTQ people, and Indigenous people. Interconnected stories are brought to life through choral music, spoken word, animation, and life size puppets.
ReMembering is a collaboration with water protector Sharon Day; puppeteer Sandy Spieler; singer-songwriter Sara Thomsen; and features performances by Kymani Kahlil, Tara Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ, and the Ikidowin Youth acting ensemble.
The FREE film, produced by Will Hommeyer and Blue Moon Productions, will premiere at two outdoor locations — under the stars and on the big screen.
Friday September 24, 7 PM CT (ASL interpreted)

FREE! RSVP here
Location: Springboard for the Arts, 262 University Avenue W, St. Paul, MN 55103
Saturday, September 25, 7 PM CT
FREE! RSVP here
Location: East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN 5510
This is a FREE event, but registration is required to create a safe viewing experience for everyone. Masks are also required.
The film will also stream on-line as part of GALA Choruses’ virtual events on October 14 and 17, 2021.

Andreas Conducts Brahms 1
2021-09-25 19:00 - 20:00
Music Director Andreas Delfs opens the program with Richard Wagner’s Dawn & Siegfried’s Rhine Journey. Jennifer Higdon’s (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) award-winning Violin Concerto, praised as “an attractive, colourful work, scored most imaginatively and with great finesse” (Gramophone), features soloist Benjamin Beilman. Despite taking the composer over a decade to complete, Johann Brahms’s First Symphony was worth the wait – a melodic triumph worthy of his musical predecessors.
Date & Time:

Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET

Learn more and get tickets here.

SONGS FROM LETTERS
2021-09-25 18:00 - 19:00, 2021-09-25 14:00 - 15:00
Chicago Fringe Opera presents a spotlight series concert as part of the Ear Taxi Festival featuring song cycles of Gwyneth Walker, Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer), and Dominick Argento.
This unique collaboration features singers Jennifer Schuler, Bridget Skaggs, and David Govertsen, with pianist Mark Bilyeu. Stage direction by CFO Artistic Director George Cederquist elevates the drama to create an immersive concert experience.
The program is inspired by the letter scene in opera, a dramatic device typically employed to express heightened inner emotion or key plot twists. In art song, this device is transformed through settings of historical letters that convey the beauty of real-life language and drama.
The program opens with letters of naturalist John Miur, bringing to life the glittering sounds and sights of the uncharted Yosemite Valley of the 1870s (Songs from the High Sierra, Gwyneth Walker). Calamity Jane’s letters to her daughter, Janey, reveal the rough and tumble life of an American frontierswoman in the 19th century (Songs from Letters, Libby Larsen). Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love letter about her husband, Robert, attains operatic heights (Casa Guidi, Dominick Argento). The program concludes with the correspondence between actress Olga Knipper and playwright Anton Chekhov during their four-year marriage until his death in 1904 (A Few Words about Chekhov, Dominick Argento).
Date & Time: Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 2 PM & 6 PM CT
Get tickets here.

loadbang: Plays Well With Others Release Event
2021-09-25 11:00 - 13:00
The acclaimed ensemble loadbang celebrates the release of “Plays Well With Others”, a New Focus Recordings project, with a live concert featuring members Jeffrey Gavett (baritone voice), Andrew Kozar (trumpet), William Lang (trombone) and Adrián Sandí (clarinet).
The program will include works by composers Eve Beglarian, Taylor Brook, Reiko Füting, Paula Matthusen, Heather Stebbins, and Scott Wollschleger, as well as a new video premiere by R. Luke Dubois to Eve Beglarian’s track, “You See Where This Is Going”. Tickets include a copy of the album, which features loadbang joined by a 12-piece string orchestra in new works by the show’s composers. Proof of vaccination will be required to attend.
Date & Time: Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 11 AM CT | 12 PM ET
Location: at the National Opera Center + online
Get tickets here.
