ACF Artist Equity Summit: Twin Cities Arts Leaders
2021-05-20 16:00 - 17:00, 2021-05-21 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago)
As we have reached out to artists and leaders in our community, we hear a consistent need and desire to connect with one another and support each other in these times. ACF seeks to share our platform to bring our circles together and build relationships, share experiences, and strengthen our work through dialogue and art-making.
In May 2021 ACF will convene culturally specific organizations that have been a physical space and nexus for their artistic communities to exchange experiences, share ideas, and find support, as a follow-up to the conversations that we have had this spring with leaders from organizations like Black Table Arts, Cedar Cultural Center, Free Black Dirt, Indigenous Roots, Tru Ruts, and Root Springs. The conversation will be moderated by ACF Director of Community and Belonging, Dameun Strange.
Join us for two days of conversation on Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 4pm CT & Friday, May 21, 2021 at 3pm CT
Register for part one here.
Register for part two here.
ADA language: If you require an interpreter, closed-captioning, or any other accommodations to fully engage, please contact Laura Krider (lkrider@composersforum, 612.314.9228) at least 48 hours before the event.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Look + Listen – VIOLA YIP + KEN UENO | Forms of Erasure (premiere)
2021-05-22 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago)
Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM EST/UTC-4 (1pm PST | 10pm CET/UTC+2)
Viola Yip + Ken Ueno will present an hour-long live telematic multimedia performance. In this new piece for the Look + Listen Festival, they ask: How can we reclaim time from the COVID-19 malaise of non-time? What are ways in which geographically-distanced performance can point to the limits of what we feel as the “now”? Their piece will instrumentalize the streaming network, expressively coaxing affordances of failure, sonic artifacts which serve as evidence of life being lived in the present.
Get more information here.

Fac Favorites: Part Three
2021-05-22 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago)
Members of the Space Coast Symphony Youth Orchestras will perform side-by-side with their professional SCSO counterparts in an inspiring program that also includes the world premieres of Vero Beach resident Michael Daugherty’s (a BandQuest composer) “Italian Sojourn” and of Thomas Joseph’s “Concerto Dystonia” for horn and orchestra, which chronicles the composer’s own battle with task-specific focal dystonia.. Featuring orchestral favorites and more, this is a concert just for you with wall-to-wall classics. Celebrated pianist, Jacob Craig will join the orchestra and perform works by Debussy, Mozart, and Rachmaninoff. The concert will also highlight the two winners of the Concerto Competition, Ethan Hahn and Payton Brown. Featuring popular works by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Verdi and more, this concert of wall-to-wall classics is just for you.
Jacob Craig, piano
Ethan Hahn, french horn
Payton Brown, oboe
Date & Time: Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Buy tickets here.

A Brighter Tomorrow
2021-05-22 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
This is a Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra‘s Concert
Inspired by sacred music, this program looks toward a brighter tomorrow after a year filled with uncertainty. Stirring selections by Sergei Rachmaninoff lead the program, along with the world premiere of a new work for solo flute by American Indian composer Brent Michael Davids (a BandQuest composer).
Date & Time: Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8pm CST
Livestream the event here.

Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope
2021-05-22 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
Inspired by sacred music, this program looks toward a brighter tomorrow after a year filled with uncertainty. Stirring selections from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s piano compositions and George Walker’s First String Quartet lead the program, along with the world premiere performance of American Indian composer Brent Michael Davids’ (a BandQuest composer) new work for solo flute. We will conclude with Franz Joseph Haydn’s series of seven musical meditations on Christ’s final words.
We dedicate this program to the memory of George Floyd.
Date & Time: Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8 PM CT
Get more information here.

Telegraph Quartet Performs Virtual Concert Presented by Music in Corrales
2021-05-22 20:30 - 22:30 (America/Chicago)
Beginning on Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 8:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM MDT the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) is presented in a virtual performance by Music in Corrales.
Tickets to access the performance are $15, available here. Registrants will be sent a private YouTube link to watch the performance and the video will remain online to watch through Sunday, May 30, 2021. There will be a separate 1-hour Q&A session via Zoom for ticket holders on Saturday, May 22 at 7:30pm MDT with members of the quartet.
The quartet’s program includes Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 and Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51. Joseph Maile of the Telegraph Quartet says, “Both of these works represent each composer’s first public foray into the string quartet medium. Beethoven’s Op. 18 No. 1 is his ambitious, if slightly delayed, entry into the quartet medium as the vanguard of his set of six quartets. And Brahms’ wistful second string quartet is one of his two final products, of numerous discarded attempts – most likely with Beethoven metaphorically looking over his shoulder.”

Candace Johnson’s Musical Series: The Art Songs of Black Composers
2021-05-22 21:30 - 22:30, 2021-05-23 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
In her new solo performance musical series, soprano and actress Candace Johnson shines a light on the art songs and lives of Black American composers. Much of the African American art song literature is not widely heard, though it has been a part of the classical music canon since the late 19th century. Through song and theatrical storytelling, Candace puts the life and music of Black composers on display.
The first installment, “Music to My Ears – Hearing Adolphus Hailstork” centers on the song cycle Ventriloquist Acts of God. As the songs are unpacked in a university music class, a professor and her students discuss how to hear the music – and each other – in a whole new way.
Date & Time: Saturday May 22, 2021 at 9:30 PM CT 7:30 PM PT and Sunday May 23, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 5 PM PT
Act I: Music to My Ears – Hearing by Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer) with Marc Shapiro, piano
A new solo performance musical series that shines a light on the art songs and lives of Black Composers
Immediately followed by a Q&A with
Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman
Find links to watch the live video here.

SFCMP in the COMMUNITY series. Sound Encounters
2021-05-23 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago)
This year’s in the COMMUNITY series concert features two works that are fully electronic and audio-visual in concept – a piece by Finnish composer Maija Hynninen, with a new video accompaniment by film artist Olivia Ting, and a newly expanded work by California-based composer Jon Kulpa, who’s developed both the audio and visual aspects of the piece. Joining to create a live performance element as counterpoint, is none other than the incomparable Andy Meyerson – artistic director, and one member of the powerhouse duo that is The Living Earth Show, based in San Francisco. Andy gives a highly personal stamp on two great works for single percussion instruments, James Tenney’s piece for solo tam-tam, on having never written a note for percussion, and Amadeus Regucera’s IMY/ILY for solo bass drum. This concert is the first in a collaborative effort that’s all about exploring and stretching the boundaries of sound creation.
Date & Time: Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 3 PM PT
Register and get tickets here.

Tate Meets Mozart
2021-05-25 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
DIGITAL PREMIERE! On Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 4 PM MT, experience your Symphony musicians performing Mozart’s masterful Flute Quartet No. 1, Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate‘s (a ChoralQuest composer) Raccoon Talk for Solo Violin, Cherokee and Quapaw composer Louis Ballard’s Ritmo Indio, Francisco Braga’s A Sonorous Dialogue to the Moon, the world premiere of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz’s Habanera Gris, arranged by Tyler Emerson for Harp and Vocals, and more!
Beautifully filmed on the 15-acre residential campus of the School for Advanced Research—which sits on ancestral lands of the Tewa people—this colorful and rhythmic program celebrates the diverse culture and history of Santa Fe. Tickets are only $20 per household—with 30-day access!
Learn more and get tickets here.

Neave Trio Performs Music by Clara Schumann and Astor Piazzolla on Virtual Concert Presented by The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN)
2021-05-26 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) continues its series of Composer to Composer Talks, which features major American composers in conversation with each other about their work and leading a creative life. The intergenerational discussions will begin by exploring a single work with one composer interviewing the other. Attendees will gain insight to each work’s genesis, sound, influence on the American orchestral canon, and be invited to ask questions of the artists.
For this installment, Jonathan Bailey Holland talks with Alvin Singleton about his work BluesKonzert, a triple commission from 1995 by the Detroit, Houston and Kansas City symphony orchestras. The talk will be hosted by ACO’s Artistic Director Derek Bermel, live-streamed and available to watch for seven days after the event.
Of BluesKonzert, Michael Fleming writes in the program note, “Vernacular and classical traditions have often cross-pollinated in American music, both in performance and composition. A case in point is BluesKonzert, which mixes musical bloodlines as neatly as its title does language. Konzert is a German term that can mean either ‘concert,’ as in a musical program, or ‘concerto,’ as in a work for solo instrument and orchestra. Singleton, who trained in both classical music and jazz, is perfectly positioned to exploit such ambiguities and crossovers.”
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 4 PM CT | 5 PM ET
Get tickets here.

C4 Presents: Our Voices
2021-05-27 19:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
C4 presents their eighth #C4GoesRemote livestream concert: Our Voices. Hear the latest in choral music, performed LIVE by singers across the US!
Date & Time: Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT | 8:30 PM ET
Our program will include the following pieces:
Austrian Suite by David See – world premiere
My Voice by Anna Heflin – US premiere
Nemesis by Mario Gullo – world premiere
Isolation by Karen Siegel – live remote premiere
Get more information here.

SPRING SOUND GARDEN at HARBOR PARK, Grand Marais MN
2021-05-29 12:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Album Release: Minneapolis-based Composer / Director JG Everest (a 2019 McKnight Composer Fellow) returns to Grand Marais, MN to present his site-specific “Spring Sound Garden” performance installation at Harbor Park on May 29 & 30 as part of the annual ART ALONG THE LAKE open gallery tour event. This self-guided, spatial “concert you can move through” was originally composed specifically for Harbor Park, and is being re-mounted to celebrate the 15-Year Anniversary of this special place with over 40 participating artists and collaborators.
The Spring Sound Garden is the second installment of Everest’s 4-part WATER SUITE: Four Seasonal Sound Gardens that first premiered in 2018, at four different outdoor locations around Minnesota. Each seasonal Sound Garden in the Water Suite was composed for one of the four seasons, and for a specific site that was on or adjacent to a significant body of water. As part of the SPRING Sound Garden event in 2021, Everest is also releasing a new album of the soundtrack, “Harbor Park: A Spring Sound Garden”, including site-specific stories and poems that were commissioned for the original event.
The Spring Sound Garden at Harbor Park is a family-friendly free outdoor event open to all ages and will take place from noon – 5pm on Memorial Day weekend both Saturday May 29 and Sunday May 30, 2021. The Spring Sound Garden celebrates the coming of spring, the sacredness of water, and the history, geography, and ecology of Harbor Park and Lake Superior, and includes oral histories and archival photos, spotlighting the community of local volunteers and community members who brought the park into being.
The Spring Sound Garden features a temporary sound installation of 40 small, battery-powered remote speakers distributed throughout the park, each playing a different part of the larger piece of music, creating a multi-layered, immersive experience. The sound installation is accompanied live by roving musicians and dancers, “The Free Range Orchestra & Choir”, including acclaimed music and dance artists from both the Twin Cities and Grand Marais.
The event will also feature visual art elements by local artists such as plein air oil painter Neil Sherman, muralist Mila Horak, and storyteller Staci Lola Drouillard. Presented by Wavelets Creative in partnership with the Cook County Historical Society, Grand Marais Park Board, and Art Along The Lake / Visit Cook County.
Date & Time: Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 12pm CT
For more information, click here.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

SRS @ Home - Family Concert
2021-05-29 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago)
Santa Rosa Symphony (SRS) presents a virtual concert experience on Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 5 PM CST | 3 PM PST on YouTube. It will be accompanied by excerpts curated by Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong from the Symphony’s 2020-2021 SRS at home concerts. Prior to each piece, Lecce-Chong, joined each time by a different SRS musician, will describe the featured section of the orchestra and its instruments and provide an engaging introduction.
This free, virtual, family-friendly concert will include the second movement of Brahms’ Serenade No. 2 in A major for Orchestra and excerpts from: Michael Daugherty’s (a BandQuest composer) Asclepius, Fanfare for Brass and Percussion; Arturo Márquez’ Danzón No. 4 for Chamber Orchestra; William Grant Still’s Serenade for String Orchestra; and Zwilich’s Peanuts® Gallery for Piano and Orchestra. The concert will run for less than one hour. There will be no intermission.

The Illustrated Pianist
2021-05-29 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago)
THE ILLUSTRATED PIANIST is an in-person multimedia concert of all new piano works inspired by Ray Bradbury‘s timeless book The Illustrated Man. In celebration of the American author’s 100th birthday, pianist and composer Nicole Brancato brings together 9 brilliant pianists who double as performers and composers, including Geoffrey Burleson, Anthony de Mare, Kathleen Supové, Jed Distler, Sarah Dutcher, Thomas Feng, Mariel Mayz, Adam Tendler, and herself, as well as visual designer Eve Nova. These artists come from different corners of New York City’s professional piano world, merging diverse styles in an immersive concert of all new compositions and light installation, in honor of the iconic stories in The Illustrated Man.
Through these unique sonic and visual collaborations, THE ILLUSTRATED PIANIST connects diverse perspectives to understand our past, speak to us about our present, and ponder the future. The themes in Bradbury’s work transcend age and time – and perhaps, in some ways, speak to us even more loudly now than in previous decade.
Date & Time: Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 6pm CT | 7pm ET
Get tickets here.
Learn more on Culture Lab’s website.

MENDI+KEITH OBADIKE | LULL: a sleep temple (2020)
2021-05-29 21:00 - 22:00 (America/Chicago)
Lull, a sleep temple is an overnight musical work. In this project Mendi + Keith Obadike create a sonic environment for rest. The 8 hour livestream uses field recordings, analog synths, and slow-moving harmonies from pianos, guitars, banjos, bell plates, and elongated melodies to create a field of sound for dreaming. At the center of the work is Mendi’s voice incanting original texts, remixed mythologies, and found fragments from books about dreams.
Date & Time: Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 10 PM UTC & Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 9 PM CT | 10 PM ET
“Dream kits” are no longer available but you can still sign up for the live stream of your choice below.
If you live in the US, you will receive a copy of Audra Wolowiec’s print poster Semaphore in the mail.
Sign up here.

Ensemble Ipse - Streaming Concert of Recent Pieces
2021-05-30 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Ensemble Ipse is pleased to present this streaming concert of recent pieces:
Evan Williams – “Cantigas” – Complete NY Premiere
Stephanie Griffin – “Four Bonangs”
Seong Ae Kim – “Garak”
Elizabeth Hoffman – “For Margaret: Bloom Back Brighter” – NY Premiere
Philip Schuessler – “Patchwork Vespers” – NY Premiere
Date & Time: Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 4 PM CT | 5 PM ET, streaming on Youtube. $20 Suggested Donation
Get tickets here.
Ensemble Ipse is a 501(c)(3) contemporary music ensemble dedicated to showcasing the wide variety of practices in the current new music scene. The ensemble presents concerts of recent music that transcends aesthetic categorization and strives to create a forum for composers and sound artists on the edges of the mainstream of contemporary music. With this in mind, Ensemble Ipse is committed to performing and commissioning the music of emerging composers, as well as composers who have been traditionally under-represented in the larger new music community, including women, LGBTQ, and people of color. Since forming in 2016, Ipse has premiered 26 works, 9 of them commissions, held calls for scores for emerging composers which have received thousands of applications, received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, New Music USA, the Queens Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and released an album on New World Records in May, 2019.

Virtual Sacred Masterworks
2021-06-03 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
Virtual Sacred Masterworks is a brand new digital concert release featuring 11 new pre-recorded songs! Access to this production will be available for unlimited on-demand streaming for three months.
A balance between familiar and new, Virtual Sacred Masterworks combines the traditions of classical composers, such as Mozart and Brahms, with thrilling works from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) composers, such as Rollo Dilworth (a ChoralQuest composer) and David Baker. The production will feature works in English, Russian, Hebrew, and more!
The production is available for on-demand streaming starting Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET. Details for viewing will be included in your email confirmation after ticket purchase.
Get tickets here.

Kind of Blue Revisited
2021-06-03 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
The Larry McDonough Sextet returns to the Dakota to stream a celebration the birthday of Miles Davis, born on May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois. It also is the 61st year since the release and performance of the legendary Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. The Larry McDonough Sextet will perform a set of all of Kind of Blue, preceded by a Miles Davis piece from before Kind of Blue, and followed by another Miles Davis piece from after Kind of Blue, all arranged by St. Paul composer Larry McDonough, along with poetry about Miles Davis by New Hope poet Richard Terrill. The performance of Kind of Blue, Before and After in Music and Poetry filled the Dakota in January 2020.

Date & Time: Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 7 PM CT
Register here.

Spring Garden Concert
2021-06-06 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
“Join us as we celebrate a return to in-person choral singing.
This is the first live, in-person performance for the SD Master Chorale in over a year. Moving our program to an outdoor venue creates an opportunity for us to share the joy of live, choral music and introduce music that honors the beautiful, and sacred environment in which we live. This concert will feature music by Antonio Estevez, Libby Larsen (a BandQuest composer and ACF’s co-founder), Abbie Betinis (a ChoralQuest composer and McKnight fellow), and more.
We will revisit some of our favorite repertoire from the past and explore traditions with new music for this program. Of particular note are two works chosen to highlight this concert’s venue: The Water Conservation Garden. This set will feature “To Stir Up Our Wits,” by Greg Brown from his work, Vidi Aquam (I Saw Water), and “We Pray to Be at Peace” from Libby Larsen’s innovative work Missa Gaia (Mass for the Earth). Both pieces reflect on the importance of preserving and appreciating the beauty of our natural world. The program will begin and end with the chorale singing texts by American poet Langston Hughes. The final piece, “I Dream A World” by André J. Thomas, imagines a world where we embrace each other for our differences, looking forward to a moment when we can invite a place for peace and love.
The first work on the program “Give Us Our Peace,” by Rollo Dilworth (a ChoralQuest composer), is also the last piece we performed in person in 2020 (during the Fourth Annual High School Honor Choir concert).
We will feature music from the shape-note singing tradition on this program.
Dates and times of events are subject to change without notice. Always check the event organizer’s website for the most updated schedule before attending. Check local COVID-19 restrictions and updates.”
Date & Time: Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 4 PM CT | 2 PM PT
Get tickets here.

ACF Artist Equity Study Group
2021-06-10 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Tish Jones, Poet and Artist organizer, is our special guest for the June ACF Artist Equity Study Group. Tish will share their perspective on community-focused art projects and how to build a genuine connection and sustainable impact as an artist.
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks – an arts & culture nonprofit based in Saint Paul, MN – Tish Jones is a poet, educator, cultural strategist, and cultural producer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has performed poetry in venues throughout the United States. Her work can be found in A Moment of Silence (Tru Ruts and The Playwrights Center, 2020), the Minnesota Humanities Center’santhology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), and more.
Currently a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Next Step Fund recipient, she has been awarded fellowships from the Arts Matters Foundation, Springboard for the Arts, the Intercultural Leadership Institute, and more. Former Director of the Brave New Voices international youth poetry slam festival, her work explores the ways in which art can function as a tool for social transformation, liberation, and education. Jones has always had a passion for bridging arts & culture, civic engagement, and youth development. For more on her personal praxis, see Jones’ TEDxMinneapolis Talk on Spoken Word as a Radical Practice of Freedom.
Date & Time: Thursday, June 10, 2021 4 PM CT
Register in advance for this meeting here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
If you require an interpreter, closed-captioning, or any other accommodations to fully engage, please contact Laura Krider (lkrider@composersforum, 612.314.9228) at least 48 hours before the event.*

Tweet, Tweet!
2021-06-10 18:00 - 19:15 (America/Chicago)
MIOLINA will perform ‘Tweet, Tweet,’ a program of works for violin duo, many about birds and songs, by composers from around the world. They will be premiering Hesam Abedini’s Ghazaliyât No. 1, and Isaac Otto’s Nycticorax. Other works include the US premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Twin Tweets, and the NYC premiere of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Diaphonic Suite No. 3, recently arranged by Gilbert Dejean for two violins. The program also features North/South Consonance founder and director Max Lifchitz’s Five Impromptus, Alvin Singleton’s Ishirini, and Lynn Bechtold’s Projet Imaginaire 1.4.

Date & Time: Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Attend the live event here.

Kronos Festival 2021: Program #1
2021-06-11 21:00 - 23:00 (America/Chicago)
World premieres by Soo Yeon Lyuh, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, and Mahsa Vahdat (45 minutes)
Date & Time: Friday, June 11, 2021 at 9 PM CT | 7 PM PT
KRONOS FESTIVAL opens with the world premiere of ‘Are You From Here Or Just Visiting?’, with music and film by Canadian composer Nicole Lizée. In another world premiere, Korean composer Soo Yeon Lyuh performs Tattoo, a new work with film by Danny Kim, written in response to a harrowing incident in Berkeley, California in which someone fired a gun at her car. ‘Wawani,’ the first of three pieces by Malian singer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté to premiere at the festival, features Diabaté’s joyous performance with daughter Rokia Kouyaté captured in a vibrant film shot in Mali. Mahsa Vahdat’s Vaya, Vaya, with music and poem by the Iranian singer, is a deep expression of longing, with film by Laurie Olinder. Also on the program: Clint Mansell’s ominous ‘Lux Aeterna,’ Jlin’s driving, insistent Little Black Book, and Pete Seeger’s antiwar lament Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, with folksingers Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, and Aoife O’Donovan.
Learn more on their website here.

New Voice Festival - Past/Present/Future
2021-06-12 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
BROOKLYN ART SONG SOCIETY’S inaugural New Voices Festival brings the start of an essential event for modern song. This first festival takes the tradition that created countless masterpieces and re-imagines it for the 21st century. 15 works by living composers, half of them world-premieres, reflect on the past and look toward the future
SATURDAY, APRIL 10TH, 2021 at 6:30PM CST | 7:30 PM EST
The idiosyncratic Balliett Brothers re-set Schubert’s final masterpiece Schwanengsesang in their own musical voices. After intermission, Katherine Balch‘s (a MN Orchestra Composer Institute participant) latest work takes a new look at Schumann’s masterful Dichterliebe from the female’s perspective, with newly commissioned poetry by Katie Ford. I. Katherine Balch: New Work* Brad and Doug Balliett: Swan Song * Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe Op. 48
SATURDAY, MAY 15TH, 2021 at 6:30PM CST | 7:30 PM EST
Each work in the second New Voices program takes a text from the past and gives it a new perspective, including words by Anna Akhmatova, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, and more. II. Tom Cipullo: Rapture Daron Hagen: To a Street Person* Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer): Lilacs James Kallembach: Autumn Violets* Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer): New Work* James Primosch: 2 Whitman Love Songs Scott Wheeler: 3 Russian Nocturnes*
SATURDAY, JUNE 12TH, 2021 at 6:30PM CST | 7:30 PM EST
The New Voices finale looks back at BASS’s commissioned works from the last five years, celebrating its impressive past as it looks forward to its exciting future. III. Daniel Felsenfeld: For Clara James Matheson: Pessoa Songs Harold Meltzer: From a Book of Beautiful Monsters II Kurt Rohde: It Wasn’t a Dream
For ticket and more information, visit their website.

American Music Festival
2021-06-12 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
Two-time GRAMMY award-winning Albany Symphony launches its annual American Music Festival celebrating cutting-edge composers and musicians, starting Thursday, June 10th through Sunday June 13th at the Palace Theatre. The four-day event will feature William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet as well as composers Clarice Assad, Molly Joyce, Christopher Theofanidis (a BandQuest composer), Alexis Lamb, Nina Shekhar, and other outstanding musicians. The Festival also includes a performance by the popular Dogs of Desire; the First Draughts reading session, which give the public a glimpse into the weeklong Composer Workshop for emerging creators; outdoor neighborhood performances and family activities.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 6:30 PM | 7:30 PM ET
DAVID ALAN MILLER, CONDUCTOR | WILLIAM KANENGISER & SCOTT TENNANT (L.A. GUITAR QUARTET)
Nina Shekhar: Above the Fray
Clarice Assad: Folk Tales, Double Guitar Concerto
Molly Joyce/Christopher Theofanidis: Songs (World Premiere)
Alexis Lamb: Serotiny
Watch the virtual concert here.

EXTENSITY Opening night- Stand the Storm: Adam Richardson and John Arida
2021-06-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
EXTENSITY’s opening night concert, featuring baritone Adam Richardson and pianist John Arida, explores vocal music of 20th and 21st century Black composers. This genre-bending program features re-interpretations of traditional spirituals, bold new works, and folk adaptations, showcasing the breadth and diversity of this repertoire.
This concert will be followed by an artist talkback with Adam Richardson and John Arida, and a reception.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

The Albany Symphony 2020/2021 SEASON RE-IMAGINED!
2021-06-12 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
The Albany Symphony unveiled its reimagined 2020-2021 season, which will include world premieres and concertos with brilliant soloists, as well as iconic masterworks. Curated by conductor David Alan Miller, the season brings to life an array of new and recent works by a panoply of living composers forging new ways to create art reflecting our time and place, with major masterpieces by Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and others, and dazzling solo performances by artists including Inon Barnatan, Melissa White, Karen Hosmer and Grace Shryock.
The newly reimagined season will be presented virtually. As restrictions are lifted, live audiences will be invited back into the concert hall. All concerts will be performed live, in real time, on Capital Region stages, by Albany Symphony musicians conducted by Music Director, David Alan Miller.
The season kicks off on Oct. 24 at 7:30pm EDT, with a program featuring Michael Daugherty’s This Land Sings: Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie. Michael Daugherty is a BandQuest composer.
Performances run through June 2021. Find the schedule here and below.
ROMANTIC BRAHMS – Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021 at 6:30pm CST | 7:30pm EST
A socially distanced performance for digital stream with Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Narrator; SIR WILLIAM WALTON: Facade; TYSON DAVIS (a NextNotes creator): (new work) JOHANNES BRAHMS: Serenade No. 1
RACHMANINOFF’S THIRD – Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 6:30pm CST | 7:30pm EST
A socially distanced performance for digital stream with Inon Barnatan, Piano; OTTORINO RESPIGHI: Trittico Botticelliano; CARLOS BANDERA: (new work); SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 (chamber orchestra version)
HAYDN & SCHUBERT – Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 6:30pm CST | 7:30pm EST
A socially distanced performance for digital stream with Melissa White, Violin; FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN: Symphony No. 46; GEORGE TSONTAKIS: Violin Concerto No. 2; TANNER PORTER: (new work) FRANZ SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 5
AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL–TRAILBLAZE! – Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 6:30pm CST | 7:30pm EST
A socially distanced performance for digital stream with Brasil Guitar Duo; NINA SHEKHAR: (new work); CLARICE ASSAD: Folk Tales, Double Guitar Concerto; MOLLY JOYCE/CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS: Songs; ALEXIS LAMB: (new work)
For more information, and to watch the concerts, subscribe and get tickets on their website: www.albanysymphony.com.

KRONOS FESTIVAL Kids!
2021-06-13 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago)
A new program made specially for kids (30-minutes)
KRONOS FESTIVAL Kids! is a sparkling collection of short films with music, including Kronos Makes Sounds With Stuff by composer Danny Clay; 3000 Reefs, with stunning underwater cinematography by Julia Sumerling and music by Aftab Darvishi; Music of the Birds, with avian-inspired music and film by Sahba Aminikia, featuring the San Francisco Girls Chorus, young people from the Sirkhane Social Circus School, and ornithologists from the Smithsonian Institution and around the country; ‘Funtukuru,’ an exuberant song by Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté; Chebiyat Muqam – Third Dastan, a traditional melody arranged by Wu Man and performed by young musicians from Oakland School for the Arts and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Also featured: George Crumb‘s haunting ‘God-music’ from Black Angels, an excerpt from Garth Knox‘s cosmic Satellites, and Bill Steele’s environmental anthem Garbage, made famous by Pete Seeger and performed by singer Lee Knight with Kronos.
Date & Time: Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 1 PM CT | 11 AM PT
Learn more on their website here.

EMERGE, a Concert by EMBER (New Jersey)
2021-06-13 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Join EMBER for “EMERGE,” where we examine this period in our life between what was and what will be.
We learned new ways of living and working; new ways of being human with other humans. Some changes we will certainly be glad to forfeit as soon as we can! Others we may elect to retain, having learned new things that enhance life.
Together, we seek to acknowledge the sense of loss and disorder that we are left with, and to make a proactive choice to hold more lightly some parts of life that may have seemed essential in the past.
The concert will begin with “To Sit and Dream” by Rosephanye Powell (a ChoralQuest composer). The ensemble will also showcase another piece by Ola Gjeilo with “Unicornis Captivatur”. Additional selections of the concert include “And Einstein Said” by Trent Worthington, “The Spaces in Between Us” arranged by Larry Nickel, “Sound Over All Waters” by William V. Malpede, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Paul Simon and arranged by V Peterson, and “I Believe” by Mark Miller.
DATE & TIME : Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 4 PM CT | 5 PM ET
Get tickets here.
