American Composers Forum

Amplifying Solidarity: A Northrop Plaza Series
2021-09-02 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-08-26 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago)
Spend the last four Thursdays of summer lounging or lunching on Northrop Plaza while listening to music by spectacular Minnesota artists! A collaboration between Northrop, Radio K, Welcome Week, Multicultural Student Engagement, and the School of Music, Amplifying Solidarity is a program of free outdoor concerts with the intent to use music to lift the voices of people who have been marginalized and to welcome our community back to campus after more than a year of physical distancing and social unrest. These free concerts featuring Black and Indigenous artists will take place on Northrop’s Plaza Stage.
Schedule:
Daniel James Felton: Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 12 PM CT
Learn more here.

Joe Davis & The Poetic Diaspora: Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 12 PM CT
Learn more here.

Lady Midnight: Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 12 PM CT
Learn more here.

Why Canoes? Featuring the Milanesians: Thursday, September 16, 2021 at 12 PM CT
Capacious Vessels and Indigenous Futures of Minnesota’s Peoples and Places, is an exhibit that honors the interconnectedness between the Native Canoe Program, University of Minnesota students, faculty, staff, and members of three Indigenous communities around Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota). It also celebrates relationships with Dakota, Ojibwe, and Micronesian communities that have come together and found a common passion for sharing water traditions, while broadening the understanding of the waters that surround us through the resurgence and revitalization of canoe communities. The exhibit is presented by Northrop, Heritage Studies & Public History Program, Institute for Advanced Study, and University Honors Program.
Learn more here.

MAKE NO SMALL PLANS
2021-08-29 16:00 - 18:00, 2021-08-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2021-08-26 19:00 - 21:00
Sextet in E-flat Major, Op.81b • Ludwig van Beethoven
Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 • Johannes Brahms
Door County Concerto • Quinn Mason, 2021 Composer-in-Residence Fellow
Musicians TBA
Quinn Mason is one of Midsummer’s 2021 Emerging Composers Initiative Fellows & a NextNotes creator.
Dates & Times:

Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 7 PM CT; VENUE: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2336 Canterbury Ln, Sister Bay, WI 54234
Friday, August 27, 2021 at 7 PM CT; VENUE: Kress Pavilion, 7845 Church St., Egg Harbor, WI 54209
Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 4 PM CT; VENUE: Woodwalk Gallery, 6746 County Rd. G., Egg Harbor, WI 54209

Learn more and get tickets on Midsummer’s calendar here.
Tickets are $30.

COFFEE TALK WITH QUINN MASON • KRESS PAVILION, EGG HARBOR
2021-08-28 10:00 - 11:30
Join for Midsummer’s Music’s free Coffee Talk programs—informal presentations on music topics by our ensemble members and friends.
Quinn Mason is one of Midsummer’s 2021 Emerging Composers Initiative Fellows & a NextNotes creator. Midsummer’s will play the world premiere of his Door County Concerto during the Make No Small Plans program starting August 26.
Date & Time: Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 10 am CT
VENUE: Kress Pavilion, 7845 Church St., Egg Harbor, WI 54209
Learn more and get free tickets here.

COFFEE TALK WITH QUINN MASON • KRESS PAVILION, EGG HARBOR
2021-08-28 10:00 - 11:00
Join Midsummer’s Music for their free Coffee Talk programs—informal presentations on music topics by our ensemble members and friends.
Quinn Mason ( a NextNotes creator) is one of Midsummer’s 2021 Emerging Composers Initiative Fellows. Midsummer’s will play the world premiere of his Door County Concerto during the Make No Small Plans program starting August 26.
Date & Time: Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 10 AM CT
Buy tickets here.
VENUE: Kress Pavilion, 7845 Church St., Egg Harbor, WI 54209

Lowertown Sounds: Heiruspecs, The Fragrants, Saint Small
2021-08-26 18:00 - 21:30
On Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 6 PM CT, performing in Saint Small, with Jim McGuinn Slusarek – vocals and guitar, Bill Muller – bass, Steve Burnett – guitar, Jimmy Olson – drums, and Larry McDonough (an ACF Showcase composer)- keyboards, Mears Park, 221 5th St E, St Paul, MN 55101. Saint Small begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by The Fragrants and Heiruspecs.
Learn more here.

Cantilena Chamber Choir: Concert at Naumkeag
2021-08-26 17:00 - 18:00
The Cantilena Chamber Choir will present a concert on Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 6 PM ET in the Chinese Garden at Naumkeag, the Trustees property at 5 Prospect Hill Road. Doors open at 5:30 PM ET.
The program will include the choir’s best music from the past few seasons, including music by Billings, Brahms, Alice Parker (a ChoralQuest composer), new music by Stephen Paulus (a ChoralQuest composer), and spiritual selections from the Martin Luther King concert series.
Get tickets here.

The Martin Wind Duo - Kassia and Sam Martin
2021-08-26 15:00 - 16:00
Krasl Art Center (KAC) is thrilled to host musicians from the SMSO for a FREE outdoor concert series every Thursday in August. Enjoy different musical selections inspired by opera mythology, pop culture, storytelling, and collaboration.

On August 26, Kassia and Sam Martin’s program explores the connections between music and storytelling. They will play pieces inspired by stories, from mythology, opera, and movies – some of which will include narration along with the music. Pieces include Syrinx by Claude Debussy, The Pied Piper of Harlem by Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), and Story Hour by Philip Parker.
Date & Time: Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM ET
Location:
The Oval Lawn of Krasl Art Center
707 Lake Blvd, St Joseph
Visit website here.

Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans
2021-08-25 19:00 - 20:30
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 7 PM CT, the Larry McDonough Quartet (Larry McDonough is an ACF Showcase composer) performs “Kind of Bill, the Musical Life of Bill Evans” and his associations with Tony Bennett, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian, Miles Davis, Jim Hall, Eddie Gómez, Eliot Zigmund, Marc Johnson, and Joe LaBarbera, at East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul, MN 55106. Suggested donation of $15. Families and students are welcome.
The Larry McDonough Quartet is Larry McDonough, piano, voice, and arrangements, Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry, Greg Stinson, bass, and Dean White, drums.
The Larry McDonough Quartet will perform its new CD, Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds, Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans.
Learn more here.

A CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY PIANO MUSIC (LIVE & LIVE-STREAMED FROM OLD FIRST CONCERTS) -
2021-08-22 18:00 - 19:30
Bringing together a varied and compelling array of leading composers of our time, Nicholas Phillips present a live solo recital from Old First Concerts. A champion of new music, Phillips has earned praise for his recitals and recordings from the New York Times, BBC Music Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and the American Record Guide. The Festival is delighted to welcome him back, particularly for the first live recital of the 2021 festival, presented in collaboration with Old First Concerts.
Date & Time: Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 4 PM PT
This concert will be performed LIVE from Old First Concerts. Tickets Available HERE
LIVESTREAM LINK HERE
Program:
Rang De Basant (2012) Reena Esmail (b.1983)
Aghavni (2009) Mary Kouyoumdjian (an ACF board member, ACF create (previously known as JFund) and ACF Connect winner) (b.1983)
Mieux vaut être seul que mail accompagné (2021)* Mark Olivieri (b.1972)
Hymn for Alaina (2021)*
from Music for a New Apocalypse
III. Tyranny of Virtue (2020)*
“She Steals Me” from The Piano’s 12 Sides (2011) Carter Pann (b.1972)
Lullaby (2015) Sahba Aminikia (b.1981)
Year End Nocturne (2021)* Mark Winges (b.1951)
Karnavalito No.1 (2013) Gabriela Lena Frank (Continental Harmony composer) (b.1972)
Sonata ’21 (2021)* Quinn Mason ( a NextNotes creator) (b.1996)

Moderate, with movement
Slowly with feeling
Finale (5 with 4 and 3 with 2)

Arts in the Park
2021-08-22 14:00 - 16:00, 2021-08-21 14:00 - 16:00
Join Riverwalk Theatre, Happendance, Lansing Children’s Choir, The Curtainless Theatre and Habibi Dancers at the Salt Shed at Adado Park in Downtown Lansing from Saturday, August 21, 2021 – Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET for performances reflecting a message of hope, optimism and reopening. The festival will showcase singing, dancing, poetry and dramatic readings in 12 performances.
The show will feature Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music,” George Gerswhwin’s “’S Wonderful,” Stuart Saunders Smiths’ “Songs I-IX for Actor Percussionist,” Gerswhin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” Michael Colgrass’ (a BandQuest composer) “Three Allegro Drum Duets” and Meredith Wilson’s “’Til There Was You.”

Admission is free, but donations are appreciated and will support the participating organizations. Learn more at riverwalktheatre.com or email tjferris49@gmail.com with questions.

Muzzy Ridge Concerts presents: Laurie Carney, violin & David Friend, piano
2021-08-22 14:00 - 16:00
Composer Robert Sirota launches the inaugural season of a new concert series, Muzzy Ridge Concerts, with two performances in August. Both concerts will take place in the studio where Sirota has composed much of his music over the past 35 years, in Searsmont, Maine. Concerts will be approximately 60 minutes long, without intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 40 vaccinated patrons, with some additional outdoor seating. The address and directions will be supplied to ticket buyers.
On Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET, violinist Laurie Carney and pianist David Friend perform Messiaen’s Thème et variations, Prokoviev’s Five Melodies, Op. 35, Kodály’s Adagio, and Sirota’s Summermusic from 2000. A founding member of the American String Quartet, Laurie Carney holds the distinction of performing quartets longer than any other woman in this elite field. A fearless performer, critics have described David Friend’s performances as “astonishingly compelling” (The Washington Post).
Robert Sirota says of Muzzy Ridge Concerts: “Since 1986, we have owned a home on a 10–acre property in the town of Searsmont in central coastal Maine: a landscape of small farms, low-bush blueberry fields, and woodlots inhabited by deer, wild turkeys, numerous species of birds, and the occasional moose, black bear, and coyote. Our home sits on a gently sloping parcel on the eastern side of Muzzy Ridge. It is in this setting that I have composed many works in the past 35 years. About ten years ago, we built an 800-square-foot studio onto our house: the perfect intimate venue for chamber music. You are invited to join us for two special events inaugurating Muzzy Ridge Concerts. We hope that these two Sunday afternoons in August will be the start of annual celebrations of chamber music in this place we love.”
Learn more here.
Get tickets here.

Music From Home - Kim Davenport - Lakewold Gardens
2021-08-22 14:00 - 15:00
Lakewold Gardens’ Music from Home in-person concerts are back!
Pianist, Kim Davenport is the featured performer on Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET. Kim will play music from Chevalier de Saint-George, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Jasmine Barnes, Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), Jonathan Bailey Holland, Robert Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still & Margaret Bonds. Kim will be joined by Flutist Drew Shipman, and art will be on display by Laurie Davenport. Feel free to come early and roam and explore the gardens before the show and as always there will be complimentary refreshments available!
Get tickets here.

Jupiter String Quartet
2021-08-22 14:00 - 15:00
The Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violinists; Liz Freivogel, viola; and Daniel McDonough, cello) makes its debut at Music Mountain on Saturday, August 22, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET, performing a program with works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Florence Price, Felix Mendelssohn, and Judd Greenstein.
The concert will be presented for a live, in-person audience and as a free livestream online, available to watch at www.musicmountain.org in real time and for one week after the performance.
Get tickets here.
Program
FANNY MENDELSSOHN HENSEL String Quartet in E Flat Major
FLORENCE PRICE Five Folksongs in Counterpoint
FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80
JUDD GREENSTEIN (a ChoralQuest composer) Four on the Floor

Tribute to the Earth
2021-08-21 19:30 - 21:00
The “Pago a la Tierra” (tribute to the earth) is an ancient Andean ritual of thanksgiving for nature’s bounty. In this spirit, the Lakes Area Music Festival closes its season with a celebration of the gifts we have all enjoyed. A world premier by Peruvian-American composer Jimmy López is followed by the Second Symphony of Jean Sibelius, a work inspired by the Apennine mountains of Italy.
Date & Time: Saturday, August 21, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more here.

Watermark
2021-08-18 19:30 - 21:00
The imprint of the past carries on in the work of composers today. This chamber orchestra program features compositions which look to the past with fresh eyes, from the dazzling baroque-inspired counterpoint of Steve Reich‘s Duet to Caroline Shaw‘s ‘Watermark,’ which expertly weaves strands and patches from Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. As a finale, Sergei Prokfiev‘s first symphony presents a reinvention of the music of Mozart- but with a distinctive twist!

Date & Time: Wednesday August 18, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more here.

New Music Gathering 2021
2021-08-18 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-17 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-16 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-15 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-14 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-13 08:00 - 22:00, 2021-08-12 08:00 - 22:00 | Landmark Center, 75 West 5th Street, Saint Paul, MN, United States
New Music Gathering 2021, co-presented by American Composers Forum, New Music USA will be in Downtown St. Paul, Minnesota on August 12-14, as well as online from August 12-18.
Our theme this year is “Money?” – and yes we mean that question mark! Given the economic uncertainty of the arts right now, by naming this theme we invite our applicants to raise questions, offer suggestions, and share experiences that help us sustainably reimagine our creative community together!
To register for NMG2021, visit our passes page!
To view a full schedule of NMG2021 events with location info, visit our schedule page!
Below, find info on the wonderful folks who will make up NMG2021!

OUR COVID-19 PLAN
Weird year, huh? And Delta’s just making it weirder. Please know that ALL of our events are being streamed online (the schedule page will have links the day of the event). If you’re going to be with us in St Paul, know that the stream will be playing live in an open tent outdoors on Landmark Plaza on the 12th and 13th, and in Mears Park on the 14th. We’re also taking temperatures and requiring masks be worn at ALL indoor events.
On a more fun note, we’ll be using Gather.town this year for online hangs after events. If you don’t know this platform, think of it as a combination of your favorite 2D video game from the 80’s and a social video chatting platform. Come and chat with the organizers and artists and presenters and each other! More info on that in a week or so..
Access to all streaming events and gather.town hangs is free with registration – why not register right now?
We know gathering is trickier than ever right now but, whether corporeally or cybernetically, gathering to celebrate great music feels more critical and sustaining than ever. We hope you’ll join us!

Muzzy Ridge Concerts presents: Duo Coquelicot
2021-08-15 14:00 - 16:00
Composer Robert Sirota launches the inaugural season of a new concert series, Muzzy Ridge Concerts, with two performances in August. Both concerts will take place in the studio where Sirota has composed much of his music over the past 35 years, in Searsmont, Maine. Concerts will be approximately 60 minutes long, without intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 40 vaccinated patrons, with some additional outdoor seating. The address and directions will be supplied to ticket buyers.
On Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 3 PM ET, Duo Coquelicot – Grammy-nominated flutist Carol Wincenc (“Queen of the flute,” New York Magazine), and Boston-based Parisian cellist Velléda Miragias, with Sirota at the piano – will give a concert featuring a wide-ranging program that includes the music of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Fauré, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, and Villa-Lobos, plus a new work by Meira Warschauer. The duo will also perform Robert Sirota’s 2016 piece, Broken Places.
Robert Sirota says of Muzzy Ridge Concerts:
“Since 1986, we have owned a home on a 10–acre property in the town of Searsmont in central coastal Maine: a landscape of small farms, low-bush blueberry fields, and woodlots inhabited by deer, wild turkeys, numerous species of birds, and the occasional moose, black bear, and coyote. Our home sits on a gently sloping parcel on the eastern side of Muzzy Ridge. It is in this setting that I have composed many works in the past 35 years. About ten years ago, we built an 800-square-foot studio onto our house: the perfect intimate venue for chamber music. You are invited to join us for two special events inaugurating Muzzy Ridge Concerts. We hope that these two Sunday afternoons in August will be the start of annual celebrations of chamber music in this place we love.”
Learn more here.
Get tickets here.

Shandelee Music Festival: An Evening of Chamber Music featuring Neave Trio
2021-08-14 19:00 - 21:00
On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET, the Boston-based Neave Trio will perform a concert presented as part of the Shandelee Music Festival. The concert will be performed for a live audience at the Shandelee Music Festival’s Sunset Concert Pavilion and livestreamed online.
Tickets are available for purchase here, and instructions to watch the stream will be sent to registrants via email.
Neave Trio’s program includes Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor, Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, and Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8. Neave will record this masterful program on Chandos Records during the 2021-2022 season.
Rachmaninov was inspired to write Trio élégiaque No. 1 after hearing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor, which was composed in memory of Tchaikovsky’s deceased friend Nicolai Rubinstein. Though Rachmaninov composed his trio when he was just 19 years old, it is completely characteristic of his compositional brilliance which would continue to develop in his adult life. Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1 was the first of the composer’s chamber works to be published. The work is notably grand in both scope and sound, often emulating an orchestral symphony within its organization and harmonic structure. Ravel composed his only piano trio after nearly six years of sketching and planning. But following the beginning of World War I in 1914, Ravel was motivated to quickly complete the work before enlisting in the French army. In a letter to Igor Stravinsky, he wrote, “The idea that I should be leaving at once made me get through five months’ work in five weeks! My Trio is finished.”

Michael Harrison performs Indian Ragas & Compositions for Piano & Tabla, with Nitin Mitta
2021-08-12 19:30 - 20:30
Composer, pianist and vocalist Michael Harrison will offer his debut performance of traditional Indian classical music, which he has adapted for piano with tabla accompaniment, presented by Drive East by Navatman. Celebrated tabla player Nitin Mitta will accompany him. Harrison will also perform his own original compositions which are based on the traditional ragas (melodic archetypes) and talas (rhythmic cycles) of Indian classical music. The concert will be offered both in person at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club for a fully vaccinated audience, as well as live online with the video being available for 24 hours after the performance.
Although this is his first performance as a featured piano soloist in an Indian classical concert, Michael Harrison has performed Indian classical music for decades as a vocal (and occasionally piano) accompanist with his Indian music gurus Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan and Terry Riley.
Date & Time: Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT | 8:30 PM ET
Harrison’s concert on August 12 will feature the live premiere performance of his piece Etude in Raga Bhimpalasi, which is included on his new album Seven Sacred Names (Cantaloupe Music). Seven Sacred Names was in the top ten albums on the Billboard Classical Chart upon release; The New Yorker described the album as, “music of positively intoxicating beauty.”
Learn more and get tickets here.

Rain and Red Clay
2021-08-11 19:30 - 21:00
For many of us, the land of our ancestors holds a special power, That fascination drew the Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, to the music and culture of Black American, where his forebears had been enslaved. This program presents Colderidge-Taylor’s luscious Clarinet Quintet alongside two of his formative influences, the European tradition of composers like Brahms and Black American music. The latter is represented by Valerie Colemean‘s ‘Red Clay and Mississsippi Delta,’ which uses the blues to create a classical woodwind quintet with a southern accent.
Date & Time: Wednesday August 11, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more here.
