American Composers Forum

Sarah Cahill
2021-06-26 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
Nationally acclaimed new music pianist, Sarah Cahill (an ACF Champions of New Music), returns to the Sri Moonshine Music Series.
Performing compositions by Terry Riley on his own Kingsbury upright piano and work by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerra, Margaret Bonds, Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, and Meredith Monk in a concert at the Camptonville Community Center.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 8 PM CT | 6 PM PT
Get tickets here.

2021 Sunflower Music Festival: Chamber Orchestra & Panel Discussion on Women's Rights
2021-06-26 19:30 - 20:30, 2021-06-26 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
The 2021 Sunflower Music Festival will honor women in music. This expanded project pays homage to females in music and the arts through showcasing both past and contemporary female composers, current female performers and soloists, important female figures in music and women’s rights, and art of the Suffrage Movement. Our project has won multiple endorsements and grants from the National Endowment of the Arts.
Browse our programming below to see all Sunflower will offer celebrating women in music:

Performance of FANFARE FOR THE UNCOMMON WOMAN by Joan Tower (written in 1987 and revised in 1997)
The one-woman Music/Theatre production, WOMAN ON A LEDGE, with internationally acclaimed harpist, Rita Costanzi
A Jazz Night performance featuring vocalist Deborah Brown
An exhibition at the Mulvane Art Museum of works by women during the Suffrage era
A panel discussion on Women’s Rights with several notable female leaders, composer Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer), conductor JoAnn Falletta and Washburn University President Jerry Farley
A premiere of Libby Larsen’s chamber orchestra composition, THE SUPREME FOUR, using the words of the four women Supreme Court Justices and narrated by Kansas Governor, Laura Kelly

Date & Time: Saturday, June 26, 2021

The Panel Discussion is at 6:30 PM CT
The Chamber Orchestra at 7:30 PM CT

Vicky Chow/Craig Taborn
2021-06-26 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
New music star pianist Vicky Chow and inimitable pianist/composer Craig Taborn join forces for a first time collaboration juxtaposing works by contemporary female composers with original compositions by Craig Taborn. The program includes Caroline Shaw’s Gustave Le Gray, Tomeka Reid’s Lamenting G.F., A.A., B.T., T.M, Tania Leon’s Rituál and Craig Taborn’s 3 Set Ups and a Double Cross.
This concert will be followed by a reception.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Oregon Bach Festival “Bach Listening Room” featuring Matt Haimovitz and the Primavera Project
2021-06-25 14:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
This performance features brand new solo cello works written for Matt Haimovitz commissioned by THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT. This new initiative asks composers to write in response to Sandro Botticelli’s enigmatic painting, Primavera, and the prophetic large-scale triptych, Primavera 2020, by contemporary artist Charline von Heyl. Haimovitz releases the first of three albums (featuring 14 out of the 81 total pieces) on June 11, 2021. More information about the project, composers, and pieces is available at THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT’s online hub, www.primaveraproject.com.
Date & Time: Friday, June 25, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 12 PM PT
Learn more here.
Program:
Bach Suite II Prelude,
Roberto Sierra Chloris and Zephyrus,
David Sanford Suolo,
David T. Little The Crocus Palimpsest,
Lisa Bielawa Missa Primavera,
Bach Suite III (complete)

Meet a Musician/ACCENT with Osmo Vanska and Erin Keefe
2021-06-24 20:00 - 21:30 (America/Chicago)
A virtual event with Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vanska and Principal Violinist Erin Keefe joining host Melissa Ousley. These musicians will share two world premieres, just for us: Libby Larsen‘s (ACF’s co-founder) Tarantella for Our Times and David Ludwig‘s Seven Circles. Additionally, we’ll hear two transcriptions of Mozart opera arias by Osmo.
AND Libby Larsen will joins virtually to introduce her piece.
90 minutes of fantastic and unique music and conversation.
Come with questions for the Q&A and please invite others who might be interested (worldwide).
Date & Time: Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 8 PM CT
Get tickets here.

ACF Roundtable On the Asian American Experience mod. Vivian Fung
2021-06-24 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago)
There is a full vibrant spectrum of diversity that makes up the Asian American experience. In light of ongoing events around anti-Asian hate, ACF would like to create a safe space to share stories and experiences, as well as highlight and celebrate what it means to be an Asian American today. Artist and ACF board member Vivian Fung will moderate a conversation with artists Nina Shekhar, Sugar Vendil, and Pearl Bergad. Topics of discussion include reactions to recent events, whether those events have affected their art, and what the future might hold.
Date & Time: Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 3 PM CT
Register in advance for this event 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.

Beethoven X George Walker
2021-06-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
In celebration of Juneteenth, EXTENSITY presents: Beethoven X Walker: Piano Sonatas. EXTENSITY Concert Series Benefit.
This special benefit concert pairs the monumental, late piano sonatas No. 30 Op. 109 and No. 31 Op. 110 by L. van Beethoven, with the masterful, yet rarely heard piano sonatas No. 2 and No. 4 by pioneering 20th century Black American composer George Walker. Co-founders Francesca Khalifa and Chelsea Randall will perform.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Anaïs Maviel & The Rhythm Method: listen to the rain
2021-06-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Composer and vocalist Anaïs Maviel returns with composer-performer ensemble The Rhythm Method to present the world premiere of listen to the rain. Approaching listening as performative and performance as meditative, listen to the rain’s instrumentation weaves Afrocentric with Eurocentric music traditions, written and oral. Grounded in the study of the Asian theories of the five elements—rather, dynamic agents—and of the bagua, the music explores their generative cycles in the body in interdependency with the earth and cosmos, as a structural base. The piece invites our focus on what is transforming our environment, whether we call it nature—rainforests turning water into oxygen—or culture—a virus taking over an entire species, yet all revealing the stakes of in and outward Relation.
listen to the rain is an invitation to recognize water as both one and plural, both inside and outside of ourselves, taking many forms and emanating different temporalities. Listening to the rain means letting our sense of hearing tell us about the multi-dimensionality of water, how hearing is a topography, and how connected the sense of hearing is with the other senses. In Chinese energetics–which inspire the methodology of this work–the five elements are dynamic agents connected to the human senses, and the sense of hearing corresponds to water.— Anaïs Maviel, I Care If You Listen
Anaïs Maviel – composition, n’goni, voice (supported by an ACF Create award)
Leah Asher – violin, voice
Marina Kifferstein – violin, voice
Carrie Frey – viola, voice
Meaghan Burke – cello, voice
Date & Time: Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.
listen to the rain by Anaïs Maviel was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

June Jubilation
2021-06-19 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
The Marquette Symphony Orchestra returns to the Presque Isle Park Bandshell on Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET with ‘June Jubilation,’ an outdoor performance.
Under the direction of principal conductor Octavio Mas-Arocas, the concert will consist of: Camille Saint-Saëns, Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila; Quinn Mason (a NextNotes creator), A Joyous Trilogy for Orchestra; Antonin Dvorak, Slavonic Dance Op. 46, No. 8 in G minor; Florence Price, Adoration; and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op. 63.
Buy tickets online here.

Pity These Ashes: TULSA 1921-2021
2021-06-19 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
The Harlem Chamber Players announce Pity These Ashes: Tulsa 1921-2021, an online concert program on Juneteenth in partnership with The Greene Space at WQXR and WNYC, Harlem Stage, and the Harlem School of the Arts.
The program will feature the world premiere of TULSA 1921 (Pity These Ashes, Pity This Dust) by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), commissioned in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, with a libretto by Dr. Herbert Woodward Martin. The concert will also include performances of Starburst by Jessie Montgomery, Prema by Alice Coltrane, and The People Could Fly by Trevor Weston.
Date & Time: Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Learn more and register here.

From Renaissance to Resistance
2021-06-18 18:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
Join us for a performance by our ACF | connect partner, Music of the Unsung America Concert Series. A new series featuring Black artists of history, Music of the Unsung America continues its live performance series with a concert of a classical and jazz fusion program of repertoire featuring the piece Tre by Dwight Banks, supported by the ACF | connect program.
The first part of the program will have music by Duke Ellington: Sacred Concert, Come Sunday, and a string arrangement of Billie Holiday‘s Strange Fruit.
Date & Time: Friday, June 18, 2021 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Register and get tickets here.
Location:
Historic Hampton House
4240 Northwest 27th Avenue
3010
Miami, FL 33142
Funder Support
Portia Dunkley‘s Music of the Unsung America is supported with a matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s 2019 Knight Arts Challenge.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit Knight Foundation.
American Composers Forum’s ACF | connect program is made possible with the outstanding generosity of the following individuals: 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, Mike and Kay McCarthy, 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, Jon Lewis and Lisa Merklin, 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.

The Seasons: Marilyn Nonken
2021-06-17 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
In The Seasons, renowned pianist Marilyn Nonken explores the relationship between memory and time. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr (1841), a monumental cycle of pieces depicting the months of the year, is juxtaposed with Liza Lim‘s The Four Seasons (After Cy Twombly) (2009), commissioned by the Ian Potter Foundation for Marilyn Nonken and inspired by Twombly’s painting Quattro Stagioni.
This concert will be followed by a reception.
Date & Time: Thursday, July 17, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Quinteto Latino
2021-06-17 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
This event was originally scheduled for March 10 and has been rescheduled.
Quinteto Latino is a San Francisco Bay Area wind quintet with a mission to build community through Latino classical music. Founded in 2004 by French horn player Armando Castellano, this ensemble aims to expand the boundaries of a classical music tradition by performing works exclusively by Latino/a composers. In addition, the quintet advocates on behalf of Latino/a composers and classical musicians through mentoring, commissioning, and being a voice regionally and nationally for issues around diversity and classical music.
In their Music of the Americas debut, the Quintet will present a program featuring a premiere by Colombian composer Felipe Nieto, alongside works by Gabriela Lena Frank and others.
Program

Felipe Nieto-Sachica, New Work for Quinteto Latino, “C U Z A – four nocturnes for wind quintet” (supported by an ACF Create award)
Gabriela Lena Frank, “Mitos: Suite Dramatica para Quinteto de Vientos (y actores)”Quinteto Latino
Gabriela Ortiz, “Puzzle-Tocas”

Quinteto Latino

Diane Grubbe, flute
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Leslie Tagorda, clarinet
Shawn Jones, bassoon
Armando Castellano, ensemble director and French horn

Nieto-Sachica’s “C U Z A – four nocturnes for wind quintet” was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.
Date & Time: Thursday, June 17, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Learn more here.

Arts in the Garden: Hearing and Healing with DBR
2021-06-16 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago)
Daniel Bernard Roumain brings together musical stylings from all eras. This beautiful program features the first movement of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, solo Bach, Ives’ The Unanswered Question and more. DBR’s own i am a white person who _____ Black people, first premiered during the NJSO’s Virtual 20–21 season, completes a perfect evening of music in the garden.
ADRIANA ROSIN violin
JAMES TSAO violin
DAVID BLINN viola
HYEWON KIM cello
KATHLEEN NESTER flute
REVA YOUNGSEIN flute
ALEXANDRA KNOLL oboe
PASCAL ARCHER clarinet
ANDREW LAMY clarinet
MARK TIMMERMAN bassoon
MICHAEL BAKER trumpet
GREGORY LAROSA percussion
JEROD IMPICHCHAACHAAHA’ TATE (a ChoralQuest composer) narrator
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN Hip Hop Studies and Etude in C-Sharp Minor
BACH Preludio from Partita No. 3 in E Major for Solo Violin
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN i am a white person who _____ Black people
BRAHMS Allegro from Clarinet Quintet in B Minor
VALERIE COLEMAN Rubispheres, Movement III
IVES The Unanswered Question
JEROD IMPICHCHAACHAAHA’ TATE Dream World
Date & Time: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Professional Development Panel: Film Composition
2021-06-16 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
The following Professional Development Webinar is co-presented by the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and the American Composers Forum (ACF).
Established film composers talk about the film industry and the essentials of being a film composer. Composer Derek Bermel moderates a panel of experts. The panel will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Panelists: Terence Blanchard, composer and trumpeter; Kathryn Bostic, composer; Laura Karpman composer; Rachel Portman, composer.
Date & Time: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 2 PM CT

Register 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.*

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
