On Feb. 4, experience the world premiere of the first part of Ben Frost's upcoming opera Cold Air Rises, co-presented by American Composers Forum and the Twin Cities-based festival The Great Northern. Drawing upon J.A. Baker’s prophetic 1967 book The Peregrine, Frost presents a choral performance and installation in his new piece. A work in development, […]
Immigration, Identity and the Arts Hosted by ACF Director of Artist Support, Carolina Heredia, this event will feature Latin American and ACF composer awardees in conversation about documenting the shift in experiences through generations. This event will feature ACF McKnight Visiting Composers J.E. Hernández and Victor Márquez-Barrios. This event will be both live-streamed and in […]
Love, Death, What Else?, for full chorus and orchestra, is the culmination of Nathan Hall's 2020 McKnight Visiting Composer Fellowship. The piece will be performed by the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra and One Voice Mixed Chorus. Click here for more details and to order your tickets.
Immigration, Identity and the Arts Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on the experiences of African immigrants in the U.S. through the lenses of music, literature, and Thi Bui's NEA Big Read book, The Best We Could Do. Minnesota author and educator Shannon Gibney will host a dialogue with Nigerian composer-performer Kashimana Ahua — an ACF awardee — and Somali […]
Come and observe an open rehearsal of Kevin Day's A Song for Tomorrow, with the Medalist Concert Band, under the direction of Jerry Luckhardt. Following the rehearsal, stay for a Meet the Composer Q&A Session hosted by American Composers Forum. Day wrote A Song for Tomorrow in 2019 as a tribute for a lost high […]
This info session for Innova Recordings National Call program is for anyone who may be curious about this program and its mission, applying to the program, Innova’s curatorial process, and even the process of recording and releasing music in general. Click the link to register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApceigqDstHNOwDMLM1DbQnru_L7X5zgJs The Innova’s National Call program seeks to foster […]
Tida weaves music, storytelling, movement and film into an evening-length performance exploring maternal lineage and intergenerational cultural identity. Mary Prescott -- the winner of a 2019 ACF | create award, which sparked this project -- investigates her mother’s undocumented Thai ancestry, her experience as a Southeast Asian immigrant raising biracial children in the American Midwest, […]
Minneapolis-based composer/director JG Everest, a 2019 McKnight Composers Fellow, premieres his latest site-specific outdoor sound + performance installation at the Montalvo Art Center, for Earth Day 2023, over three days. Everest will be in residence at Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP) from March 27-April 25, 2023, composing and designing the installation for […]
Versatile drummer and percussionist Thurman Barker has performed with countless singers and artists from the worlds of classical, pop, jazz, and those that defy categorization. His ensemble performs excerpts from three of his orchestral scores — South Side Suite, Pandemic Fever, and Mr. Speed-str — on a special double bill with “musical power couple” (The […]
In this "speed dating" event hosted by American Composers Forum, artistic directors from GALA LGBTQ choruses across North America are gathering in Minneapolis to tour Orchestra Hall, Central Lutheran Church, and the Minneapolis Convention Center in preparation for the upcoming GALA Choruses Festival 2024. We’d like to introduce these conductors to the wealth of choral […]
Performed and recorded in a church just across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol on December 28, 2020, only months after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd, We Sick (on innova Recordings, the in-house record label of American Composers Forum) is a record of staggeringly emotional improvised music, full of contemplation, fear, and fury. deVon […]
Witness the world-premiere performances of Canto Caló, a song cycle by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides, performed by Friction Quartet and mezzo soprano Melinda Martinez Becker. Following the world premiere, Benavides and Becker will release the work on innova Recordings as part of our Bay Area Pilot program. Canto Caló takes inspiration from Benavides and Becker's […]