American Composers Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andreas Conducts Brahms 1
2021-09-25 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-09-23 18:30 - 19:30
Music Director Andreas Delfs opens the program with Richard Wagner’s Dawn & Siegfried’s Rhine Journey. Jennifer Higdon’s (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) award-winning Violin Concerto, praised as “an attractive, colourful work, scored most imaginatively and with great finesse” (Gramophone), features soloist Benjamin Beilman. Despite taking the composer over a decade to complete, Johann Brahms’s First Symphony was worth the wait – a melodic triumph worthy of his musical predecessors.
Date & Time:

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

Learn more and get tickets here.

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

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

Louise Toppin in Recital
2021-09-23 18:30 - 20:30
Coloratura soprano Louise Toppin performs a recital of art songs and spirituals of the African Diaspora featuring works by women composers such as Margaret Bonds, Harriette Davison and Rosephanye Powell; and a world premiere song cycle, “For Terry,” by Maria Corley. Also included in the program are compositions by the celebrated composer Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer).
Louise Toppin launched the African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP) in 2019, and it now contains 4,000 songs by composers of African descent. Currently a professor at University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, Dr. Toppin is also known for her extensive operatic, orchestral and oratorio performing career.
Ticket price: $20 regular / $15 student
Date & Time: Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Exponential Ensemble
2021-09-23 16:30 - 17:30
The Exponential Ensemble is a mixed chamber music ensemble made up of skilled performers and experienced teaching artists. They perform classic masterworks alongside contemporary masterpieces, expanding your musical horizon.
Bring your lawn chair, and join for this outdoor event!
PROGRAM:

Matyas SEIBER / Novelty Foxtrot
Eugene BOZZA / Trois pièces pour une musique de Nuit
Valerie COLEMAN (a BandQuest composer) / Rubispheres
Ulysses KAY / Suite for Oboe and Flute
Francis POULENC / Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon
Jean FRANCAIX / Wind Quartet

Date & Time: Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 4:30 PM CT | 5:30 ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Cassiopeia Winds 2021 Tour
2021-09-23 14:00 - 15:00
Cassiopeia Winds is a group of five exceptional musicians whose sheer joy in performing together is contagious, bringing a real sense of excitement and fun to their music making.
Formed in 2010, Irish chamber wind ensemble Cassiopeia Winds performances are marked by vivacity, panache and a dedication to the exploration of fine sound worlds. Though the ensemble has the capacity to expand or contract to suit its innovative programming, at its core is a quintet of players whose members are among the finest in the country, including players from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Crash Ensemble.
Date & Time: Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 2 PM CT | 8 PM (GMT+1)
Programme Includes:
Franz Danzi; Wind Quintet
Alexander von Zemlinsky: Humoreske (Rondo)
Amy Beach: Pastorale
Valerie Coleman (a BandQuest composer): Red Clay & Mississippi Delta
WA Mozart: Adagio & Allegro
Adele O’Dwyer: Three Chromatic Miniatures (world premier)
Luciano Berio: Opus Number Zoo
Get tickets here.

Music Mondays presents Brooklyn Rider and Nicholas Phan, tenor
2021-09-20 18:30 - 20:00
Genre-bending string quartet Brooklyn Rider joins tenor Nicholas Phan (“one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” Boston Globe) for an evening of lyrical, transporting works for voice and string quartet. Works by English composers Thomas Campion and Rebecca Clarke accompany Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet and the New York Premiere of Stranger, a new song cycle by Nico Muhly that speaks to disparate challenges faced by immigrants to the United States. Hear how Brooklyn Rider is “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” (NPR)

Date & Time: Monday, September 20, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more here.

Violinist Stefan Jackiw Returns
2021-09-18 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-09-17 19:00 - 20:00
The second of our classical weekends brings a new perspective on a familiar artist. Conrad Tao is known for his virtuoso piano playing, but he’s beginning to make his name as a composer, and we’re privileged to perform the world premiere of his newest violin concerto. American violinist Stefan Jackiw, whose playing is hailed as “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe), takes center stage for the concerto.
The concert also contains some of our favorite works conducted by one of our favorite maestros: Robert Spano conducts Alvin Singleton‘s (a BandQuest composer) Different River. Debuted by the ASO in 2012, Different River is a single-movement work that follows the ebbs and flows encountered on the journey of life. Spano bookends the concert with two rollicking tone poems by Strauss, one features the infamous German prankster Till Eulenspiegel, the other profiles the legendary womanizer Don Juan.
Date & Time: Friday – Saturday, September 17 -18, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

‘Cross Rhythms’
2021-09-17 22:00 - 23:00
When the pandemic first put a halt to live performances, a group of California pianists started convening weekly over Zoom to share ideas, musical tips and plans for exploring new repertoire. Now that those artists are free to perform again, they’re ready to share the fruits of those discussions.
Curated by Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers, this hybrid presentation — a simultaneous combination of in-person event and live stream titled “Cross Rhythms” — features some of the region’s most inventive pianists, including Gloria Cheng, Monica Chew, Jerry Kuderna and Allegra Chapman. The lineup is equally diverse, with music by Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), Fred Onovwerosuoke, Grazyna Bacewicz and the husband-and-wife team of Wang Lu and Anthony Cheung.
Date & Time: Friday, September 17, 2021 at 10 PM CT | 8 PM PT
Location: Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA
General Admissions Tickets: $25
Get tickets here.

Wind Symphony & Concert Band Concert
2021-09-17 19:30 - 20:30
The Eastern Illinois University Wind Symphony and Concert Band are back in action with full band rehearsals and indoor performances. Join conductor Alicia Neal and the Wind Symphony and Concert Band at the Doudna Fine Art Center’s Dvorak Concert Hall for the first full band concert of the 21-22 academic year.

The audience will enjoy music by Percy Grainger, Vincent Persichetti, Alexandra Gardner, Michael Colgrass (a BandQuest composer), Jodie Blackshaw (a BandQuest composer), and Thomas Root.
Date & Time: Friday, September 17, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Tickets are $6 for general public, faculty, staff or seniors and $5 for students.
Get tickets here.

Jasper String Quartet
2021-09-16 16:30 - 17:30
Bring your lawn chair, and join Princeton Symphony Orchestra in the garden for an evening of superb music by the quartet called “Outstanding” by The New Yorker. Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2021, the Jasper String Quartet is recognized as one of the leading American string quartets on the performance stage today.
PROGRAM

Florence PRICE / Quartet No. 1
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ TATE (a ChoralQuest composer) / Pisachi (Reveal)
Maurice RAVEL / Quartet in F Major
Date & Time: Thursday, September 16, 2021 at 4:30 PM CT | 5:30PM ET
Get tickets here.

Amplifying Solidarity: A Northrop Plaza Series
2021-09-16 12:00 - 13:00
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.

Frost Concert Jazz Band & Frost Studio Jazz Band with Christian McBride
2021-09-15 18:30 - 19:30
Seven-time GRAMMY®-winning bassist Christian McBride is a force of nature. “In his hands, an acoustic bass can shamelessly expose the human heart,” JazzTimes said in an article. He brings virtuosic fire, a relentless energy, depth, and the grounding of a seasoned journeyman to his performances. He will join the multiple DownBeat award-winning Frost Concert Jazz Band, including Janelle Finton (a NextNotes creator) who will play lead trumpet, and Frost Studio Jazz Band, which are renowned for their outstanding musicianship, inspired performances, soloists, and well-crafted arrangements.
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Northwest Bachfest Presents: Eroica Trio
2021-09-14 21:00 - 22:00
Artistic Director Zuill Bailey performs with Eroica Trio members Sara Parkins, violin; Sara Sant’Ambrogio, cello; and Erika Nickrenz, piano. This concert will include works from J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Jean-Luc Godard and Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer).
Location: Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave., Spokane
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 9 PM CT | 7 PM PT
Visit website here.
