Celebrating Her Voice: Women of the African Diaspora
2022-03-14 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-03-08 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-03-07 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
Join soprano vocalist and bandleader Alicia Waller for an adventurous performance that will celebrate some of the most iconic female voices of the African Diaspora: Cesária Évora (Cape Verde), Abbey Lincoln (USA), and Miriam Makeba (South Africa). This program is presented as opening night of the annual Women’s Jazz Festival at the historic Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in advance of International Women’s Day (March 8, 2022).
Alicia Waller & The Excursion is a jazz fusion ensemble led by vocalist and bandleader, Alicia Waller. The quintet (voice, guitar, bass, keys, drums) is dedicated to an ambitious pursuit of sonic exploration—performing a range of musical forms from original compositions to a diverse array of global music cultures. The ensemble’s original work, composed primarily by Waller, is imagined as a testament to the globalization of Black American music vernaculars, incorporating influences from jazz, soul, samba, R&B, funk, and hip-hop.
The Schomburg Center’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival (WJF) is celebrating 30 years of centering Black women in the field of jazz. The Women’s Jazz Festival was founded in 1992 by then Harlem resident and jazz vocalist, Melba Joyce. Year after year, the festival and its curators have brought together musicians, dancers and a melding of musical genres to deliver an exciting series of concerts featuring some of the best-known and emerging talent by women in jazz today. The 2022 festival will be held in person.
Date & Time:

Monday, March 7, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Tuesday, March 8, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Monday, March 14, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Monday, March 21, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET

Learn more and get tickets here.

I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY
2022-03-13 15:00 - 16:00
In 1920, the right to vote was expanded under the Nineteenth Amendment to include women. One hundred and two years later, we explore what it means to have your voice heard.
CCS has commissioned works from three of today’s leading women composers — Augusta Read Thomas, Lisa Bielawa, and Jessie Montgomery — that demonstrate the impact of speaking up and speaking out. As part of the day’s activities, you will also get to dictate a postcard to a real or imagined President as a part of Sheryl Oring’s work I Wish to Say.
Stay tuned for more information about this weekend of events celebrating women’s voices.
The Program
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Overture in C
Lisa Bielawa (a past JFund winner (now ACF Create) and an innova artist): Voters’ Litany (World Premiere)
Mendelssohn-Hensel: Gartenlieder, Op. 3
Jessie Montgomery: I Have Something to Say (World Premiere)
Augusta Read Thomas: Far Past War (World Premiere)
Ethel Smyth: Mass in D (selections)
Smyth: The March of the Women
Date & Time: Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Orchid Gallery Presents
2022-03-12 18:30 - 21:00
An evening of Chamber Music highlighting women and living composers.

Date & Time: Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Equity Study Group Series with Mary Prescott on her new work Tida
2022-03-10 16:00 - 17:00
2020 ACF | Create awardee Mary Prescott joins ACF Equity Study with a series about the progress of her project Tida. The discussions will be focused on themes of isolation, oral traditions, and food.
Prescott writes: “Tida weaves music, storytelling, movement, and film into an hour-long performance exploring maternal lineage and intergenerational cultural identity. I investigate my mother’s undocumented Thai ancestry, her experience as an immigrant raising biracial children in the Midwest, and the resulting impact of her choices on three generations of women. Researched through interviews and ancestral oral histories, Tida recovers and preserves the unrecorded legacy of a common Thai family, recognizes the value of inherited cultural identity and the costs of assimilation. Intertwining Thai and Western elements, Tida reflects an untangling and crossing of cultures, resonances, and dissonances that occur as a result.”
Isolation: How the pandemic helped me understand my Mom’s immigrant experience.
March 10, 4 PM – Register in advance on zoom here.
Identity: How oral traditions preserve our sense of self.
June 9, 4 PM – Register in advance on zoom here.
“Mary Prescott is a fiscal year 2021 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. 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.”
If you require an interpreter, closed-captioning, or any other accommodations to fully engage, please contact Haley Olson (holson@composersforum.org) at least 48 hours before the event.

The Ladies Quintessential Quintet: Music By Women
2022-03-08 18:00 - 20:00
The Ladies Quintessential Quintet is a magnificent cohort of professional women musicians, banded together from the states of Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. These powerful artists unite across the limitations of distance and time to bend sound to their will in the service of ART and the lifting of historically muted and suppressed voices.
Tuesday, March 8 at 6:00pm (PDT) – also viewable laterAdmission: $10 (adult) / $5 (student – coupon code ‘LQQStudent’)Performing the works of:Stacey Berk: Avian Suite (2012)Ailem Carvajal-Gómez: Suite Caribeana (2010), arr. Matt Johnston (2021)Kari Medina: Anam Cara ~World Premiere~ (2021)Including interviews with composers and music publisher, Matt Johnston.Featuring:Rose Johnson, fluteJamie Sanidad, oboeNicole Marriott Fullmer, oboeLori Shepherd, clarinetCassandra Bendickson, bassoonSonja Reynolds, hornAllison Andersen, piano and emcee

WITNESS 2022: REJOICE!
2022-03-06 16:00 - 17:00
The Aeolians, a world-renowned choir from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, an Historically Black College and University, are giving us so many reasons to “Rejoice.” Named the “2017 Choir of the World” at the World Choir Games, The Aeolians inspire audiences to stand up and cheer for more, whether singing the music of Bach, spirituals, or 21st century masterpieces. The Aeolians join the VocalEssence Chorus and Singers Of This Age in a program that affirms Black joy and resilience through the music of Nathaniel Dett, Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer), and many others highlighting the rich array of music from the Black experience.
Date & Time: Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 4 PM CT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Ensemble Pi: Radical Kinship
2022-03-02 18:00 - 19:45
Radical Kinship is Ensemble Pi’s new concert project, inspired by the work of global champion of social justice, Father Greg Boyle, and his belief in the power of radical kinship to heal society’s inequalities. Ensemble Pi has commissioned composers Orlando Jacinto García, Gregg Welcher, Ralph Mendoza and rapper AJ Peoples, and vocalist Damian Norfleet and dancer/puppeteer Maura Gahan, to create works addressing systemic poverty. over-criminalization and mass incarceration, with narratives told by (ex-)incarcerated people and other oppressed populations.
Radical Kinship also includes Olivier Messiaen‘s Quartet for the End of Time (selected movements), Frederic Rzewski‘s Attica (Part II), and Charles Grosso and Alberto Duque, narrating their own stories live with music accompaniment.
For Boyle, founder of the LA-based Homeboy Industries, the solution to an unfair criminal justice system begins with the recognition that we belong to each other, and the necessity to give voice to marginalized people. The concert will cap with a Q&A featuring Father Greg Boyle and the artists.
Date & Time: Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Learn more and buy tickets here.

Resilience
2022-03-01
Harmonium Choral Society is pleased to announce the 2021-2022 season featuring four subscription concerts.
March’s program is aptly titled Resilience; it will include performances of several of last year’s winners of the High School Choral Composition Contest, along with works from Heinrich Schütz to Lili Boulanger and Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer) to Alice Parker (a ChoralQuest composer).
Date & Time: March 2022 TBA
For more information, stay connected on Harmonium Choral Society Events webpage for updates.

ASU Symphony Orchestra
2022-02-20 17:00 - 18:00
Baritone Nathan De’Shon Myers joins the ASU Symphony Orchestra performing Nkeiru Okoye’s tragic and thought-provoking Invitation to a Die-In, a work that responds to the murders of Black men, starkly telling the story from the perspective of the deceased, their families, police officers, and citizens on all sides of the issue. The work is preceded by Valerie Coleman’s (a BandQuest composer) newly-written Fanfare for Uncommon Times and Molly Joyce’s haunting Over and Under for organ and orchestra. The concert concludes with 2021 ASU Concerto Competition winner Vladislav Kosminov performing Prokofiev’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 3.
Date & Time: Sunday, February 20, 2022 at 5 PM CT | 4 PM MT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Dvořák, Higdon & Rouse
2022-02-13 18:00 - 19:00
Join The Symphony for a musical encounter featuring the ethereal blue cathedral by acclaimed female composer Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse’s explosive and passionate Flute Concerto, featuring The Symphony’s very own Principal Flutist Jesse Tatum. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony rounds out the program.
Date & Time: Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 6 PM CT | 4 PM PT
Get tickets and learn more here.

Honeck Conducts The Firebird
2022-02-11 - 2022-02-13
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announced a 2021-22 season replete with new collaborations and a healthy balance of contemporary curiosities and cherished chestnuts from the orchestral repertoire.
Manfred Honeck conducts The Firebird on Friday February 11, 2022 – Sunday, February 13, 2022, along with Kian Soltani, cello. Erwin Schulhof: Five Pieces, Schumann: Concerto in A minor for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 129, Reza Vali: “The Girl from Shiraz” from Persian Folk Songs, Michael Daugherty: (a BandQuest composer) Fifteen: Symphonic Fantasy on the Art of Andy Warhol for orchestra, and Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision).
Get tickets here.

Equity Study Group: United States vs Billie
2022-02-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual, United States
Billie Holiday is one of jazz’s most important figures, many are familiar with her music and the infamous story of Strange Fruit but not many know the context of the story and what makes Holiday one of the US’s artist-activists and civil rights champions.
In this month’s Equity Study Group, we will discuss Lee Daniel’s film United States vs Billie Holiday which chronicles Billy Holiday’s struggles to perform “Strange Fruit’ which put her in the crosshairs of J. Edgar Hoover’s FB. We will discuss music as a vessel for social justice with artists like Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson, and the harassment many faced by the FBI.
Register in advance on zoom here.
If you require an interpreter, closed-captioning, or any other accommodations to fully engage, please contact Dameun Strange (dstrange@composersforum) at least 48 hours before the event.

Music Mondays presents The Horszowski Trio & Amadi Akizawe, viola
2022-02-07 18:30 - 20:00
The “eloquent, enthralling” Horszowski Trio (Boston Globe) is one of the most widely admired American ensembles, with an expanding reputation abroad; they gave a sold-out performance at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2019. The Trio is joined by violist and Harlem Symphony Orchestra director, Amadi Akizawe, for Dvořák’s luminous Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, heard alongside Smetana’s passionate Trio and a set of American miniatures by Morton Feldman, John Cage, and Augusta Read Thomas.
Date & Time: Monday, February 7, 2022 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Free, but RSVP available but not required. RSVP here.

Woodwinds and All that Jazz
2022-02-05 19:30 - 20:30
Symphony of the Mountains’ Woodwind Quintet will play works by Gunther Schuller (a BandQuest composer) and Appalachian music by regional composer Greg Danner followed by the delightfully intriguing “Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio” by Claude Bolling featuring SOTM’s principal cellists Mathew Wilkinson.
Date & Time: Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 7:30 PM CT
Buy tickets here.

MASTERWORKS 2 TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO
2022-01-30 17:00 - 18:00, 2022-01-29 22:00 - 23:00
Marin Symphony’s favorite Joyce Yang returns for Tchaikovsky’s beloved 1st Piano Concerto, along with colorful masterpieces by Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) and Igor Stravinsky.
Date & Time:

Saturday, January, 29, 2022 at 10 PM CT | 8 PM PT
Sunday, January, 30, 2022 at 5 PM CT | 3 PM PT

PROGRAM:
Higdon: Blue Cathedral
Stravinsky: Symphony in 3 Movements
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Alasdair Neale, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano
GET MORE OUT OF EVERY CONCERT
Masterworks Pre-Concert Talks begin Saturdays at 9 PM CT | 7 PM PT and Sundays at 4 PM CT | 2 PM PT, and are free for all ticket holders.
Note: Seating is open and your regular seat may be occupied.

TICKET DETAILS:

Reserved Seating. Subscription prices: Adult $25-$87, Youth (6-17) $20
Single tickets from Marin Center Box Office on sale in September.
Additional single ticket fees: 10% of ticket price processing fee + $3 facility fee per ticket for all orders. 20% Group discount available for 10 or more.

From Silenced to Singing
2022-01-30 16:00 - 17:00, 2022-01-29 20:30 - 21:30, 2022-01-28 20:00 - 21:00
The program includes the rescheduled and highly anticipated world premiere of Jocelyn Hagen’s (a McKnight fellow) work celebrating women’s voices and written in commemoration of the centenary of women’s suffrage.

Featuring illuminated portraits and the words of 47 different women from around the world and across time, this work tells the story of the importance of finding—and using—your voice.

The concert includes music by and inspired by African Americans and Native Americans, reflecting the diverse voices that make up the cultural mosaic that is the United States. This program also premieres the winning work of the 5th annual Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition.
Date & Time:

Friday, January 28, 2022 at 8 PM CT | 7 PM MT
Saturday, January 29, 2022 8:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM MT
Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 4 PM CT | 3 PM MT

Learn more here.

Sphinx Symphony Orchestra with EXIGENCE
2022-01-30 15:00 - 17:00
Conducted by Tito Muñoz and Eugene Rogers (ACF’s ChoralQuest series editor), the concert will feature 2015 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient soprano Janai Brugger in a program including works by Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson, among others.
Date & Time: Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Concert 2: Songs of Struggle, Compassion, and Redemption
2022-01-23
Troubled by the onslaught of killings of unarmed Black men, Emmy Award-winning composer Joel Thompson wrote his Seven Last Words of the Unarmed in 2015, after finding Brooklyn-based journalist and artist Shirin Barghi’s #lastwords project on the same subject. The piece that resulted has resounded strongly in the choral world, and Musica Viva NY and the Aeolus Quartet are honored to share it in a program that also features music by J.S. Bach, Abbie Betinis (a ChoralQuest composer and past McKnight fellow) and another exciting emerging voice, the multifaceted composer-performer Shelley Washington. Join some of the artists and creative team for a “talkback” after the concert.
Date & Time: Sunday, January 23, 2022
Learn more here.

Dreams of Freedom - Family Concert
2022-01-22 10:00 - 11:00
An introduction to the dream and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—created especially for young listeners. With music by more than a century of Black composers including Florence Price, William Grant Still, Undine Smith Moore, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, and Adolphus Hailstork (a BandQuest composer). Music of freedom, of triumph, of inspiration. This concert features the recent winner of the Sphinx Competition Junior Division, dazzling 12-year-old violinist Amaryn Olmeda.
Join at 9am CT | 10am ET for a free pre-concert festival, featuring our Instrument Petting Zoo and enjoy interactive activities for the whole family that will enhance your concert experience.
Date & Time: Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 10 AM CT | 11 AM ET
Learn more here.

Kaufman Music Center – Ecstatic Music: Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund Concert
2022-01-20 18:30 - 20:30
World Premieres by Tomeka Reid, Ken Thomson and Fred Frith
New Arrangements of Works by Nick Dunston, Aeryn Santillan, Jeffrey Brooks, Trevor Weston and Soo Yeon Lyuh
Bang on a Can’s annual People’s Commissioning Fund Concert returns with a high-octane concert of world premieres and an expanded nine-piece Bang on a Can All-Stars lineup!
Jen Baker, trombone
Robert Black, bass
David Byrd-Marrow, horn
Vicky Chow, piano
David Cossin, percussion
Arlen Hlusko, cello
Allison Loggins-Hull, flute
Mark Stewart, electric guitar
Ken Thomson, clarinet
Date & Time: Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
PROGRAM
JEFFREY BROOKS – Santuario II**
NICK DUNSTON – Fainting is Down, Whooshing is Up**
FRED FRITH – Which It Is *
SOO YEON LYUH – See You on the Other Side**
TOMEKA REID – UNTETHERED* AERYN SANTILLAN – disconnect.**
KEN THOMSON – Performative*
TREVOR WESTON – Rainbows and Butterflies**
*world premiere
**world premiere arrangement
$15 student tickets are available. Call the box office at 212 501 3330.
Learn more here.

Kaufman Music Center – Music Speaks: Crossing Borders – Jamal Aliyev, cello & Dominic Cheli, piano
2022-01-18 18:30 - 19:30
ERNEST BLOCH – From Jewish Life (1925)
FAZIL SAY – 4 Cities Cello Sonata (2012)
ERNEST BLOCH – Nigun (Improvisation from Baal Shem) (1923)
L.D. MALASHKIN – Romance ‘I met you’ ERNEST BLOCH – Méditation hébraïque (1924)
FAZIL SAY – Song Yiğidim Aslanım (My Brave, My Lion)
The ideas of east meeting west, Islamic to Jewish cultures, being adopted by different cultures yet still drawing on family home and roots, come into focus in this program. Turkish cellist Jamal Aliyev brings his own heritage of Azerbaijan and Turkey alongside his UK/central European training to bare on a musical exploration of Said’s powerful concept of intimacy and distance. Ernest Bloch epitomized the cultural musical heart of Jewish character in his character pieces, written as he himself experienced uprooting his Swiss roots to emigrate to California, yet found a way of remaining connected to his family’s deep cultural heritage. A century later, incredible Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say, also connects his musical expression to his Turkish roots and origins, bringing an intimate relationship with his home country to very distant audiences. At the simple heart of the program, one of Jamal’s personal favorites that expresses the idea of connection that transcends borders, Malashkin’s Romance “I met you”
Date & Time: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Tickets are $30.
Learn more here.

Tai Murray and Friends: Piano Quintets
2022-01-17 18:30 - 20:00
Violinist, Tai Murray (“superb,” N Y Times), joins violist, Melissa Reardon (“virtuosic,” Classical Voice); cellist, Raman Ramakrishnanan (“admired,” New Yorker); bassist, Doug Balliett; and Artistic Director Aaron Wunsch for a program of quintets, traditional and contemporary. Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet accompanies Xhosa composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s Intlanzi Yase Mzantsi (The Fish From South Africa, based on Schubert’s “Trout”); Judith Weir’s A Song of Departure (based on Schubert’s “Farewell”); and Vaughan-Williams’s lush, romantic Quintet.
Date & Time: Monday, January 17, 2022 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Register for free here.

New York Choral Society 2021-22 Season: Love In Action
2022-01-17
The chorus will make its return to live performance with “Love in Action.” The concert of choral music will bring together works of eight contemporary American composers including Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer), Rosephanye Powell (a ChoralQuest composer), Abbie Betinis (a ChoralQuest composer), Morten Lauridsen, and others to explore universal themes of reflection, action, and love. The concert will also feature four guest vocalists including tenor Bernard Holcomb.
Date & Time: Monday, January 17, 2022. Time is TBD.
Check out New York Choral Society’s website for updated information.

ACF Equity Study Group: The Long View: Whose responsibility is diversity?
2022-01-13 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual, United States
As many organizations look to explore diversity equity and inclusion, what does it mean to do this work responsibly? During this study group, we will use the Classical Music UK article The Long View which examines the idea of responsible DEI work and responsibility in DEI work.
On Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 4:00 PM CT, ACF will also examine our own work in working with Innocent Technology and Engaging the Good in our hopes to have a thoughtful and intentional approach to equity and inclusion.
Register in advance on zoom here.
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.

NYC Winter Jazzfest
2022-01-13 - 2022-01-22
The NYC Winter Jazzfest will return to form in 2022, with 10 nights of programming in Manhattan and Brooklyn beginning on Thursday, January 13, 2022 to Saturday, Jenuary 22, 2022. There will be over 100 groups, 500 musicians including Jen Shyu (a ChoralQuest composer), and across 12 venues.
NYC Winter Jazzfest will partner with BBC Radio 6 Music, whose Gilles Peterson will present an online showcase supported by PRS Foundation. Additionally, M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians), cofounded last year by Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa to address gender inequity and underrepresentation in creative music, and to foster partnerships among women and non-binary musicians. Shyu and Serpa join more than 20 artists under that banner as part of this Winter Jazzfest; others include Michele Rosewoman, Val Jeanty, Monnette Sudler and Caroline Davis.
Learn more about each day and get tickets here.
