American Composers Forum

Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space
2021-10-21 18:30 - 21:45 (America/Chicago)
A newly commissioned work of music, voice, and video by women composers, with a libretto drawn from the words of the women who have traveled in outer space and seen our world from a dramatic new perspective, Astronautica will be performed by the women of Trio Triumphatrix with stunning NASA footage at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nemoy Thalia.
Date & Time: Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

FREE Courtroom Concert featuring Twin Cities Hot Club
2021-10-21 12:00 - 13:00
The Twin Cities Hot Club (TCHC) represents Minnesota in the burgeoning revival of gypsy jazz originally popularized by Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Hot Club of France. They recreate not only the famous la pompe that distinguishes this romantic brand of acoustic jazz but also gypsy bossanova, musette, bolero, and swing. TCHC perform this timeless deep-rooted music that is physical, alive and speaks directly to the heart. Composed by Abbie Betinis (a McKnight fellow and a ChoralQuest composer).
Date & Time: Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 12 PM CT
Location: Landmark Center, Saint Paul, MN
Learn more here.

LECTURE II: THE HERITAGE OF THE SOCIALIST CITY: THE SPOILED SPLENDID
2021-10-21 11:00 - 13:00
Aida Miron & Sven Eggers
Second one of the two talks about entering the continuous foyer of architecture cosmos connecting urban fabric and landscapes, highwalks and underground, east and west, megastructures, cafes, socialist housing complexes and public thresholds.

Date & Time: Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 11 AM CT | 12 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Pacifica Quartet
2021-10-20 21:00 - 22:00
Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style and often-daring repertory choices, over the past twenty-five years the Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. Their program of thoughtfully selected works features string quartets written by American female composers during the ratification of the 19th Amendment, a masterpiece written by a pioneering female composer during the height of the pro-suffrage sentiment and a new work commissioned by the quartet from one of the most prominent female composers of our time. These works – representing women across continents and eras – cover a vast territory of different thoughts, styles, and perspectives.
Program

AMY BEACH: String Quartet, Op. 89 (1929)
SHULAMIT RAN: Quartet No. 3, “Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory”
JENNIFER HIGDON (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) : Voices (1993) commissioned by the Pacifica Quartet
Intermission
FLORENCE PRICE: Quartet in G major, II. Andante moderato
FANNY MENDELSSOHN: String Quartet in E-flat major, I. Adagio ma non trope, II. Sherzo. Allegretto, III. Romanze, IV. Allegro molto vivace

Date & Time: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 9 PM CT | 7 PM PT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Todd Rewoldt & Lesi Mei
2021-10-20 18:00 - 19:00
Composers Concordance presents a concert event at Kostabi World featuring virtuosos Todd Rewoldt (alto saxophone) and Lesi Mei (piano) on a program including music by Lili Boulanger, Seth Boustead, Dan Cooper, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, Carter Pann, Gene Pritsker, and Faye-Ellen Silverman.
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

Ariel’s Light
2021-10-19 18:30 - 19:30
Composed by native Clevelander Katia Bolotin, Ariel’s Light evokes the mystical beauty of the ancient city of Jerusalem. Its intermingling musical themes express humanity’s hope and yearning to actualize an era of peace, according to a news release.
The evening includes other original musical ensemble works by Chris Neiner, Alex Shapiro (a BandQuest composer) and Bolotin, and will be performed by musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music and vocalist Shawn Fink.
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Location: Acacia ballroom at Acacia Reservation at 26899 Cedar Road in Lyndhurst
Stay tune on here to learn more.

Music Monday LIVE!
2021-10-18 17:00 - 18:00
The Lewis Prize for Music has teamed up with Save The Music Foundation to host youth-led weekly conversations with today’s music leaders starting on Mondays, October 18, 2021 through December 20, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 3 PM PT
Music Monday LIVE is an exciting opportunity for youth across the United States to connect with music industry professionals, ask questions, and share ideas. This event is open to the public and hosted on INSTAGRAM LIVE.
This 10-week series kicks off with Songwriter and Photographer Teron Beal (@teronbeal) and Xavier Washington (@zaytheartist), youth leader and Development Coordinator at Save The Music Foundation.
If you want to join the conversation, don’t be shy! You’re welcome you to hop on the Live during the Q&A. Next week’s Instagram Live will be hosted on the Save The Music Instagram (@savethemusic).

OTHER MINDS FESTIVAL 25: Moment’s Notice October 14-17, 2021 @ Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, SF CA
2021-10-17 18:00 - 19:00, 2021-10-16 22:00 - 23:00, 2021-10-15 22:00 - 23:00, 2021-10-14 22:00 - 23:00
Heralded by NPR as a “Who’s Who of the avant-garde” and The Wire as “a forum for forward-thinking composers and an opportunity to hear performances of a uniformly challenging and rigorous nature,” San Francisco’s only international festival of avant-garde music returns to celebrate its milestone 25th anniversary!
Other Minds Festival 25: “Moment’s Notice” will bring to the stage twenty-six of the greatest living artists working in the field of improvised music. Across four nights, OM 25 features a rare convergence of pioneering icons of free improvised music side-by-side with the emerging artists whose work is at once a continuance and an expansion of the jazz avant-garde.
Date & Time:

Thursday – Saturday, October 14-16, 2021 at 10 PM CT | 8 PM PT
Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 4 PM PT

Festival artists include MacArthur Genius Award winners Mary Halvorson and Tyshawn Sorey; Guggenheim Fellows Jen Shyu (a ChoralQuest composer), Wadada Leo Smith, and Zeena Parkins; Doris Duke Performing Artist Award winners William Parker and Myra Melford; NEA Jazz Masters Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell; Berlin Prize Awardee Elliott Sharp; and several additional performers whose music is a vital expression of the traditions of improvisation.
Performances will cross disciplines to include dance, theater, and video including pianist/composer Myra Melford who will partner with Butoh dancer Oguri; William Parker’s dance/theater work, The Sky is Trembling featuring dancer Patricia Nicholson; Wadada Leo Smith’s Reflections and Meditations on Monk in collaboration with live video artist Jesse Gilbert; and Jen Shyu’s luminous Nine Doors, a theatrical work heralded by the New York Times as a “dizzying,” “imaginative ritual” sung in multiple languages and performed by Shyu on a variety of instruments.
Learn more and get tickets here.

Celebrating the Friendship Between the Daytons and the Skrowaczewskis
2021-10-17 16:00 - 17:00
The Chamber Music Society of Minnesota will present Maestro Stan’s Fanfare for Ken, For Krystyna, and Bach Suite arrangement all for string quintet.
In addition, the artists of the CMSM will perform a work especially written for Judy Dayton by composer Steve Heitzeg (a McKnight fellow & past Continental Harmony composer) and the first grand String Sextet by Brahms.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 4 PM CT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Celebrating Judy Dayton
2021-10-17 16:00 - 17:00
Chamber Music Society of Minnesota welcomes back in a program honoring the late Judy Dayton with works by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, a premiere by Steve Heitzeg (a Continental Harmony composer and McKnight fellow), and Brahms‘ Op. 18 sextet.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 4 PM CT
Get tickets to the show here.

American Indian Expressions
2021-10-16 19:30 - 20:30
Signature Symphony welcomes Oklahoma composer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (a ChoralQuest composer) to the stage! Mr. Tate will discuss his composition style and Signature Symphony musicians will perform several of his pieces for the second Chamber Music Concert of the season.
Date & Time: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Purchase tickets here.

Literature In Music
2021-10-16 18:00 - 19:00
This concert opens with the intoxicating, whirling Ascending Bird, co-written by American composer Colin Jacobsen and Persian composer Siamak Aghaei with Andrea Drury in Soprano. It is based on an ancient Persian parable of spiritual transcendence.
Mrs. Drury has performed as soloist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus as well as the Evansville Bach Singers. She has had a strong choral tradition and has had the privilege to sing under such renowned conductors as Robert Shaw, Paul Salamunovich, Rene Clausen (a ChoralQuest composer), Elmer Isler, Donald Bailey, Robert Young and Hillary Appfelstadt. She is also the conductor of the Trinity United Methodist Chancel Choir.
Date & Time: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

HOPE LIVES HERE
2021-10-16 16:00 - 17:15
Join the VocalEssence Chorus, Ensemble Singers, and Singers Of This Age, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and a chamber instrumental ensemble in an exuberant return to Orchestra Hall. Reflect on our journey through the pandemic and be reassured in the promise of hope for the future as we experience a fresh interpretation of Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” juxtaposed with Astor Piazzolla’s tango-infused tribute to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, “Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas” (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). Traverse a range of emotions as you witness movement including original choreography featuring the Company of Minnesota Dance Theatre and VocalEssence Singers Of This Age. VocalEssence will also present the world premieres of Gabriel Kahane’s “We are the Saints,” a meditation on the natural world and our relationship to it commissioned by VocalEssence and Kyle Pederson’s “The Other Side.” Kahane and Pederson are exciting voices in classical composition.
Date & Time: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 4 PM CT
Learn more and get tickets here.

VÄNSKÄ AND BATIASHVILI
2021-10-15 20:00 - 22:30, 2021-10-14 11:00 - 14:00
What happens when the roles are swapped, and wild animals attend their hunter’s funeral? Find out in the first-ever Minnesota Orchestra performance of music by composer Donghoon Shin. Georgian-born German violinist Lisa Batiashvili brings Karol Szymanowki’s brilliant Violin Concerto to life and the Minnesota Orchestra revisits the Fourth Symphony by Carl Nielsen, a work that captures the essence of the human spirit.
Date & Time:

Thursday, October 14 at 11 AM CT
Friday, October 14, 2021 at 8 PM CT

Learn more here.

MN Sinfonia’s Thirty-Third Winter Concert Series
2021-10-15 19:00 - 20:00
Concert Program

Gioachino Rossini: Overture to the Italian in Algiers
Gao Hong (an ACF board member): Celebration

Note: World Premier and Recipient of the Minnesota Sinfonia Call for Scores with Support from the McKnight Foundation

Dmitry Shostakovich: The Little Ballerina
Giacomo Puccini: Crisantemi
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in c minor

Date & Time: Friday, October 15, 2021 at 7 PM CT
Location: First Covenant Church,1280 Arcade Street, St. Paul, 55106
Learn more on their website here.

Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall
2021-10-15 17:00 - 18:00
Sphinx Organization invites you to attend the Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall Concert and Gala. This unique event combines a world-class performance with an exclusive Gala benefiting the Sphinx Organization’s transformative programs at the intersection of the arts and social justice. Consider making a gift today.
Sphinx Organization is working alongside Carnegie Hall to examine all aspects of the event experience. The health and safety of our audiences, artists, and staff remain our top priorities. To support this goal, and per Carnegie Hall’s rules: everyone coming to Carnegie Hall will be required to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 with a vaccine approved by the World Health Organization in order to enter the building.
Date & Time: Friday, October 15, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 6 PM ET
Learn more about tickets here.

ACF Equity Study Group on Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian
2021-10-14 16:00 - 17:00
For this month’s Equity Study Group, we will review Syd Beane‘s documentary film Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian. This documentary follows Kate Beane, a young Dakota woman, as she examines the extraordinary life of her celebrated relative, Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa). Biography and journey come together as Kate traces Eastman’s path-from traditional Dakota boyhood, through education at Dartmouth College, and in later roles as physician, author, lecturer and Native American advocate. We will be discussing the film with Dr. Kate Beane about the film and the parallels she discovered between her life and that of Eastman.
Watch the TPT Preview here.
Date & Time: Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 4 PM CT
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund and by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Star grant.
Register in advance for this meeting 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.

LECTURE I: A PROMISSARY NOTE IN URBANISM: HEJDUK’S DRAWN AND BUILT WORK
2021-10-14 11:00 - 13:00
Aida Miron & Sven Eggers
First one of the two talks about entering the continuous foyer of architecture cosmos connecting urban fabric and landscapes, highwalks and underground, east and west, megastructures, cafes, socialist housing complexes and public thresholds.
Date & Time: Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 11 AM CT | 12 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Music Mondays presents The Westerlies and Conrad Tao, piano
2021-10-11 18:30 - 19:30
Pianist Conrad Tao, a performer of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” (New York Times), joins genre-defying brass ensemble, The Westerlies, “an arty quartet…mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk” (New York Times). Individually, they perform both classics (by J. S. Bach and Brahms) and contemporary work (by Caroline Shaw), and they improvise as part of their first-ever New York performance together.
Date & Time: Monday, October 11, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more and reserve your tickets here.

Trio Solace
2021-10-11 13:00 - 15:00
The Raritan Valley Community College Arts and Design department will present a concert featuring Trio Solace. The trio includes Jacob Savransky on piano, Edward Li on violin and Mark Serkin on cello.
The concert will feature the following program: Piano Trio Pale Yellow by Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer) ; Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120; and Piano Trio No. 1 op. 3 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 1 PM CT
Learn more here.

Kind of Bill, the Musical Life of Bill Evans
2021-10-10 20:00 - 22:00
The Larry McDonough Quartet will be performing “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. The Larry McDonough Quartet is Larry McDonough, piano, voice, and arrangements, Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry, Greg Stinson, bass, and Dean White, drums. Families and students are welcome. $10. Call 612-379-3138 to save your spot!
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, and more! Minneapolis artist Eric Hanson drew the CD cover.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 8 PM CT
Location: Aster Cafe, 125 SE Main Street, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Facebook Event here.
Learn more here.

Outpost: words & music
2021-10-10 19:00 - 20:00
Outpost, Minnesota’s 21st century variety-show featuring local musicians and spoken-word artists, is back at The Hook & Ladder with a blockbuster fall show featuring award-winning poet Michael Kleber-Diggs (“Worldly Things”,) keyboardist/composer deVon R. Gray (dVRG), author Junauda Petrus-Nasah (“The Stars and the Blackness Between Them”,) and a quartet of musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra. This show will feature new music by composers Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, and Alice H. Jones, and a newly created theatrical work, ‘The Box,’ by Katherine Bergman and Katherine Glover, produced by Nautilus Music Theater.
Outpost is curated and produced by Minnesota musicians Sam Bergman and Carrie Henneman Shaw.

Performers:
Michael Kleber-Diggs, poet
Junauda Petrus-Nasah, author
Sarah Grimes & Ben Odhner, violins
Sam Bergman, viola
Erik Wheeler, cello
deVon R. Gray, (a McKnight fellow) musical adventurer
Andrea Leap, soprano
Joel Liestman, baritone
Jill Dawe, keyboard

Date & Time: Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 7:00 PM CDT
Tickets are $15-$20
Learn more and get tickets here.

CHAMBER SOIRÉE: SHALL WE DANCE?
2021-10-10 15:00 - 16:00
Members of Sarasota Orchestra present a chamber recital of dance-inspired works from ballet to the ballroom. This season, each program is inspired by a poem and will feature a recitation by a company member from the Florida Studio Theatre.
The program opens with Quinn Mason‘s ( a NextNotes creator) 2013 String Quartet No. 2, a rhythmically complex work that bursts with joyous energy. The Danza de Mediodía for winds by Mexico’s Arturo Márquez and Astor Piazzolla‘s L’Histoire du Tango for violin and marimba add Latin flair to the program. “Slow Dancing on the Highway: The Trip North” by Elizabeth Hobbs provides the inspiration for a concert that invites listeners to channel their inner Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Date & Time: Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 3 PM CT | 4 PM ET
Learn more and get tickets here.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
2021-10-09 19:30 - 20:30
The Ottumwa Symphony Orchestra is hosting its fall concert and will also feature the Indian Hills Community College Chorus. The concert opens with “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland. Other selections include “American Salute” by Morton Gould, “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein, “Bugler’s Holiday” by Leroy Anderson, “El Salon Mexico” by Copland, and “Sate Street Strut” by James “Red” McLeod.
The chorus will then join the symphony for “America the Beautiful” by Samuel Ward. After that, the chorus will perform “Shenandoah” by James Erb and “Goin’ to Boston” arranged by Alice Parker (a ChoralQuest composer). The finale, which brings both groups back together, is “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Date & Time: Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more and get tickets here.

Gulf Coast Chamber Orchestra Opening Night!
2021-10-09 18:30 - 19:30
This year the Gulf Coast Chamber Orchestra opens its 2021-2022 season with the works of four award winning composers Joan Tower, Vivian Fung, Libby Larson and Florence Beatrice Price.
Joan Tower Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer) Solo Symphony No. 5
Vivian Fung Dust Devils
Florence Price Symphony No. 1
Date & Time: Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Learn more here.

New Music for String Trio: Chartreuse
2021-10-09 08:00 - 17:00
The path to the post-regime music may exhibit one or more of the following features:

A balance of space and light.
An imbalance of space and light in favor of space.
An imbalance of space and light in favor of light.
A quaternion utopia that transcends both space and light.
A superposition of smooth waves.
An utterance of the Aramaic phrase, “Avra Kehdabra”: I will create as I speak.
Dithyrambic exaltations.
A cryptogram assembled out of torn pages from a first edition Areopagitica.

Our data analytics have produced the following divergent summation:
ζ(−1) = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ….. = -1/12
Date & Time:

Saturday, October 9, 2021 at 7 PM CT
Sunday, October 10, 20201 at 2 PM CT

Learn more and get tickets here.

Chartreuse string trio is violinist Myra Hinrichs, violist Carrie Frey, and cellist Helen Newby. Uniquely committed to repeat performances and developing the string trio repertoire through adventurous commissions, Chartreuse has premiered works by dozens of composers and toured extensively in the U.S. Northeast, Midwest, and California, as well as in Norway. Cleveland Classical described the trio in concert as a maelstrom almost tactile in its grittiness and as much fun to watch as to listen to.
