“In an age of decreased funding for new music, consortiums are becoming an increasingly common way of funding new works” writes Corinne Ramey on Sunday (4/8) on WQXR’s blog. “Consortiums seek to address two basic problems of commissioning new music: cost and repeat performances. … This increase in consortium commissions from orchestras is due to several reasons, said Scott Winship, director of grantmaking programs at the nonprofit New Music USA formerly called Meet the Composer. Small regional orchestras are more likely to share a music director, which leads to collaboration between groups, he said. A program of the League of American Orchestras and Meet the Composer, called Ford Made in America, is an example: The program commissioned two works, by composers Joan Tower and Joseph Schwantner, each of which included 58 orchestras representing all 50 states. Tower’s work, titled Made in America, received more than 80 performances. ‘Consortiums got a big jolt when we did those two big ones,’ said Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. ‘Those whet the appetite of a lot of people who hadn’t been into consortium commissioning.’ … But not everything always goes so smoothly. Consortiums can suffer from the ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ effect, said Timothy Russell, music director of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio.”
Photo of Joan Tower conducting her piece Made in America by Stuart Murtland
Posted April 9, 2012
