From left to right: composers Stacy Garrop (photo by Michael Brosilow), Angel Lam, and Leanna Primiani.
The League of American Orchestras, in partnership with American Composers Orchestra, has established the third national consortium and made significant enhancements to the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program. The program is designed to increase the representation of women and nonbinary composers at American orchestras. Three composers will receive commissions for full-length concert works, to be performed by a consortium of nine orchestras, and a new initiative will focus on repeat performances, featuring a new roster of orchestras performing 16 previously premiered works by women and nonbinary composers. Between the new consortium and repeat performance initiative, 25 orchestras in total will perform works by 17 participating composers through the 2026-27 season.
As part of the new nine-orchestra consortium, composers Stacy Garrop, Angel Lam, and Leanna Primiani will each receive a commission for a 25- to 30-minute concert work, to be premiered by a lead orchestra with additional performances by two orchestras in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
The new 16-Orchestra Repeat Performance Initiative will feature performances of commissioned works by all 16 composers from the program’s initial years (2014-2019, pre-consortium), to take place in the 2025-26 or 2026-27 seasons. The composers are Julia Adolphe, Courtney Bryan, Cindy Cox, Melody Eötvös, Stacy Garrop, Robin Holcomb, Niloufar Iravani, Chen-Hui Jen, Wang Jie, Han Lash, Fang Man, Andreia Pinto Correia, Leanna Primiani, Hilary Purrington, Andrea Reinkemeyer, and Xi Wang.
Networking, mentoring, career development, and community engagement opportunities are built into the program, and the composer cohort meets annually at the League’s National Conference.
Learn more at https://americanorchestras.org/learn/artistic-programs/women-composers-readings-and-commissions-program/.
