The sixteenth annual Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute culminates with a January 18 “Future Classics” performance featuring new orchestral music by seven emerging composers. Music Director Osmo Vänskä will conduct TJ Cole’s Nightscape, Viet Cuong’s Moxie, Jonathan Cziner’s Resonant Bells, Will Healy’s Kolmanskop, Matthew Ricketts’s Melodia for Piano and Orchestra, Connor Elias Way’s Over Collapsing Cities of Steel, and Alyssa Weinberg’s in somnis for violin and orchestra. The concert will feature two soloists: the orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, Rui Du, and 20-year-old Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan. Fred Child will host the concert. Kevin Puts is in his fifth year as director of the Composer Institute, co-presented by the American Composers Forum and held this year from January 14 to 18. The Institute includes seminars covering topics such as legal issues, public speaking, and self-publishing music. Presenters this year include Minnesota Orchestra Principal Librarian Maureen Conroy; orchestra staff members Rob Nygaard and Sarah Blain Chaplin; Frank J. Oteri of New Music USA; music publisher Bill Holab of Bill Holab Music; and American composer John Mackey. Minnesota Orchestra musicians offer practical guidance on writing for orchestra, and Music Director Osmo Vänskä offers mentoring sessions with each composer.
Posted January 18, 2019
