New York’s Albany Symphony Orchestra has been awarded $300,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support its Composer to Center Stage program for the next three years. The program, which has been in place for the past three years, fosters collaborations between composers and the orchestra with concerts, commissions, recordings, and community-engagement and education activities. A centerpiece of the program is a mentor composer who works closely with the orchestra and young composers; this season’s mentor composer will be Christopher Rouse. A second program component is a composer-educator, who collaborates with a midcareer composer on a year-long residency in a local school district; this season’s composer-educator will be Ted Hearne. Among the composers who have previously participated in the Composer to Center Stage program are John Harbison, John Corigliano, Aaron J. Kernis, Stacy Garrop, Derek Bermel, and Missy Mazzoli. The Mellon gift also supports collaborative commissions to two composers and two artists from other disciplines to create new works to be performed by Dogs of Desire, the ASO’s eighteen-member new-music ensemble, at the orchestra’s annual American Music Festival.
Posted October 25, 2012
