“Lawrence A. Johnson, a Chicago music critic, got tired of complaining that musical organizations were not performing enough American music and decided to do something about it,” writes Allan Kozinn in Tuesday’s (8/5) New York Times. “Johnson, the founder of The Classical Review, a group of websites with Chicago, Boston, New York and Florida editions, has spent the last few months putting together plans and raising support for a new venture, the American Music Project, a nonprofit foundation that hopes to put a brighter spotlight on the American repertory, old and new, and to commission new works. ‘The goal of the foundation,’ Mr. Johnson said in a statement, ‘is to … help increase the amount of American music that is performed regularly in our concert halls and opera houses.’ … Its first commission [is] a piano quintet by the Chicago pianist and composer Amy Wurtz. The plan is for every work commissioned by the project to have performances in three cities, as well as a recording. Ms. Wurtz’s work will be given its premiere by the Q Ensemble in Chicago on Oct. 5, with performances in New York and Boston planned for the spring.… The project will offer grants to ensembles and presenters who plan to include American works during their 2015-16 seasons.”
Posted August 6, 2014
