“Organizations that help young composers further their careers are plentiful these days,” writes Allan Kozinn in Tuesday’s (11/4) New York Times. On November 17, New York’s MATA Festival “will present its first MATA Jr. Festival at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music…. MATA sent out a call for scores … at the end of 2013, and early this year, a jury made up of Jenny Undercofler, the director of Face the Music [the Kaufman Center’s student new-music ensemble], and the composers Nico Muhly, Richard Carrick and Jacob Cooper sifted through the scores. They found what they called, in a statement, ‘an astoundingly high quality of work.’ … Eight composers were selected, and paired with older mentors…. Older is a relative term, however: the oldest of the mentors, Bryan Jacobs, was born in 1979; the others, Taylor Brook, Tristan Perich and Missy Mazzoli, were born in the 1980s. (The mentors will each have a work on the MATA Jr. program as well.) The two youngest of the eight composers are Shashaank Narayanan, born in 2004, and Emily DeLia, born in 2001. The others—Rachel Epperly, Julian Fueyo, Andrew Herring, John Nydam, Brandon Snyder and Renata Vallecillo—were born between 1995 and 1999.” Check out Symphony magazine’s article about programs for teenage composers sponsored by orchestras here.
Posted November 6, 2014
