Underwood Readings in the New York Times!

In case you haven't opened the paper yet today... just had to share that Steve Smith gave us a nice write-up in the New York Times for the Underwood Readings this past weekend:
"Behind the polished veneer of any orchestral premiere there lies a process of familiarization and toil, a process made unusually transparent by the American Composers Orchestra in its annual Underwood New Music Readings. The program, designed to give young composers access to an orchestra as well as crucial feedback from experienced colleagues, offers an invaluable glimpse behind the curtain, allowing audience members to witness firsthand the labor that goes into bringing new symphonic works to the stage."
You can read the entire article here.
Congrats again to our seven composers!

Romaneiro Ringtones... Ricardo wins the Audience Choice Award!

At the close of this weekend's Underwood Readings, the audience got a chance to pick their favorite composer, awarding him or her a commission to create an original ringtone to be distributed by ACO.
The ballots were cast and counted and the winner was announced at the after-party:
Ricardo Romaneiro won the Audience Choice award!
Congrats Ricardo! We're all looking forward to your hand-crafted ring. I hope to hear it buzzing from the phones of music fans all over the city... but hopefully not in the middle of a concert...
Here's a link to his website so you can hear some of his other tunes.

Xi Wang talks about the inspirations for her piece Symphony No. 1

Participant composer Xi Wang takes a break between sessions to talk about the inspirations behind her work Symphony No. 1.

Hannah Lash and Matti Kovler talk Elevator Speeches

Composers Hannah Lash and Matti Kovler talk about their experience with the Underwood Readings, including the sessions on self promotion and learning how give a 30 second "elevator speech"

Ricardo Romaneiro checks in after his first feedback session

Ricardo Romaneiro checks in briefly after the first feedback session with the mentor composers. His piece "Sombras" is receiving its first reading at the 2010 Underwood New Music Readings.

Eric Lindsay gives a samba lesson - video blog entry

Check out our first entry from composer Eric Lindsay. Coming to you from Bloomington, IN before his flight to NYC, he talks about his work Samba Koocho Hairy Boocho, which will be read by ACO this weekend.

2010 Underwood Readings are underway!

Hello all! After putting out a call for scores, receiving well over 100 submissions, selecting seven composers, and going through all the prep work of production schedules, parts preparation, travel booking etc. etc. etc...
The 2010 Underwood Readings are happening this weekend! All of the composers collect tomorrow evening to begin an intense weekend of readings and feedback sessions with mentor composers, conductors, and ACO musicians.
They'll also be checking in with our fans here on the SoundAdvice blog with short video diary entries to talk about their music and their experiences working with ACO.You can also follow one of our composers (Tamar Muskal), the conductors (Jose Serebrier and George Manahan), and ACO musicians Danielle Kuhlman on the NewMusicBox site.
I hope to see you at the readings on Friday morning and Saturday evening at Miller Theater at Columbia U, and feel free to leave comments and questions on the upcoming posts!

-John Glover, Ops Manager

The Nashville Experience

This is Dan Temkin checking in again. I am writing after two days of hard work with Maestro Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony. It has been an amazing and intense process to bring to life four challenging and stylistically varied works within a few days time. I am truly amazed and impressed by how successful the final performances of each piece went, and we owe many thanks to Maestro Guerrero’s efficiency on the podium as well as to the professionalism of the orchestra who worked steadily with an open mind in order to perform our works so musically.

On Day 1 we were thrust into a live working rehearsal where the orchestra was hearing our music for the very first time; it was essential to work quickly and to try to understand what problems the orchestra could fix on their own and what problems we needed to point out verbally in order for the musicians to understand our compositional ideas. The musicians had prepared the music very well prior to the first rehearsal and many solo passages and complex percussion set-ups had been completely dissected before the first downbeat. This helped things run very smoothly and as problems arose, members of the orchestra asked concise, direct, questions, in order to solve any issues that were hindering the best performance of our music. After the initial reading we had a meeting with Maestro Guerrero, the librarians, and a few select players from the orchestra, where many suggestions were made to improve our pieces. This session was extremely helpful, but also very intense, as many of the details of our pieces were scrutinized in order to help us understand how our music could be made stronger.

On Day 2 we went back into the beautiful Schermerhorn Hall ready to move forward with our music. From the very first notes played by the orchestra it was clear that the previous day’s work had already sunk into the players’ minds. As each piece was rehearsed it seemed that many subtle nuances within each score were beginning to line up and the music was slowly crystallizing before our eyes and ears. The final performance of each work was exhilarating and I could not be more pleased with how my piece Regenerations sounded by the end of the rehearsal.

This has been a humbling and powerful experience for me. The insights I have gained into the way orchestras work in rehearsal and performance have been invaluable. I am so grateful to all of the people who have made this possible at ACO and Earshot. I want to especially thank Maestro Guerrero and NSO, as well as Emma McLeod, Robert Beaser, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Ed Harsh, Cindi Hubbard, John Glover, and Jenny Kampmeier. I also want to express my thanks to my colleagues Ryan, Chiayu, and Michael who are all immensely talented composers and insightful musicians; it has been an honor to share this experience with you.

Dan.

 Photos:
1. Daniel Temkin speaks to the audience before the Nashville Symphony reads his piece. 
2. A group shot of the whole Nashville EarShot gang.

EarShot Nashville Symphony

I feel so fortunate to have the great opportunity to work with Nashville symphony. I am very excited about this reading and want to thank all the people who have supported and worked on this project.

This reading will be a sound realization of my work. For composers, listening to our own music to be performed live is the most exciting experience. I am eager to hear what the end result is, to meet the musicians and to learn from this reading.

Chiayu

Photos:
1. Chiayu Hsu addresses the audience before the Nashville Symphony reads her piece.

Hello!

This is Daniel Temkin, checking in with the ACO community on the SoundAdvice Blog. Later this week I will be travelling to Nashville to participate in the ACO/Earshot Orchestra Readings with the Nashville Symphony. I’m obviously thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an orchestra that performs at such a high artistic level, and I no doubt will gain a tremendous amount of practical experience from the readings. I would very much like to thank everyone at ACO, Earshot, Meet the Composer, and NSO for making this opportunity available to young composers.

There will be four composers participating in the readings (me, Chiayu Hsu, Ryan Gallagher, and Michael Rickelton), and I think I can speak on behalf of all of us when I say that we are very excited and perhaps even a little anxious as the readings approach. Except when performing their own music, composers are not physically in control of the sounds being produced as their music is brought to life; instead they are required to prepare a set of thorough instructions (namely, a score and a set of parts) that must be interpreted carefully by instrumentalists so that the artistic ideas of a piece can come to fruition in concert. After a piece has been sent off to an orchestra or ensemble the composer is no longer directly in control of the music that has been created, and as performances approach there is often a sense of anticipation in the mind of the composer before the first notes are played. I certainly am feeling this excitement and anticipation at this time. Luckily for me, and for all of us working with NSO later this week, we can rest assured knowing that our “instructions” are in extremely capable hands.

More to come as the readings get underway…

Dan.

Photo:
1. The Nashville Symphony Orchestra on day one of the readings.