Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies and American Composers Orchestra announce new Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute

By -

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and American Composers Orchestra announce a new collaborative project: the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI). With generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, this program will provide instruction to jazz composers in working with the symphony orchestra, an area that many jazz composers wish to engage, but for which access to educational and performance opportunities are few. JCOI will take place in two stages: the Intensive and the Readings.

From July 20 to 24, 2010, up to 35 participants, selected from a national pool of applicants, will take part in the JCOI Intensive on the Columbia University campus, where they will work with prominent composers, performers, conductors, and music industry leaders in seminars, workshops and performance labs in orchestration, instrumentation, contemporary techniques, score preparation and ideas for incorporating improvisation within an orchestral framework. Professional development workshops will address promotion, publishing, copyright and commissioning agreements, and other career essentials.

The curriculum will be designed by a distinguished panel of composers, including Jane Ira Bloom, Anthony Davis, Fabien Lévy and Center for Jazz Studies Director George Lewis, all of whom will serve as instructors, along with composers Alvin Singleton, Derek Bermel, and Tania León. Students will receive live demonstrations of new instrumental techniques from a resident chamber ensemble, Wet Ink, known nationally for its performances of new music, and will observe rehearsals for two concerts at Columbia’s Miller Theatre, held during the Institute week, featuring works by composers working with improvisation.

Following the Intensive, participants will be invited to submit applications to participate in the JCOI Readings. Four to six promising participants from the Intensive will be selected to create new works for orchestra, and to work further with composers and conductors in developing and scoring those new works. The Readings will culminate with open rehearsals, readings and live performances by American Composers Orchestra of the new works at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, in June 2011.

This innovative program constitutes a new development in the jazz field. While many composers seek to engage with symphony orchestras, programs designed to provide such opportunities for jazz composers are virtually non-existent. The Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute will provide new resources for both jazz and classical music, promoting the emergence of new composers trained both in jazz and in new orchestral techniques who will point the way to a new kind of orchestral music for the 21st Century.

How to Apply: Submission Deadline Feb 5, 2010
Jazz Composers interested in expanding their engagement with the classical orchestra are eligible to apply, by reviewing eligibility guidelines, completing a submission form and supplying the work samples and related materials (see www.jazz.columbia.edu/JCOI/ for application details). SUBMISSION RECEIPT DEADLINE: Friday, February 5, 2010, 5:00PM (EST)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more