2019 AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
GUESTS ARTISTS & RESIDENT ENSEMBLES

Bold, innovative, uniquely spirited

Inventive concerts & artistic happenings featuring today’s most adventurous composers, artists, and genre-bending musicians.

The American Music Festival transforms downtown Troy and New York’s Capital Region into a hub for NEW American music and a magnet for composers, musicians, and the culturally curious.

RESIDENT ENSEMBLES

Dogs of Desire

The Albany Symphony's 18-member resident new music ensemble, Dogs of Desire, returns to the American Music Festival stage. Dogs explores the intersection between popular culture and world cultures through new media compositions and is a laboratory for today's most adventurous composers. David Alan Miller and the musicians of Dogs have commissioned and premiered over 200 works at the American Music Festival. Be there, as the Dogs of Desire “sing out” and premiere five new works inspired by New York’s leading role in America’s fight for equal rights.

Argus String Quartet

“supreme melodic control and total authority” and “decided dramatic impact” (Calgary Herald)

Founded in Los Angeles in 2013, the Argus Quartet honors the storied chamber music traditions of our past while forging a new path forward. Hear Argus perform Bullycide by David Del Tredici, a searing work in memory of 5 gay teens who committed bully-induced suicide.

IAMIAMIAM

Our name is derived from Esther Greenwood’s iconic mantra in Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar.”

I AM I AM I AM is a female collective dedicated to challenging traditional gender norms and roles through the lens of song. I AM I AM I AM curates Raise Your Voice!, a program of works by female composers including Missy Mazzoli and Stacy Garrop.

GUEST ARTISTS

Featured performers

Composer/performer, Molly Joyce performs Breaking and Entering, a solo work for vintage toy organ.

Pianist Phillip Fisher makes his Albany Symphony debut performing John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto.

Lucy Dhegrae and Lucy Fitz Gibbon return to perform in Dogs of Desire, featuring five world premieres inspired by important events and people in the fight for equal rights.