Orchestrating for the 21st Century

Composer workshop & Archival Recording Session

The Albany Symphony showcases the work of living American composers and provides opportunities for composers to receive professional mentorship.

Archival Recording of your composition by the GRammy-Winning albany symphony

Study with Yale Professor & GRammy-nominated composer Christopher Theofanidis

June 2-8, 2025

Reading Session on Sunday, June 8

APPLICATIONs DUE by Midnight march 30, 2025

This intensive, six-day workshop is held during the Albany Symphony's American Music Festival in Troy, NY. “Orchestrating for the 21st Century” focuses on composition for the modern orchestra. Curated and led by GRAMMY-nominated composer Christopher Theofanidis, the workshop gives participants the context of over 7 concerts of new American works over the course of the week. It focuses on helping emerging composers move beyond instrumentation to refine techniques of distinctive orchestration. Participants become fully immersed in the Festival’s new music activities and events, interacting closely with resident composers, as well as with Albany Symphony musicians, visiting performers, and Albany Symphony Music Director, David Alan Miller.

Each day includes one major session of score study and orchestration, and observation of rehearsals and concerts. Over the course of the workshop, participants also receive lessons in masterclass format with Christopher Theofanidis: each participant has the opportunity to present to the full group and receive feedback. Score study of works by John Adams, Thomas Ades, Kaija Saariaho, Jacob Druckman, Henri Dutilleux, Tristan Murail, and others will complement a series of discussions centered around the use of technology in the orchestra, rehearsal protocol and strategies, and where to look for opportunities to write for orchestra. Workshop sessions also feature special guest talks with resident Festival composers and artists. In addition, participants meet with the Symphony’s Executive Director, Music Director, and Music Librarian, experts in music publishing, and new media specialists to learn more about trends and challenges for composers in the orchestral field.

In 2025, there is a special Festival emphasis on Water Music New York: More Voices and the bicentennial of the completion of the Erie Canal. Participants may be energized by the new works curated to commemorate the historic feat of engineering, as well as the Albany Symphony’s role in “raising more voices” by commissioning contemporary composers to curate Erie Canal Bicentennial Events along the canal, kicking off during the American Music Festival in Troy, NY.

All accepted composers have the opportunity to write a new work for a conducted ensemble of Albany Symphony musicians, to be read in a public workshop during the 2025 American Music Festival. The First Draughts Reading session is an AMF concert event on June 8, 2025. Please be sure to indicate your intention to submit a score for the Reading Session with your application by March 30, 2025.

Score submissions for the Reading Session are due April 28, 2025.

Twelve composers will be selected by Christopher Theofanidis and David Alan Miller based on work samples and professor recommendations. The program is open to graduate composition students, advanced undergraduate students, and recent graduates.

Eligibility & Fees

  • Applicant must be either a US citizen or non-citizen lawfully residing, or studying full-time, in the United States. Proof of citizenship or residency status may be requested at any time.

  • There are no age restrictions; however, applicants should be current graduate composition students, advanced undergraduate composition students, or recent graduates at the early stages of their careers.

  • Winning composers will join the orchestra for a series of professional development sessions during the orchestra’s American Music Festival from June 2 through 8, 2025.

  • The $600 workshop fee includes sessions, lessons, two group meals, and the option to participate in a public reading session of a new work. Travel expenses, housing, and additional meals are not included.

  • Please contact us regarding scholarship options. We are also able to offer discounted hotel room rates.

Applications due by Midnight, march 30, 2025

Application materials must be submitted electronically by the deadline via the application form. Please contact the workshop coordinator with questions or issues: opscoordinator@albanysymphony.com.

About Christopher Theofanidis

Christopher Theofanidis has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies, among many others.  He has also served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006-07 season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang.

Mr. Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship to France to study with Tristan Mural at IRCAM, a Tanglewood fellowship, and two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto.  His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium, having been performed by over 150 orchestras internationally.

Mr. Theofanidis’ has written a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of their ‘New Brandenburg’ series, and two operas for the San Francisco and Houston Grand Opera companies.  Thomas Hampson sang the lead role in the San Francisco opera.  His work for Houston, The Refuge, featurs six sets of international non-Western musicians alongside the opera musicians.  He has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano, and has just four recordings with them, including his concert length oratorio, Creation/Creator, which was featured at the SHIFT festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this year with the ASO, chorus, and soloists.  His work, Dreamtime Ancestors, for the orchestral consortium, New Music for America, has been played by over fifty orchestras over the past two seasons.  He has served as a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program, and he is a former faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University as well as the Juilliard School.  Mr. Theofanidis is currently a professor at Yale University, and composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival.