"First Draughts" Reading Session - American Music Festival
Orchestra Announces Nationwide Competition for Young & Emerging Composers
(ALBANY, NY) – The Albany Symphony announces an open call for scores for its annual “First Draughts” Reading Session. Open to young & emerging composers nationwide looking to develop and refine their orchestral craft, the Albany Symphony will select three winners to join the orchestra during its annual American Music Festival in June 2018. The central event will be a reading session of a new work by each of the three selected composers by the full Albany Symphony, led by Music Director, David Alan Miller. In addition, the three composers will attend the orchestra's entire American Music Festival, participating in unique professional development sessions, in-depth collaborations with the symphony’s celebrated resident composers - including David Del Tredici, Chris Theofanidis, and others - and attend all rehearsals and performances.
The competition is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which continues the orchestra’s venerable tradition of commitment to new music, particularly through nurturing new compositional voices. The initiative fosters collaboration between the orchestra, its audiences, and nationally acclaimed and emerging composers.
The orchestra will accept applications between January 15, 2018 and March 15, 2018.
Application guidelines can be found on the Albany Symphony’s website at:
http://www.albanysymphony.com/adults/
About the Albany Symphony
The Albany Symphony is one of this region’s most revered music and cultural institutions, having won numerous national awards for its adventurous concert programming, recording projects, composer residencies, and innovative educational efforts involving area schools throughout the region. The Albany Symphony enriches a broad and diverse regional community throughout New York’s Capital Region, tri-state area, and beyond. Central to the Albany Symphony’s mission is its recording of works by living composers. Among its myriad of recently-completed recording projects are discs devoted to works by George Tsontakis, Christopher Rouse, Michael Torke, John Harbison, John Corigliano, and Michael Daugherty.
The American Music Festival will feature more than 25 new works by 18 American composers, including 14 stunning world premieres by today's best composers. American master David Del Tredici returns to the Albany Symphony for a performance of "Adventures Underground," one of his most famous works inspired by the literary classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." For more information about the American Music Festival, please visit: http://www.albanysymphony.com/thefestival/