The Denver Young Artist Orchestra Receives Music Alive Composer Residency

The Denver Young Artists Orchestra is proud to announce that it is one of only eight orchestras across the country chosen to receive a composer residency through Music Alive, a program sponsored through Meet The Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League, which pairs American composers with orchestras for residencies that encourage the commissioning and performance of music of our time. Composer Belinda Reynolds will hold a two-week residency with DYAO.

This will be the orchestra's first-ever resident composer in its 30 year history.

Composer residencies provide orchestras with the opportunity to present new music and build support for new music within their institutions. Composers help guide the host orchestra though the presentation process of their new works and are also on hand so that the public can "meet the person behind the music," further engaging the orchestra and its various audiences and providing a personal context for their works. Additionally, composers serve as advocates for new music in the organization by interacting with board members, musicians, administrative staff, and the community in education and outreach activities.

As part of the residency, DYAO is commissioning and premiering a work from Ms. Reynolds specifically written for and inspired by the members who perform with the orchestra. She will help usher DYAO's young musicians into the world of composing, as students will have the opportunity to provide feedback after playing a draft of the work, which will then be incorporated into the final composition. The piece will be premiered at DYAO's 30th Anniversary concert in January 2008, in which alumni of the orchestra will be invited to join the current orchestra in performance on stage. The residency will also provide composition master classes for students, and lectures and presentations by the composer at Denver School of the Arts and other schools in the Denver Metro area. Additionally, already existing works by the composer will be performed by all three of DYAO's ensembles.

DYAO Executive Director Chris Silberman commented, "We are thrilled to be a recipient of this very competitive program. This residency will allow us to provide our students with a unique experience that they cannot get anywhere else, and it will also engage and involve the community in this experience."

DYAO Music Director Adam Flatt added, "Our aim in establishing a residency with Belinda Reynolds is to allow our young musicians to participate in the amazing process of working with a composer who is creating a work for us. They will have the experience of feeling like creative artists alongside her. The finished musical score will not be the point of departure, as usual, but the result of an ongoing friendship and collaboration."

Composer Belinda Reynolds added, "To have this wonderful opportunity to work with the DYAO is a dream come true. I eagerly look forward to working with these talented musicians as we come together to realize their own musical visions through the creation and performing of new music, written for them, and also written BY them."

Meet The Composer President Heather Hitchens commented, "Music Alive reaffirms our belief that in order for new music to become a permanent feature of orchestra repertoire and for this repertoire to consistently be refreshed, orchestras must draw on the creative strengths of living composers and engage them as true artistic collaborators."

American Symphony Orchestra League President Henry Fogel added, "The composers and orchestras chosen for this round of Music Alive all exhibit an extraordinary commitment to the creation and promotion of new music. These partnerships are a clear indication of the vitality of America's orchestras, representing how successfully they are keeping alive the art and tradition of symphonic music and adding fresh, new music to the repertoire."

Belinda Reynolds completed her Doctorate at Yale University. She has worked with many performing organizations both nationally and abroad, and has been awarded various professional recognitions from a number of organizations including ASCAP, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the International League of Women Composers.

Seven other composers and orchestras have been selected to participate in residencies. They include the Brooklyn Philharmonic, NY (John Corigliano); Colonial Symphony, NJ (Harold Meltzer); Patel Conservatory Youth Orchestra, FL (Augusta Read Thomas); The Philadelphia Orchestra, PA (Jennifer Higdon); The Phoenix Symphony, AZ (Mark Grey); Seattle Symphony, WA (Aaron Jay Kernis); and the String Orchestra of New York City (Randall Woolf). Participants were selected through a highly competitive application process by a distinguished panel comprised of John Luter Adams (composer), John Mackey (composer), Gil Rose (Artistic Director, Boston Modern Orchestra Project), Connie Linsler Valentine (Executive Director, Nashville Chamber Orchestra), and Robert Wagner (Principal Bassoon, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra).

About Denver Young Artists Orchestra

Established in 1977, the Denver Young Artists Orchestra (DYAO) has become the premier youth symphony orchestra of the Rocky Mountain region. DYAO musicians range in age from 8-23 and represent over 60 Colorado schools from Ft. Collins to Steamboat Springs to Colorado Springs. Each year, the DYAO ensembles perform four concerts in the Boettcher Concert Hall, including one side-by-side concert with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

About Music Alive

Since its inception in 1999, Music Alive has fostered a greater understanding and appreciation in America for contemporary classical music. Music Alive provides critical support to orchestras that are seeking to deepen and expand their involvement with living composers and new music. To date, Meet The Composer and The American Symphony Orchestra League have supported 71 residencies with 69 composers and 54 orchestras.

The participating orchestras have reflected a broad geographic and budget range, from youth and regional orchestras to major symphony orchestras with international reputations. The participating composers have ranged from established Pulitzer Prize winners to largely undiscovered emerging talents. Their music has covered an exciting and extensive stylistic terrain. Composers participate not only in a wide range of community outreach and educational activities, but they also work internally with their host orchestras: supporting the work of the marketing and publications departments; advocating new music among trustees and staff; collaborating with the music director; and assisting in the performance of their own work.

About Meet The Composer

Meet The Composer, founded in 1974, is a national organization serving composers of every kind of music. Its mission is to increase opportunities for composers by fostering the creation, performance, dissemination and appreciation of their music. Support from Meet The Composer has resulted in the creation of more than 800 works, representing the full spectrum of contemporary American culture. Through a range of commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction programs, Meet The Composer has revolutionized the environment for composers in this country, bringing live audiences totaling over 45 million individuals more closely in contact with the creators in their midst. Find out more at www.meetthecomposer.org.

About The American Symphony Orchestra League

Founded in 1942, and chartered by Congress in 1962, the American Symphony Orchestra League leads, encourages, and supports America's orchestras while communicating to the public the essential value and cultural importance of orchestras in their communities and the vitality of the music they perform. The League provides a wealth of services, meaningful information, learning and leadership opportunities, and grass roots advocacy to its diverse membership, which encompasses nearly 1,000 member symphony, chamber, youth, and collegiate orchestras of all sizes, and links a national network of thousands of instrumentalists, conductors, managers, board members, volunteers, staff members, and business partners.

Music Alive is made possible with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

By www.dyao.org