Six of the nation’s most promising composers in the early stages of their professional careers have been selected from more than 150 submissions received from around the country. This year’s winners are Ruby Fulton, Takuma Itoh, Andrew McKenna Lee, Leanna Primiani, Conrad Winslow, and Roger Zare, representing a broad range of sound worlds, experience, and intentions. It should be a lively and ear-provoking few days!

The Readings are under the direction of ACO Artistic Director Robert Beaser. Guest conductors are Brad Lubman and Anne Manson; mentor composers are Derek Bermel, ACO’s Music Alive Composer in Residence, Chen Yi, Christopher Theofanidis, and Christopher Rouse. The conductors, mentor composers, and principal players from ACO serve as liaisons and provide critical feedback to each of the participants during and after the reading sessions. Following the Readings, one of the young composers will receive a $15,000 commission to write a new work to be performed by ACO. Last year’s winner, Clint Needham, won the top prize with his work Earth and Green. His newly commissioned work will be premiered by ACO at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in November 2008. The 2006 winner, Fang Man, will hear her Underwood-commissioned work, Resurrection, premiered by ACO at Zankel Hall in February 2009.

Writing for the symphony orchestra remains one of the supreme challenges for the aspiring composer. The subtleties of instrumental balance, timbre, effective part preparation, and communication with conductor and musicians are critical skills. But openings for composers to gain hands-on experience working with a professional orchestra are few. ACO’s New Music Reading Sessions are designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to work with an orchestra singular in its commitment to the development of the American composer and to hear their work performed by some of the country’s most outstanding contemporary music instrumentalists. Since 1991 the New Music Readings have provided invaluable career-development opportunities for emerging composers and served as a vital resource to the music field by identifying a new generation of American composers.

To date, over 100 composers have participated in the Readings, including such award-winning composers as Melinda Wagner, Pierre Jalbert, Augusta Read Thomas, Randall Woolf, Jennifer Higdon, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and ACO’s Music Alive Composer in Residence, Derek Bermel. Since participating in ACO’s readings, these composers have held important residencies and had scores of works commissioned, premiered, and performed by many of the country’s prominent symphony orchestras. The New Music Readings continue ACO’s emphasis on helping to launch composers careers, a tradition that includes many of today’s top composers, such as Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Joseph Schwantner, both of whom received Pulitzer Prizes for ACO commissions; and Robert Beaser, Ingram Marshall, Joan Tower, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Rouse, Sebastian Currier, and Tobias Picker, whom the orchestra championed when they were beginning their careers.

Composers Selected & Works to be Read

Ruby Fulton: ameriwaste (2007)

Ruby Fulton was born in 1981 and grew up in Northwest Iowa. She studied at Boston University and the San Francisco Conservatory before moving to Baltimore, where she is currently working towards a doctorate at the Peabody Conservatory. Along with composer George Lam, she is co-artistic director of Rhymes With Opera, a new opera company committed to bringing new works of opera and music-theater out of the opera house and into unconventional spaces. Her music has been performed recently at the 2007 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA and the 2007 A.Devantgarde Festival in Munich.

She has collaborated with the Peabody Opera Department, the West End String Quartet, and soprano Bonnie Lander. Upcoming projects include pieces for SONAR New Music Ensemble, marimba player Michael Compitello, and the Bay Area bass clarinet duo, Sqwonk. Also a performer and teacher, she plays viola in the Baltimore band The Greatest City in America and teaches music theory for Peabody Preparatory. She has studied with composers Julia Wolfe, Christopher Theofanidis, Moritz Eggert, Elinor Armer, Dan Becker, Charles Fussell, Tison Street, and Martin Amlin. Her music has been described as being “outside of the box,” “fun,” and “fantastic!”

Takuma Itoh: Sunrise from a Distant Past (2007)

Takuma Itoh, born in 1984, spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to Northern California. Currently finishing his Master’s degree at the University of Michigan, he has studied with Bright Sheng and William Bolcom, and has been called a “very promising, extremely talented” composer. He received a B.M at Rice University where he studied with Shih-Hui Chen, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, and Karim Al-Zand. His music has been performed by the New York Youth Symphony and the Shanghai Quartet at Carnegie Hall, Haddonfield Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, among others. He has received two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2004, 2007), won the Haddonfield Young Composer Competition, been awarded the New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Young Composers Competition, and the Russell Horn Voice of Change Young Composer Award. He has also been a fellow at Pacific Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival and an associate artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts. He has worked with composers Detlev Glanert, Christopher Rouse, Marc Andre-Dalbavie, Sydney Hodkinson, and Stephen Jaffe. He enjoys playing jazz piano and currently studies with Geri Allen.

Andrew McKenna Lee: For Dear Life (2004)

A native of Charleston, SC, born in 1974, Andrew McKenna Lee began his musical studies on the guitar at age twelve and pursued composition in his late teens. His music has been performed by such ensembles as the Brentano String Quartet, ensemble ereprijs, the New Jersey Symphony, Kroumata, and eighth blackbird. His works have also been presented at many festivals, including the International Music Festival of Toroella de Montgri, Spain; International Gaudeamus Week of the Netherlands; the Stockholm Arts and Sciences Festival; the Aspen Music Festival, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He has performed in venues such as New York’s Symphony Space, Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm, and in conjunction with the Aspen Music Festival. In 2007, he performed his own works at BAM Cafe, The Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of the ACO’s Composers Out Front! program. An upcoming CD release on New Amsterdam Records will feature Lee’s own performances of solo and chamber works for nylon-string guitar.

Leanna Primiani: Sirens (2007)

Composer-conductor Leanna Primiani is a native of California, born in 1976. She has just completed a DMA in composition at USC and has studied with such noted musicians as Leonard Slatkin, Peter Eotvos, and Steven Stucky. Upcoming performances of her works include Sirens for Orchestra, to be premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony in February 2009, and scenes from her opera Truman, to be staged by the Virginia Arts Festival in May 2008. Other recent performances include Chaconne for Orchestra by the USC Thornton Symphony; sound installations for Pure: A Multi & Mixed Media Exhibition in Brighton, MA; Parada at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben (Germany) and recorded for the SWR (German radio); Variations for solo piano at the June In Buffalo New Music Festival; Parada at the Aspen Music Festival; and Searching for M for Large Orchestra at the Cabrillo Music Festival. Ms. Primiani has served as associate conductor under Maestro James Conlon at the Los Angeles Opera’s performance of Judas Maccabeus, conductor for Los Angeles Opera’s Demonstration Tour of Figaro’s American Adventure, conductor of the California Opera Association, and music director for the Central California Ballet. She has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Aventure Freiburg (Germany), Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Opera Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, among many others.

Conrad Winslow: The Violence of Ragtime (2007)

Born in 1985 and raised in Homer, AK, Conrad Winslow is a composer whose music has been characterized as fun, clever, and quirky. He began composing and playing piano at age 6, performing several solo recitals in his youth. He holds an Honors A.B. degree in music from Rollins College, where he studied composition with Daniel Crozier. He composed the annual commencement music for the college and wrote music for theater, including a production of Henry V and a staged reading of letters between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald. In addition, he studied piano with Dr. Gloria Cook, and participated in master classes with Andre Watts and Dr. Gary Wolf. Winslow has co-authored a music theory and piano instruction book with Gloria Cook entitled Keyboard Theory, currently used in introductory theory courses at Rollins. His honors thesis explored listening modes for concert music and included several original compositions. Winslow has also composed music for student films and The Last Romantic (2006), which went to several film festivals, including SXSW and the Independent Film Festival Boston. Conrad is currently pursuing an M.M. degree in composition and film scoring at NYU, where he is a student of Justin Dello Joio.

Roger Zare: Green Flash (2007)

Roger Zare was born in Sarasota, FL in 1985. He began playing piano at age 5 and violin at age 11; he started composing at age 14. He completed a Bachelor of Music degree in composition at USC and is pursuing his Master of Music at the Peabody Conservatory. In 2003, Roger won the National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Competition with his Frolic for violin and piano. In 2007, he received a BMI student composer award for Green Flash. In 2005, the New York Youth Symphony commissioned Zare to write an orchestral piece for them as part of their First Music competition. The 65th composer to win this commission, he wrote an orchestral composition entitled The Other Rainbow, which was premiered in Carnegie Hall in February 2006. During that same month, the Florida West Coast Symphony performed his orchestral composition Fog in concerts in Sarasota and North Port. In addition, Roger has had his compositions performed by the Pine View Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, by ensembles at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Santa Monica Symphony Wind Quintet, the USC Thornton Symphony and Concert Orchestra, and the Starving Composers’ Ensemble at USC. During his years at USC’s Thornton School of Music, Zare has studied with Donald Crockett, Tamar Diesendruck, Frederick Lesemann, and Morten Lauridsen. He currently studies with Christopher Theofanidis.

Brad Lubman, conductor

The American conductor and composer Brad Lubman enjoys a multi-faceted career. Having been Assistant Conductor to Oliver Knussen at the Tanglewood Music Center from 1989-94, he has since emerged as an unusually versatile conductor of orchestras and ensembles all over the world. He has worked with a great variety of illustrious musical figures including John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Elvis Costello, Michael Tilson Thomas, Charles Wuorinen, DJ Spooky, and John Zorn.

Mr. Lubman’s guest conducting engagements include major orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Finnish Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Ojai Festival Orchestra, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony. In addition, he has worked with some of the most important European and American ensembles for contemporary music, including Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, ASKO Ensemble Amsterdam, London Sinfonietta and musikFabrik Cologne in Europe, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Steve Reich and Musicians. During the 2007-2008 Season, Brad Lubman makes his debuts with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.

Lubman is Associate Professor of Conducting and Ensembles at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he has directed the Musica Nova ensemble since joining the faculty in 1997. He also serves on the faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. He holds degrees in percussion from The State University College at Purchase, and The State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was awarded a scholarship to participate in the conducting program at the Aspen Music Festival in 1983 and 1984, and a Fellowship in Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1990 where he studied with Oliver Knussen. He has also worked with Pierre Boulez.

Brad Lubman’s own compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe by various prestigious ensembles. His first portrait CD has recently been released by John Zorn’s label Tzadik. He has also recorded for BMG/RCA, Bridge, CRI, Centaur, Koch, New World and Nonesuch.

Anne Manson, conductor

Conductor Anne Manson has achieved a series of historic milestones. She was the first woman to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, where she led the Vienna Philharmonic and a cast that included Samuel Ramey and Philip Langridge in a production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which met with great critical acclaim. Ms. Manson is one of only three women to have been appointed music director of a leading American symphony orchestra (the Kansas City Symphony), which she directed from 1999 to 2003. She launched her career in 1988 as Music Director of the London-based Mecklenburgh Opera, where, over a span of eight years, she programmed operas ranging from Mozart to 20th-century rarities, while commissioning world premieres from numerous composers.

Ms. Manson continues to take on new challenges as she balances acknowledged masterworks with vanguard contemporary works. She made her debut with New York City Opera in the company’s premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa in November 2007. In July and August 2007, she conducted Philip Glass’s Orphee at Glimmerglass Opera.

Her reputation for excellence, combined with a passionate advocacy of the music of the present, has led to invitations to some of the most important concert stages in the world. While based in London, she conducted regularly at Queen Elizabeth Hall. In Europe she has led concerts with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Philharmonic, the Royal National Scottish Orchestra, and the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, and conducted at festivals such as the BBC Proms and the Berlin Biennale. In America, her engagements include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of Singapore and Iceland.

Ms. Manson’s opera work is equally diverse, from Mozart and Mussorgsky to works of Kurt Weill and Carlisle Floyd, to such little-known 20th century works as Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Judith Weir’s Missa del Cid. In 2005, she conducted Cosi fan tutte for San Francisco Opera, and returned for the third time to Washington National Opera to conduct the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s Democracy, commissioned by Placido Domingo. Other major productions include Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Samuel Ramey and Nancy Gustafson for the Grand Theatre, Geneva.

This season, in addition to her appearance with ACO, Ms. Manson will lead the Juilliard Opera Center in the highly anticipated New York premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town. In June and July, she tours Canada with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming engagements for the 2008-2009 season include conducting the Minnesota Opera Company in the United States premiere of Jonathan Dove’s new opera The Adventures of Pinocchio and the Canadian Opera Company in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. -- www.americancomposers.org