ACA CELEBRATES 75+ YEARS OF AMERICAN CONCERT MUSIC!

Saturday, June 23, 2012   8:00 PM

Symphony Space
Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
New York, NY 10025

Box office: 212.864.5400, (Open Tues - Sun from 1-6pm)

To purchase tickets online: click here
www.symphonyspace.org

Guest artists:

Jo Ellen Miller, Soprano

Fred Sherry, cello

Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violinOrion Weiss, piano

Orchestra of the League of Composers: Louis Karchin, music director

George Edwards (1943-2011)

Miriam Gideon (1906-1996)

Dorothy Rudd Moore (b.1940)

Elliott Schwartz (b.1936)

Ben Weber (1916-1979)

Program TBD:

George Edwards, Parallel Convergences (1988)

Miriam Gideon, Bomischer Krystall (1990)

Dorothy Rudd Moore, Transcension (1986)

Elliott Schwartz, Chamber Concerto No. 6: Mr. Jefferson (2007)

Ben Weber, Concerto, Op. 32 (1950)

ACA will also present the Laurel Leaf Certificate of Appreciation to INNOVA RECORDINGS, in recognition of its excellent and steady support of the full range of contemporary American music.  A short video will highlight some of the ACA’s composers and their works. 

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the American Composers Alliance presents a concert of significant works by American composers that represent milestones in the history of the organization. The Orchestra of the League of Composers will be joined by world-renowned solo artists in this once-in-a lifetime ACA event.

In addition, a video film history of ACA will be shown, to illustrate highlights from more than seven decades of composers and their works that have shaped and given purpose to this unique service organization.

We celebrate more than 75 years of American concert music, as well as a special tribute to those who have given great support, care, and loyalty to the organization over the years.  To complete the evening, the ACA Governors will present the Laurel Leaf Award to an outstanding individual or organization that has shown exemplary service for new American music.

Join us for a celebration of American concert music, to honor the composers who established and created one of the most important collections of American music in the world. This is an evening not to be missed!

ACA and BMI members, as well as Society for American Music members - contact ACA for discount ticket code: concerts [at] composers [dot] com

ACA's 75th -  Concert Planning Committee:

Ross Bauer
Hayes Biggs
Louis Karchin
Marilyn Shrude
Joel Suben
Yehudi Wyner

Official Press Release:

American Composers Alliance
802 W. 190th St. 1st floor
New York, NY 10040
Contact: Gina Genova, (212) 925-0458
concerts [at] composers [dot] com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

American Composer’s Alliance
75^th Anniversary Concert
Sat, Jun 23 at 8 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95^th St, New York NY
Subway directions: 1, 2 or 3 to 96^th St.
$25 Advance-General Admission; $20 Symphony Space and ACA Members, Seniors;  $15 Students, and those 18 and under;
Tickets available at www.symphonyspace.org

The American Composer’s Alliance, founded in 1937 by Aaron Copland and others, celebrates seventy-five years of service to new American music with a concert of notable chamber orchestra works by ACA composers, including George Edwards’ Parallel Convergences (1988), Miriam Gideon’s Bomischer Krystall (1990), Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Transcension (1986), Elliott Schwartz’s Chamber Concerto No. 6: Mr. Jefferson (2007) and Ben Weber’s Concerto, Op. 32 (1950).  ACA is a non-profit music publisher (BMI-affiliated), service organization and concert presenter devoted to contemporary American music. Its summer concert series at Symphony Space was called a “lively, dogma-free celebration of mostly recent works by composers old and young” by Allan Kozinn of The New York Times.

For this special anniversary concert, ACA is proud to feature established master performers as well as blazing young talents. Dallas Magazine calls Orion Weiss, “a pianist with remarkable sensitivity and a beautiful, appropriately controlled tone” in a recent performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. Weiss is an exciting young artist making an impact on the national concert circuit.

Cellist Fred Sherry is one of the leading cellists in the world today. Of his recent premiere of John Zorn’s A Rebours, composed for Sherry, Musical America said “Sherry was particularly impressive, riding a rollercoaster of shifting perspectives and muscular arpeggios with élan.”

Soprano Jo Ellen Miller was called “an American artist at home in many vocabularies” by the Chicago Sun-Times for her thrilling performances, and Gramophone Magazine said violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved’s playing is “so compelling that interest never wavers.”  These fantastic performers will appear with the Orchestra of the League of Composers, hailed at its debut as "sounding terrific in this varied and demanding program" by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.  Since its founding in 2009, the orchestra has presented twelve New York or world premieres and five commissioned works, and will present three concerts in this current season with its Music Director, Louis Karchin.

In addition, ACA will present the Laurel Leaf Certificate of Appreciation to Innova Recordings, in recognition of its excellent and steady support of the full range of contemporary American music.  A short video will highlight some of the ACA’s milestones, illustrating through documents and images the rich tapestry of American music that has been collected, preserved, and published by the organization.

Featured Composers of the 75^th anniversary concert:

George Edwards (1943 –2011) was a composer of thoughtfully crafted orchestral and chamber music that expanded on the tradition of Schoenberg and Webern, as well as a distinguished educator. His Parallel Convergences for chamber orchestra was first performed in 1989 by Speculum Musicae, and is a brilliant example not only of his great technical prowess, but also of his passion for lyricism and counterpoint. Noting how the wilder qualities of his personality were not often represented in his music, Fred Lerdahl, in a memoriam for Edwards published in New Music Box, said that “Music was his refuge, his inner sanctum of order, beauty, and refined expression.”

Miriam Gideon (1906–1996) was born in Greeley, Colorado, where her father was a Reform rabbi. Her interest in composition —begun in childhood as an ancillary, experimental, and almost private activity—soon became the primary focus of her creative energies. Gideon remained always connected to the emotional impulse of her music.  “As far as I am concerned," she said, "I must see whether what I am writing comes from a musical impulse, and whether I am responding to it. What I write has to mean something to me.... It has to seem new. I have to be surprised by it, and it must register as feeling."

Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940- ) was born in New Castle, Delaware and was inspired at an early age to become a composer even though there were few women of color involved in classical music at the time. Moore was one of the founding members of the League of Black Composers, and through this organization did much to help fellow African-American composers and performers. Her chamber and vocal music is performed frequently throughout the world. Transcension for chamber orchestra is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Elliott Schwartz (1936- ) a native New Yorker taught at Bowdoin College from 1964 to 2007, including twelve years as department chair. The Chamber Concerto VI was written in 2007, during his resident fellowship at Robinson College, Cambridge University, and is dedicated to violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved, who first stimulated the composer’s curiosity about Thomas Jefferson’s relation to the violin.

Ben Weber (1916-1979) was a largely self-taught composer who created a polished and highly romantic style using 12-tone technique. His music came to be recognized late in his lifetime, but he was given several major commissions, including two Guggenheim Fellowships. Frank O’Hara, the poet, playwright and fellow gay artist, wrote of Weber in the 1955 ACA Bulletin that “his approach to creating art is one of attempting an ever more truthful, and thus more difficult, simplicity.”

Join us for a lively evening of American music, to honor the composers who established and created one of the most important collections of American music in the world. This is an evening not to be missed!