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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is about to celebrate four decades of musician-led innovation. In honor of our upcoming 40th anniversary, we've commissioned 4 of today's most talented emerging composers–Alex Mincek, Clint Needham, Andrew Norman, and Cynthia Wong. Each of their new works will be premiered this season at Carnegie Hall and on tour. Who are they? Click on each composer to learn more about who they are, where they're from, and what makes their music unique. How did we find them? Last year, Orpheus assembled a panel of artists and industry experts to nominate a diverse group of up-and-coming composers. In collaboration with WQXR-New York Public Radio and Q2, we introduced you to these composers online. Hundreds of visitors explored the composer profiles, posting comments and offering their perspective. These ideas were brought to the table as a selection committee narrowed the pool from 60 nominees to the 4 winners you see here. What are they up to? Click below for the latest from our composers as they share the ideas, techniques, and inspiration behind their works-in-progress.
How can I get involved? Join the 4.40 Fund, a commissioning collective that brings people together to support the creation of new work performed by Orpheus. By contributing just $4.40 or more, you join a community of people of all ages, interests, and incomes, united by a curiosity for new music and the artists who create it. Project 440 is a collaboration between Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and WQXR. Project 440 is supported by a leadership gift from an anonymous donor, with additional major support provided by Thomas Bishop and the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund. |
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Project 440 World Premiere A composer of what the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung calls "shamelessly beautiful" music for not only the avant-garde but “for all classical enthusiasts or indeed all music lovers," Cynthia Lee Wong is much in demand by ensembles around the world. Current commissions include a work for the Duo Slaato Reinecke, a piano sonata-fantasy for Soo Jin Anjou and a piano quartet for the Santa Fe Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Society, which will receive performances in 2010 and 2011. |
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ANDREW NORMAN | |||
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Project 440 World Premiere Andrew Norman (born 1979) is a composer of chamber and orchestral music. A native Midwesterner raised in central California, Norman studied the piano and viola before attending the University of Southern California and Yale. His teachers and mentors include Martha Ashleigh, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Stewart Gordon, Aaron Kernis, Ingram Marshall, and Martin Bresnick. A lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, Norman writes music that is often inspired by forms and ideas he encounters in the visual world. His music draws on an eclectic mix of sounds and usually features some combination of bright colors, propulsive energy, a healthy dose of lyricism, and the fragmentation of musical ideas into little pieces. |
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| CLINT NEEDHAM | ||||
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Project 440 World Premiere The music of Clint Needham (b. 1981, Texarkana, TX) has been described as “wildly entertaining” (New York Times), “easy to smile at” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “fresh and spicy” (Courier-Post). Recently named recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Clint’s music has been recognized with two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, First Prize in the International Ticheli Composition Contest, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, a Lee Ettelson Composer Award and the coveted Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. |
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| ALEX MINCEK | ||||
Project 440 World Premiere Alex Mincek (born 1975) is a New York-based composer and performer. He studied composition with Tristan Murail and Fred Lerdahl at Columbia University and with Nils Vigeland at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts. As a performer, he studied saxophone with Richard Oatts at Manhattan School of Music (Bachelor of Arts) and with Bunky Green at the University of North Florida. Mincek's music has been performed at major music festivals, including Festival Présences of Radio France, Voix Nouvelles at the Abbaye de Royaumont, Festival des Musiques Démesurées, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), Contempuls Festival in Prague, and the Ostrava New Music Days. |
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