Composer Daniel Marschak participated in American Composers Orchestra's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute La Jolla Symphony New Music Readings on September 19-20, 2013. This is an excerpt from Marschak's work "Twelve." 

DANIEL MARSCHAK - Twelve (Excerpt)

And The Brightest Rivers Glide... _Gity Razaz

Lux In Tenebris Carlos Bandera

Middle school students explore creativity in ACO's Sonic Spark Lab classes. Over 12 weeks, teaching artists guide students to use their curiosity to grow their imagination and to build an idea from just a spark to artistic realization. Halfway through the semester, students create mini projects. In Spring 2021, students were given the following prompt: create your own entrance music. Envisioning themselves being introduced at an event, they each created 30-60 second musical snippets that could accompany their walk onto a stage. Twelve-year-old Savannah Savas, interested in musical theater, create a song with piano and her own voice.

Savannah's Song - Sonic Spark Lab Mini Project

When I began writing Maelstrom, I knew I wanted to keep people right on the edge of their seats, holding on for dear life, as their ship, the concert hall, catches a devastating current that puts them at the heart of an unrelenting storm. The sawing string section in the beginning sucks the unwarned vessel in, reeling it into a whirling black hole of low brass and high woodwind runs. We then change perspective and view the storm from the eyes of those bewildered and terrified sailors, who bicker amongst themselves in confusion and despair, evoked by the punches of the low woodwinds and the quarrel between the horns and trumpets, with of course, the unforgiving storm of the string section always present in the background. Eventually the storm subsides, turning those fast repeating string lines into soft and seemingly innocent pizzicato triplets. But as more and more layers begin to be added, the crew starts to panic once again — the storm is back in full force and it becomes just a matter of minutes before the ship and her men become forever lost in the depths of the Maelstrom.

Saad Haddad:  Maelstrom

Written by rising high school senior Leandro Torres as part of the Compose Yourself Intensive program in August 2022.

ACO's Compose Yourself! program is for high school age musicians who want to compose their own music. Classes help young composers develop their creativity and learn professional standards in a supportive, hands-on environment. This program has a strong record of preparing students for the rigors of college and beyond.

Enough by Leandro Torres (ACO Compose Yourself Student)

perforemd by the Royal College of Music Wind Ensemble - Simon Channing, conductor

William Dougherty - Winded for wind ensemble and tape (excerpt)

performed by Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Lauren Kinhan, Peter Eldridge (voices), Ben Wittman (percussion, fender), Jody Redhage (cello

Theo Bleckmann:  Longing

live performance by Indianapolis Symphony.

Shara Worden:  We Added It Up

23. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 3 What Real War is Like (Markum, Mother Chen)_

24. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 3 What is an American_ (Marcum, Mother Chen, Danny, Soldiers)_

25. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 4 The Verdict (Judge, Mother Chen)_

26. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 4 E Pluribus Unum Chorus (Sergeant, Soldiers)

27. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 4 An American Dream (Mother Chen, Danny)

28. An American Soldier_Act II Scene 4 Sleep now little one (Mother Chen)

"June 8, 2003" by Kenneth Kirschner, courtesy of 12k.

Kenneth Kirschner is composing an interactive sound piece for an Interval Studios app, with visuals by Joshue Ott, for ACO's Fall 2015 SONiC Festival.

www.12k.com
www.kennethkirschner.com

Kenneth Kirschner: "June 8, 2003"

Welcome to SONiC Double Live, a collection of orchestral premieres drawn from American Composers Orchestra’s ground-breaking festival of 21st century music written by composers 40 and under. SONiC—Sounds of a New Century launched in October 2011, with concerts around New York City, presenting startling array of what young composers are up to a decade and more into this new millennium of ours. In all, over 100 composers from six continents came together for SONiC. This album features ten of them, with eight world premieres, all recorded live in two concerts by ACO.

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