About the NEOC-ACFNE New Music Composer Residency Collaboration

The New England Orchestra Consortium and The American Composers Forum New England, with funding from the LEF Foundation and the Cherbec Advancement Foundation, have commissioned Michael Weinstein and David Kechley to participate in a collaborative Composer Residency Program. Each composer will write a 15-20 minute work for chamber orchestra or full symphony, to be premiered by multiple orchestras throughout New England during the spring of 2006. The goals of the program are to:

• make commissioning and performing new music accessible to a wide variety of community, cultural and educational institutions, and
• to provide an opportunity to a composer to have a new work performed on multiple occasions.

In a collaborative, but independent, process, the music directors of the ten participating orchestras unanimously chose Weinstein and Kechley. Each music director considered the strengths of their own orchestra and the needs and interests of their own audiences. They independently evaluated applications from 41 composers, considering instrumental facility, good craftsmanship, strong musical ideas, and the ability to communicate those ideas.

Michael Weinstein was selected to write Chamber Symphony for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (Charles Ansbacher), Boston Classical Orchestra (Steven Lipsitt), and Symphony by the Sea (Jonathan McPhee).

David Kechley was selected to write a symphonic work entitled Images, Interactions and Incantations: A Symphony in Five Movements for Longwood Symphony (Jonathan McPhee), New Philharmonia (Ronald Knudsen), Hingham Symphony (Jin Kim), Waltham Philharmonic (Jonathan Girard), Cambridge Symphony (Mark Latham), Indian Hill Music (Bruce Hangen), and Vermont Symphony Orchestra (Jaime Laredo).

American Composers Forum New England is committed to supporting New England composers and developing new markets for their music. Through composer residencies, education, and performance programs, ACFNE provide composers at all stages of their careers with valuable resources for professional and artistic development. By linking communities with composers and performers, the Forum fosters a demand for new music, enriches communities and helps develop the next generation of composers, musicians and audiences.

The New England Orchestra Consortium fosters the growth and health of orchestra music through implementing community, resource and professional development programs for its member organizations; facilitating dialogue among orchestra administrators; and representing the field's interest to the media, and current and potential audiences. Members range from volunteer community orchestras to educational institutions to small and large professional orchestras throughout New England.

"This is a great opportunity for our regional orchestras to collaborate in the commissioning of new works from some of New England's most talented composers," said NEOC Clerk and Boston Classical Orchestra's Executive Director Carolyn Copp. "By collaborating with the American Composers Forum New England and the LEF and Cherbec Foundations, NEOC members are able to present multiple performances of these two new works throughout the region."

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