Mar 16 at Carnegie Hall: American Composers Orchestra presents Modern Yesterdays
American Composers Orchestra Presents Modern Yesterdays
Daniela Candillari, Conductor with Kaki King, Guitar
Premieres by Carlos Bandera, Kaki King & D. J. Sparr, and Ellen Reid, plus Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers
Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 7:30pm Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | 57th St. and 7th Ave. | NYC Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office
www.americancomposers.org
New York, NY – American Composers Orchestra (ACO) continues its 2022-2023 season under the leadership of Artistic Director Curtis Stewart and President Melissa Ngan with Modern Yesterdays, on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 7:30pm at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Modern Yesterdays, conducted by Daniela Candillari, features music that traces the links composers build between the past and future, both individually and collectively.
World-renowned guitarist and composer Kaki King, hailed as “a genre unto herself” by Rolling Stone, performs with ACO in the world premiere of new ACO-commissioned orchestral renderings by composer D. J. Sparr of her guitar pieces, including her acclaimed album Modern Yesterdays, with immersive video projections by Attilio Rigotti and Orsolya Szantho. The concert also includes the long-awaited New York premiere of 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Reid's Floodplain, whose music has been praised as “ineffably moving” by the Los Angeles Times. Floodplain is co-commissioned by ACO, and describes a landscape in which reality shifts virtually overnight. 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Carlos Simon's “engaging, propulsive” (Philadelphia Inquirer) Fate Now Conquers uses the fluid harmonic structure of Beethoven’s seventh symphony, with musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. And Carlos Bandera’s Materia Prima, commissioned by ACO as a result of Bandera winning the 2018 Underwood Commission, presents a unique perspective on the power of music to bridge time, drawing inspiration from the mythological motif of the cosmic ocean. Read more background about the program and composers >
“As we all know first hand, ‘Time’ with a capital T is a primary material of our lives,” says Artistic Director Curtis Stewart. “There is rarely a singular aspect of our lives that can connect or distinguish you from everyone else -- and our ‘yesterdays’ do just that. I am enjoying the interplay of lenses our curated composers use to look back to recorded, hypothesized and personal histories for a way of creating forward -- mining meaningful paths toward their own cultural projections on ‘Time.’”
ACO is dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by American composers, with a commitment to diversity, disruption, and discovery. This season’s slate of performances includes ten premieres of new works by American composers, as well as the re-launch of ACO’s EarShot CoLABoratory workshop program; the continuation of ACO’s national EarShot Readings program for emerging composers with orchestras across the country; and its Sonic Spark Education program reaching at least 500 students in New York City schools.
Concert Details:
American Composers Orchestra Modern Yesterdays Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 7:30pm Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | 57th St. and 7th Ave. | New York, NY Information: www.americancomposers.org/events/modern-yesterdays Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office
Daniela Candillari, conductor Kaki King, guitar Attilio Rigotti & Orsolya Szantho, video projections CARLOS SIMON: Fate Now Conquers ELLEN REID: Floodplain (New York premiere, Commissioned by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra with the generous support of Linda and Stuart Nelson, and RTÉ National Symphony) CARLOS BANDERA: Materia Prima (World premiere, ACO Underwood Commission Winner 2018) KAKI KING: Modern Yesterdays (World premiere of orchestrations by D. J. Sparr, ACO commission)
For ACO’s Upcoming Events, visit: www.americancomposers.org/performances-events
About American Composers Orchestra
Founded in 1977, American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by American composers. With commitment to diversity, disruption and discovery, ACO produces concerts, middle school through college composer education programs, and composer advancement programs to foster a community of creators, audience, performers, collaborators, and funders. ACO identifies and develops talent, performs established composers, champions those who are lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting gender, racial, ethnic, geographic, stylistic, and age diversity. To date, ACO has performed music by 800 American composers, including over 350 world premieres and newly commissioned works.
Now encompassing all of ACO’s composer advancement initiatives, EarShot is the first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on the national level. Through orchestral readings, CoLABoratory fellowships, consortium commissions, and professional development, EarShot ensures a vibrant musical future by investing in creativity today. Serving over 350 composers since inception, ACO Readings in NYC began in 1991, and since 2008, national Readings have been offered in partnership with orchestras across the country in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum. Readings composers have gone on to win every major composition award, including the Pulitzer, Grammy, Grawemeyer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Rome Prizes.
ACO has received numerous awards for its work, including those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI recognizing the orchestra’s outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded ACO its annual prize for adventurous programming 35 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States.” ACO received the inaugural MetLife Award for Excellence in Audience Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. Read more: www.americancomposers.org
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The commission and New York premiere of Floodplain by Ellen Reid is made possible with lead funding from Linda and Stuart Nelson.
The commission of Modern Yesterdays by Kaki King and D. J. Sparr has been funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
The commission and world premiere of Carlos Bandera’s Materia Prima is generously funded by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Underwood
American Composers Orchestra is grateful to the many organizations that make its programs possible including Herb Alpert Foundation, Altman Foundation, American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, Amphion Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, AmazonSmile Foundation, ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, BMI, Inc., Cheswatyr Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust, Fromm Music Foundation, Steven R. Gerber Trust, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jephson Educational Trusts, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Morgan Stanley, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Pacific Harmony Foundation, Rexford Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Sphinx Venture Fund, TD Charitable Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Corporate gifts to match employee contributions are made by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Triton Container International Incorporated of North America, and Neiman Marcus.
Public funds are provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
American Composers Orchestra Curtis Stewart, Artistic Director | Melissa Ngan, President and CEO 494 8th Avenue, Suite 503 | New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212.977.8495 | Web: www.americancomposers.org