The American Music Center Honors Esa-Pekka Salonen
and Peter Martins at New York City Ballet World Premiere
AMC's Ed Yim presents Letters of Distinction to Esa-Pekka Salonen and Peter Martins. Photo: (c) Paul Kolnik.
On June 22nd, the American Music Center (AMC) presented Letters of Distinction to two outstanding leaders in contemporary American music: composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and choreographer/New York City Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins. Salonen and Martins were honored on stage at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater before the world premiere of Martins’s new ballet <>Mirage, which was conducted by Salonen and featured the score of his Violin Concerto in its New York premiere.
Ed Yim, AMC Vice Chairman, presented the awards noting that, “Every year, the Center awards its Letters of Distinction to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to our field....That one gentleman hails from Finland and one from Denmark only makes the presentation of the American Music Center’s award more meaningful. American music — indeed American art — has always been about the embracing of different nationalities in our uniquely blended national context…
On the evening of the world premiere of Mr. Martins’s ballet and the NY Premiere of Mr. Salonen’s Violin Concerto, both created for American companies by true champions of new work, it is my distinct honor on behalf of the board and artists of the American Music Center to award our Letter of Distinction to these two distinguished men.”
Click here for Mr. Yim's complete congratulatory comments.
Click here to read the original press release.
March 2010 Composer Assistance Program Grants Announced
$47,075 Awarded to Composers for the Realization of their Work in Performance
The American Music Center (AMC) is pleased to announce grant awards totaling $47,075 to 35 composers through the March 2010 round of the Composer Assistance Program (CAP). The awardees are American composers ranging in age from 24 to 85 residing in 13 states and abroad.
AMC annually awards grants that assist composers by helping them realize their music in premiere performances. Composers are now also able to receive travel assistance to attend the premiere of the awarded work. The grants are intended to help composers take full advantage of performance opportunities that will enhance their careers. This round’s ensembles and organizations premiering or featuring public readings of CAP-supported works include: So Percussion, the Detroit Symphony, Emerson String Quartet, New York City Opera VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab, and the Da Capo Chamber Players.
Click here for the full press release.
Advocacy News: Virtual NPAC goes live!
The National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC) (a consortium of national performing arts service organizations) introduces two online resources: the redesigned NPAC site and Virtual NPAC — a virtual interactive arena for the performing arts community.
Virtual NPAC (VNPAC)— a unique, lively, interactive web-based gathering for the performing arts community — goes live today June 14th, and can also be accessed directly through the NPAC site. VNPAC will bring together highlights from the annual national conferences and constituencies of NPAC partners where they can share and learn from each other like never before. Virtual NPAC features live-streamed sessions, recorded presentations, discussions, tweets, blogs, vlogs, and more from the American Music Center, Chorus America, Dance/USA, the League of American Orchestras, OPERA America, and Theatre Communications Group.
NPAC invites readers and conference attendees to participate in Virtual NPAC by posting to the site and have their voices heard at this unique online convening!
Virtual NPAC and NPAC's updated website were created in response to NPAC’s successful 2008 national convening in Denver, where constituents requested improved access to essential online tools that effectively serve the diverse and interrelated needs of performing artists. The updated NPAC site features a vast array of curated resources which focus on NPAC’s five priority areas: advocacy, artists, diversity, education, and technology. Users are encouraged to share comments, suggestions of additional resources, and post requests for information.
The American Music Center Announces New CAP Recording Grant
Funding will be provided for recordings of music by living American composers
The American Music Center (AMC) is pleased to announce a new funding initiative to support recording projects, made possible with funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. AMC will award up to 10 grants between $5,000 and $10,000 in 2010.
Expanding upon AMC’s vital Composer Assistance Program (CAP), which has supported countless premieres by living composers for nearly five decades, the new CAP Recording Grant will help advance the careers of early and mid-career composers by providing direct assistance for recording projects. Physical, digital, and in some cases streamed releases of recordings will receive funding.
Click here for the full press release.
Click here for the guidelines and application.
New Affordable Insurance Benefits Exclusively for ASCAP members
ASCAP and MusicPro Insurance have worked hard to provide members with better ways to deal with high insurance costs. There are two new options for 1) affordable group rated health cost reimbursement and 2) discounted auto and home insurance. Both of these new group programs are exclusively for ASCAP members and their families.
Click here for more information.
American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program
Awards New Grants
$170,800 to Support Live Music and Newly Commissioned Music for Dance in New York City and New Jersey
The American Music Center (AMC) has made grants totaling $170,800 to 35 dance companies in New York City and New Jersey as part of the 2010 round of the Live Music for Dance Program. The program helps dance companies meet the expense of musicians’ rehearsal and performance fees, as well as composer commissioning fees for performances happening in New York City or New Jersey. Over the past 24 years, Live Music for Dance has distributed over 530 grants totaling more than $5 million to over 250 dance companies. For the sixth year in a row, thanks to a generous grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the program has included a separate funding category earmarked for New Jersey-based dance companies.
Click here to access the press release.
2010 American Music Center Awards Announced
American Music Center Honors Luminaries in Contemporary American Music
The American Music Center has announced the honorees who will be acknowledged at its 2010 Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony on May 3 at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City. Francis Thorne will receive AMC's Founders Award in recognition of his lifetime achievement in the field of new American music. AMC Letters of Distinction will be awarded to Jack Beeson, Fred Ho, Meredith Monk, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and The Society for New Music. In addition, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will be given AMC's Trailblazer Award. (Francis Thorne and Esa-Pekka Salonen cannot be in attendance and will be presented with their awards on other occasions.)
Click here to read the article on NewMusicBox.
Click here to access the press release.
AMC Annual Report 2009
The American Music Center's 2009 Annual Report is now available. Click here to view or download.
The American Music Center Responds to the NEA's
2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts
(December 17, 2009) On December 10th, the National Endowment for the Arts released findings gathered from its 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa convened over 40 arts and service organizations, including AMC’s CEO Joanne Hubbard Cossa, in round-table discussions. The convening was webcast live on the NEA’s “Arts Works” blog at www.arts.gov, and is now available for online viewing and comment.
The SPPA report confirms facts well-known in the arts community—performance attendance is down, audiences are aging, the arts struggle with harsh economic realities—and comparisons to studies done periodically since 1982 are instructive about the challenges inherent in a changing world. But the new music community can be heartened by other indicators. Taking Note: A Study of Composers and New Music in the United States (www.amc.net/takingnote/taking note.pdf) —co-commissioned by AMC and the American Composers Forum in 2008 from the Research Center for Arts and Culture (with the generous support of the NEA) — showed that:
• Compositional activity has increased in the last five years according to three-quarters of the American composers surveyed;
• Composers are utilizing new technologies to connect with audiences directly, and growing numbers are establishing careers through these connections.
In order to be comparable to earlier NEA studies, SPPA used the same arts categories that have been used since 1982, including “classical” music and “jazz”, and added a new category, “Latin music.” As valuable as this research is, Ms. Cossa noted during the discussion “as stylistic boundaries continue to blur, such categories may not measure all the participation in artful music… the terms ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’ are increasingly problematic for many of the creators in our field,” she observed.
It’s also worth pondering how much creative participation is influencing listening participation, and not underestimating the ‘convenience’ factor of technological performance. In the December 2009 NewMusicBox interview with Roger Reynolds, Mr. Reynolds states “… the likely future of music is much less a locus of clear points than it used to be... music is likely to be a behavior that spreads into other venues, into other media, mixed with other media, in contexts that we don’t now think of as music presentation contexts....”
“For now,” Ms. Cossa concluded, “we can be grateful that the NEA is not only a grantmaker, but an important resource for our field and a partner in our work.
AMC Visits the Left Coast
AMC Board member Gil Rose (left), CounterstreamRadio station
manager Molly Sheridan (middle), and AMC CEO Joanne Hubbard Cossa
(right) during AMC’s LA meet-up at The Edison.
Photo: Steve Stucky
We’re back from visiting the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the closing weekend of their wonderful “West Coast, Left Coast” festival. The concerts and symposia were enthusiastically well attended; and NewMusicBox and CounterstreamRadio media directors Frank Oteri and Molly Sheridan moderated engaging and spirited pre-concert talks with John Adams, Mason Bates, David Harrington, William Kraft and Thomas Newman. ***
The LAPO generously gave our members discounted concert tickets and free symposia admission and hosted our board meeting in Walt Disney Hall. The Sundance Institute threw a great party for us to meet local composers, and Gloria Cheng, Gabriela Lena Frank and Derek Bermel performed at a musicale for local patrons of new music. Thanks to all of you who helped us organize our visit and to all of you who came out to meet our board and staff.
AMC takes pride in being a national service organization, and while much of our work is in the virtual realm, we’re trying to get around the real world as well. In November we were in Minneapolis; last year we were in Denver. Hope to see you on your turf soon!
*** Both Oteri and Sheridan’s pre-concert talks were recorded and are now available for online listening.
1) Frank J. Oteri talks to Mason Bates, Thomas Newman, and David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet (http://www.laphil.com/tickets/program-detail.cfm?id=1957)
Thursday December 3, 2009 -7:00 PM
http://www.laphil.com/media/audio/ubl/ubl_091203.mp3
Friday December 4, 2009 -9:45 AM
http://www.laphil.com/media/audio/ubl/ubl_091204.mp3
2) Molly Sheridan talks to John Adams and William Kraft (http://www.laphil.com/tickets/program-detail.cfm?id=1958)
Saturday December 5, 2009 -7:00 PM
http://www.laphil.com/media/audio/ubl/ubl_091206.mp3
AMC Announces October 2009 Composer Assistance Program Grants
$31,000 Awarded to Composers for the Realization of their Work in Performance
The American Music Center (AMC) is pleased to announce grant awards totaling $31,000 to 28 composers through the October 2009 round of the Composer Assistance Program (CAP). The awardees are American composers ranging in age from 24 to 78 residing in 12 states.
Click here for the full press release with a list of the grantees.
Have you heard? AMC has a new address!
We've moved into our new office, and AMC’s new address is:
American Music Center
322 8th Avenue, Suite #1401
New York, NY 10001
212.366.5260
AMC's New Office Hours
Dear Friends:
This is a short note to tell you that while we're weathering the economic storm, AMC is making the cost-effective measure of reducing our office hours. Beginning July 1st, our official hours will be 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Mondays through Thursdays, and our office will be closed on Fridays.
While this is a temporary step, we pledge to continue our commitment to our members and to the new music field; and, we thank you for your support as we work to serve you.
NewMusicBox Celebrates 10 Years Online
Would you have expected music to be where it is today if you had been asked in 1999?
May 1, 2009, marked the 10th anniversary of the founding of NewMusicBox (www.newmusicbox.org), the web magazine from the American Music Center. When it launched, it did so both in response to the shrinking space devoted to music in the mainstream media and in order to harness the opportunities presented by ever-expanding internet technologies. Over the past decade, the site has published 121 in-depth talks with people making new music across a wide spectrum, as well as over five hundred essays, nearly one thousand interactive blogposts, and thousands of news items.
Click here for the full press release.
Are you “Taking Note?”
The American Music Center and American Composers Forum (St. Paul, MN) are pleased to present Taking Note: A Study of Composers and New Music Activity in the United States. Taking Note is the first major undertaking of its kind in decades, and was conducted by the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Click here to learn more.
Joanne Hubbard Cossa (AMC CEO) shares, “Music—all genres and styles—has changed dramatically in recent years, and the landscape for composers has become increasingly complex. Increased access to a wider variety of musical influences is also changing the very nature of the music that composers create.
For an overview of Taking Note, go to the Executive Summary at: www.amc.net/takingnote/taking note executive summary.pdf. To read the entire study, go to: www.amc.net/takingnote/taking note.pdf.