Composers' Forum

The Composers’ Forum, under the direction of Senior Composer-in-Residence Donald Crockett, involves both participants and faculty at the Conference in contemporary music.

Composers-in-Residence

The Conference invites a Composer-in-Residence to attend each of Weeks 1, 2, and 3 and commissions the Composer-in-Residence to write a chamber work specifically for a participant group to prepare for performance at a Participant Recital. Previously composed works by these composers are performed by faculty groups on the Conference Concert Series as well.

Composers-in-Residence coach participant groups both on their own commissioned works and on other works in the chamber music literature.

The Composers-in-Residence for 2012 are Andrew Norman (Week 1), John McDonald (Week 2), and Keeril Makan (Week 3).

Composers-in-Residence at the Conference have included recipients of prestigious honors such as the Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Composition Fellows

The Conference also invites a Composition Fellow to attend each of Weeks 1, 2, and 3 as participants. Each Composition Fellow has a work prepared and performed by a participant group and has opportunities throughout the week to work with the Composer-in-Residence and to have chamber works read and critiqued.

The Composition Fellows for 2012 are Kevin Laba (Week 1), Sarah Gibson (Week 2), and Nina Young (Week 3).

Composers' Forum Podcasts

The Conference has produced podcasts featuring each of the 2011 Composers-in-Residence, in roundtable talks with Music Director Phillip Bush and Senior Composer-in-Residence Donald Crockett.

The podcasts are in MP3 format. You can download them via the following links:

Podcast with Harold Meltzer (22 MB)

Podcast with Kenneth Frazelle (11 MB)

Podcast with Susan Botti (16 MB)

Acknowledgements

The Conference is supported in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University and the National Endowment for the Arts. Composers' Forum residencies are funded in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program.