American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between Colombian composer/sound maker James Díaz and composer and percussionist José G. Martínez. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Colombian composer/sound maker James Díaz, currently based in Philadelphia composes music that strives to create unique sonic textures, sound masses, and interactive environments. Deeply influenced by the concept of psychedelia, his music also draws from elements of architecture, Latin-America landscapes, graphic design, and photography. He was recently featured in The Washington Post‘s “22 for ’22: Composers and performers to watch this year."

Serving as the 2019 composer-in-residence for the Medellin Philharmonic, James premiered "RETRO", his concerto for orchestra and electronics.

James has won multiple international and national awards, such as the 2015 National Prize of Music in Composition from the Colombian Ministry of Culture for "Saturn Lights", his concerto for percussion trio and orchestra. His orchestral piece "Frack[in]g" was awarded the 2018 Bogotá Philharmonic Prize in Composition. Similarly, James has been a fellow at the Orchestra of St. Luke’s DeGaetano Institute, the American Composers Orchestra's Underwood Readings, the Nashville Symphony Composers Lab, the Loretto Project, the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and the International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordao.

His music has been performed by orchestras such as the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Basel Sinfonietta, National Symphony of Colombia, American Composers Orchestra, Medellin Philharmonic, Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Bogotá Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and EAFIT Symphony, and by ensembles such as Longleash, Sō Percussion, Unheard-of//ensemble, Efferus Quartet, Apply Triangle, Quartet121, Camará Ensamble, ZOFO, and National Sawdust Ensemble.

Similarly, in collaboration with filmmaker/producer Leticia Akel Escárate, his film music has been presented at the SIFF Seattle International Film Festival ShortsFest, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Madrid FCM-PNR Festival, Cinemaissí Festival (Finland), and the Huesca, Quito, Sao Paulo, and Santiago international festivals.

James is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in composition at the University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin fellow.

José G. Martínez’s music incorporates a wide range of influences from Colombian folk tunes to contemporary composition techniques while borrowing from Latin music, heavy metal, and audio sampling techniques. His works range from solo pieces with electronics to orchestral works, passing through chamber ensembles, electroacoustic pieces, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Among others, his music has been performed by groups such as Alarm Will Sound, Wild Up, Grammy award-winning quartet Third Coast Percussion. An alumnus in percussion and composition of the National University of Colombia, he studied composition at the University of Missouri and UT Austin. José was Visiting Professor at East Carolina University and at the New College of Florida. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Music at Colby College.

José’s music has also been presented by Spanish ensemble Taller Sonoro, LA based Piano duo Hockett Duo, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s from New York City, Grupo de Cámara de Bogotá, and Austin based percussion ensemble Line Upon Line, among others. He has participated in institutes and festivals such as Banff Ensemble Evolution program, DeGaetano, Splice , SEAMUS, Missouri International Composer Festival, Line Upon Line Winter Composer Festival, ClarinetFest, and VIPA.

José is a recipient of the 2008 National Composition Prize for Young Composers, the 2011 “Ciudad de Bogotá” Composition Award, and the 2013 National Cultural Prize. In the US has received the 2013 Sinquefield Composition Prize and the 2019 Rain Water Grant for Innovation. He is part of the C3 Collective and also artistic director of the concert series Stack Overflow that creates opportunities for composers interested in electronics.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between interdisciplinary artist Homer Jackson and multi-instrumentalist and improviser David Middleton. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Homer Jackson is a talented interdisciplinary artist from Philadelphia with a background in curation, teaching and social service. His work is presented as installation, performance art, public art, video and audio. He uses images, sounds, text, live performance, video, audience participation and found objects to tell stories. With over 20 years experience as a teaching artist working in community settings, Mr. Jackson has served as project director for a number of arts & humanities projects and has conducted workshops in senior centers, prisons, schools and community organizations. In 1996, he received special recognition for his work with Youth-at-Risk from the President's Committee on Arts & Humanities. Jackson has worked with young people, adults and older adults, as well as intergenerational participants. Through his workshops, participants have produced art exhibitions, albums, books, comic books and videotapes.

Mr. Jackson is a BFA graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art and he holds a MFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art. He has performed, or exhibited works at the Philagraphika, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Nexus Gallery, Moore College of Art, Yellow Springs Institute, the Painted Bride Arts Center, Taller Puertorriqueno and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; at Hallwalls Arts Center in Buffalo, Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition, Art Center/South Florida in Miami Beach, Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, the Kitchen, Art In General and Aaron Davis Hall in New York City, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington and ArtBlackLive in Northhampton,UK. He has created performances in collaboration with artists such as the late AACM violinist, Leroy Jenkins, Twin Cities-based instrument maker and former AACM president, Douglas Ewart, the late, Washington DC/Philadelphia poet, Essex Hemphill, Baltimore-based multi-media artist, performer and MacArthur Foundation, "Genuis" Award recipient, Joyce J. Scott, as well as the award winning, Philadelphia-based hip-hop ensemble, The Roots.

Mr. Jackson has received support for his work from the Wyncote Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Civitella Rainieri Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Pennsylvania Radio Theatre, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The Playwrights Center, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Funding Exchange, Art Matters, and Franklin Furnace Fund For Performance Art. Homer Jackson lives and works in Philadelphia and currently serves as the director of the Philadelphia Jazz Project.

In year 2000, after 5 years working with Khan Jamal & Barry Schuck’s Philadelphia Jazz Composers’ Forum, D.Hotep (David Middleton) began to rehearse, tour internationally and record as a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen. During those years he also worked with a wide range of ensembles at home and abroad. During the last few years he has accepted work incorporating remote mixing, media scoring & composition, and instrument tracking services for clients as diverse as ballet companies, independent artists, and music library publishers into his portfolio. He began teaching a workshop in improvisation strategies at Curtis Institute of Music during the 2022 school year.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between composer and vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd and poet, singer, educator and curator Yolanda Wisher. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

This event is co-presented with Intercultural Journeys ahead of the premiere of The Frances Suite on May 5-6.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

A composer and vocalist for over 25 years, Ruth Naomi Floyd leads a distinctive, progressive jazz ensemble and has released multiple recordings of original compositions, bringing "...an unmistakable emotional integrity that conveys her music's power.” (The Times London). In 2020, Ruth and poet Charles Lattimore Howard, were Kimmel Center Jazz Residency artists for their project which centers on homelessness in Philadelphia. Recent compositions include the commissioned work “Freedom," focused on human rights activist Mende Nazer’s story of survival as a slave in the United Kingdom, and the Frederick Douglass Jazz Works. In the centennial year of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, the Mann Music Center, in partnership with NEWorks Productions commissioned Ruth as one of four composers to create a community mass inspired by Bernstein’s MASS. Ruth is the former Director of Jazz Studies at Cairn University, Langhorne, Pennsylvania and an Adjunct and Artist in Residence at Temple University.

Philadelphia-based poet, singer, educator and curator Yolanda Wisher is the author of Monk Eats an Afro (Hanging Loose Press, 2014) and the co-editor of Peace is a Haiku Song (Philadelphia Mural Arts, 2013), and is a contributing poet and performer for The Frances Suite. Wisher was the inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, she has been a Writer in Residence at Hedgebrook and Aspen Words, and founded and directed the Germantown Poetry and Outbound Poetry Festivals. She performs a unique blend of poetry and song with her band The Afroeaters and has led workshops and curated events in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the U.S. Department of Arts & Culture. Wisher is currently the Curator of Spoken Word at Philadelphia Contemporary.

ACF Philadelphia is pleased to present University of Maryland professor and author William Robin discusses his new book, "Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace".

William Robin is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Maryland's School of Music. His research explores how institutions structure the creation, dissemination, and reception of contemporary classical music in the United States. As a public musicologist, Robin contributes to The New York Times and tweets avidly as @seatedovation.

ABOUT "INDUSTRY"

Amidst the heated fray of the Culture Wars emerged a scrappy festival in downtown New York City called Bang on a Can. Presenting eclectic, irreverent marathons of experimental music in crumbling venues on the Lower East Side, Bang on a Can sold out concerts for a genre that had been long considered box office poison. Through the 1980s and 1990s, three young, visionary composers--David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe--nurtured Bang on a Can into a multifaceted organization with a major record deal, a virtuosic in-house ensemble, and a seat at the table at Lincoln Center, and in the process changed the landscape of avant-garde music in the United States.

Bang on a Can captured a new public for new music. But they did not do so alone. As the twentieth century came to a close, the world of American composition pivoted away from the insular academy and towards the broader marketplace. In the wake of the unexpected popularity of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, classical presenters looked to contemporary music for relevance and record labels scrambled to reap its potential profits, all while government funding was imperilled by the evangelical right. Other institutions faltered amidst the vagaries of late capitalism, but the renegade Bang on a Can survived--and thrived--in a tumultuous and idealistic moment that made new music what it is today.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between composers Jan Krzywicki and Sebastian Currier. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two composers will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

This event is co-presented with Network for New Music ahead of the concert Intersections, a celebration of Jan Krzywicki’s 30th anniversary conducting the ensemble.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Jan Krzywicki (b. 1948) is active as a composer, conductor and educator. As a composer he has been commissioned by prestigious performers, and organizations such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Chestnut Brass Company, Network for New Music, and performed across the United States by ensembles such as the Colorado Quartet, Network for New Music, Pennsylvania Ballet, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Alea III, and others. His works have been heard at conferences of the College Music Society, the Society of Composers, and on national public radio. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Krzywicki has been a resident at the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio, Italy), at the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy), and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts colonies. His work is published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie, Theodore Presser Co., Tenuto Publications, Lyra Music Company, and Heilman Music, and can be heard on Capstone Records, Albany Records, North-South Recordings and De Haske Records. As a conductor he has led chamber and orchestral groups in literature from the middle ages to the present, including a large number of premieres. Since 1990 he has been conductor of the contemporary ensemble Network for New Music. Krzywicki is a professor of music theory at Temple University, where he teaches music theory, composition, and conducts the New Music Ensemble.

Sebastian Currier is the recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. Heralded as "music with a distinctive voice" by the New York Times and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new" by the Washington Post, his music has been performed at major venues worldwide by acclaimed artists and orchestras, including Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Kronos Quartet.

His music has been enthusiastically embraced by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he wrote Time Machines, which she premiered with the New York Philharmonic in June 2011 and subsequently performed with various orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He also wrote Aftersong for her, which she performed extensively in the US and Europe, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Barbican in London, and the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg. A critic from the London Times said, "if all his pieces are as emotionally charged and ingenious in their use of rethought tonality as this, give me more."

He has received many prestigious awards including the Berlin Prize, Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has held residencies at the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies. He received a DMA from the Juilliard School and from 1999-2007 taught at Columbia University. He is currently Artist in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between interdisciplinary artists Emily Bate and Daniel de Jesús. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Emily Bate is a harmony fanatic, working in a wide variety of disciplines: music performance, theater, film, and social practice. She's currently focused on interdisciplinary performance that blends professional and amateur singers, and helping audiences access communal music-making experiences. Emily founded and conducts a 70-member queer community chorus called Trust Your Moves. TYM is an experiment in collective singing designed around liberation and co-creation, dedicated to performing new and experimental work. Her work has been supported by a Pew Fellowship, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, two Leeway Art & Change Awards, the MAP Fund, Art is Essential and more.

Daniel de Jesús is a painter, composer, and songwriter versed in the worlds of visual & sonic tapestries. Their musical practice of building tribal beats, ambient sonic spaces, and gut wrenching string arrangements with soaring vocals has taken audiences by storm. their work has been described as Baroque pop and Neo-Goth, filled with dramatic themes based on mysticism, the occult, and Latin American lore. Daniel de Jesús has nine studio recordings of their own music, and performs with orchestras and rock bands in the region and around the world. Their current projects include collaborations with painter and performance artist David Antonio Cruz, singer songwriter Courtlyn Carr, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Pig Iron Theater, and play writer Andrew Albert García.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present Writing Artist Statements, an online workshop led by Asimina Chremos.  The ability to describe your work, your process, and your motivations, in your own words, is an important tool for any person working to create music professionally.  An artist statement may be the key to a successful grant proposal or an application to an artist residency, but it can also help you hone your artistic practice.  This workshop will help introduce strategies for writing clear and compelling statements, and provide feedback to individuals on their draft writing. 

This is a two part workshop - you must attend both parts.

Part 1 - Monday, November 29, 7:00-7:30 pm ET
Part 2 - Monday, December 6, 7:00-7:30 pm ET

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between composer Ellen Fishman and technologist Youngmoo Kim. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two will discuss the intersection of arts and technology and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Composer, Ellen Fishman creates multimedia performances for audiences who crave new experiences at the intersection of art, music and technology. Her interactive works are designed to engage the audience in ways that invites choice. After awarded a 2017 Opera America Grant for Female Composers for the development of Marie Begins, a pilot of this interactive opera was produced as an online series featuring Grammy nominated soprano, Lauren Worsham. Since then, Marie Begins was selected for a workshop performance by Tri-Cities Opera for the Opera America New Works Forum in New York in January, 2018 and a full workshop was performed at Arizona State University in September 2018. After these workshops, software was completed to enable audience interaction and Marie Begins was premiered by the Opera Theater program at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in November 2020. She is currently working on an interactive work that instructs the audience how to “play along” to a performance for The Brass Project to be performed in 2022..

Ellen has worked with choreographers, artists and poets to create new performance experiences that go beyond the concert hall. Her collaborations include Remix Interactive, a work for live orchestra, playback and an interactive iOS light show in partnership with the Drexel University ExCITe Center and Mural in Motion, a soundscape and digital mural that was projected on to the side of the Fabric Workshop Building as part of collaboration with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. She collaborated with choreographer and former Martha Graham dancer, Jeanne Ruddy, between 2007-2012. Her score for Lark was described by Merilyn Jackson for “The Philadelphia Inquirer” as “a sprightly, complex 21st-century score whose swirling arpeggios harmonized well with the choreography.” As part of her work with Ms. Ruddy, she created animations of paintings by renowned painter, Elizabeth Osborne which interacted with the choreography and served as the backdrop in performances at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia. 

Her music is greatly influenced by the French composer, Gérard Grisey whom she studied with at UC Berkeley. Dr. Fishman is an Apple Distinguished Educator and is the Director of the Arts and New Media at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy where she founded the ViDCAST Studio for video, broadcasting and music production. She has presented nationally on technological approaches to teaching music composition and creating multimedia projects.

Youngmoo Kim is Director of the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University. His research group, the Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) focuses on the machine understanding of audio, particularly for music information retrieval. Other areas of active research at MET-lab include human-machine interfaces and robotics for expressive interaction, analysis-synthesis of sound, and K-12 outreach for engineering, science, and mathematics education.

Youngmoo also has extensive experience in music performance, including 8 years as a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is a former music director of the Stanford Fleet Street Singers, and has performed in productions at American Musical Theater of San Jose and SpeakEasy Stage Company (Boston). He is a member of Opera Philadelphia’s newly-formed American Repertoire Council.

Youngmoo was named "Scientist of the Year" by the 2012 Philadelphia Geek Awards and was recently honored as a member of the Apple Distinguished Educator class of 2013. He is recipient of Drexel's 2012 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. He co-chaired the 2008 International Conference on Music Information Retrieval hosted at Drexel and was invited by the National Academy of Engineering to co-organize the "Engineering and Music" session for the 2010 Frontiers of Engineering conference. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present Writing Artist Statements, an online workshop led by Asimina Chremos.  The ability to describe your work, your process, and your motivations, in your own words, is an important tool for any person working to create music professionally.  An artist statement may be the key to a successful grant proposal or an application to an artist residency, but it can also help you hone your artistic practice.  This workshop will help introduce strategies for writing clear and compelling statements, and provide feedback to individuals on their draft writing. 

This is a two part workshop - you must attend both parts.

Part 1 - Monday, November 29, 7:00-7:30 pm ET
Part 2 - Monday, December 6, 7:00-7:30 pm ET

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between multidisciplinary artists Alex Smith and Moor Mother. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Alex Smith is a speculative fiction writer, collage artist, and vocalist, keyboardist, and lyricist in avant-garde punk bands Rainbow Crimes and Solarized. He draws from influences like science fiction, Dadaism, and comic art, bending their conventions to frame the creativity, survival, and hopefulness of queer and Black people. He curates two recurring series: a queer sci-fi reading series titled Laser Life, which he also founded, and what Smith describes as a “retro-futurist electro mash-up art-jam,” Chrome City. “I want space to create worlds,” Smith notes, “within the minds of people searching for reflection of themselves, and in the practical world as well; active spaces embodied, emboldened and empowered by a cyberpunk retelling of our past, stitched together with whatever resources are available to grant us—queer Black people—access to the future.” Smith has lectured and held workshops on the practical application of Afrofuturism and sci-fi and fantasy tropes in art at Moogfest, Moore College of Art & Design, the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, Vox Populi, and Swarthmore College.

Moor Mother is a national and international touring musician, poet, visual artist, and workshop facilitator, and has performed at numerous festivals, colleges, galleries, and museums around the world, sharing the stage with King Britt, Roscoe Mitchell, Claudia Rankine, bell hooks, and more. Camae is a vocalist in three collaborative performance groups: Irreversible Entanglements, MoorJewelry and 700bliss. As a soundscape and visual artist, their work has been featured at Baltic Biennale, Samek Art Museum, Vox Populi, Pearlman Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art Chicago, ICA Philadelphia, Bergan Kunstall, Hirshhorn Gallery, and in a 2018 solo show at The Kitchen NYC. As a workshop facilitator, Camae has presented at Cornell University, MOFO Festival, Moogfest, Black Dot Gallery and others. They are co-founder and curator of Rockers Philly Project, a 10-year long running event series and festival focused on marginalized musicians and artists spanning multiple genres of music. As Moor Mother, she released her debut album Fetish Bones on Don Giovanni records to critical acclaim. The album was named third best album of the year by The Wire Magazine, number one by Jazz Right Now, and has appeared on numerous end of the year lists from Pitchfork, Noisy, Rolling Stone, and Spin Magazine. She has since released a second LP, The Motionless Present, commissioned by CTM X VINYL FACTORY 2017. Thanks to her unstoppable energy, she has recently performed at a host of vital festivals and venues including Berhaign, Borealis, CTM Festival, Le Guess Who, Unsound, Flow and Donau Festival, Rewire, Boiler Room, and MoMA PS1.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between Argentinian composer Diego Schissi and Philadelphia-based Brazilian composer Orlando Haddad. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

The event is co-presented with Orchestra 2001 ahead of ¡CONEXIONES! Argentina in Philadelphia, November 6, 2021.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1969, Diego Schissi was exposed to tango but was quickly drawn to the sounds of jazz. He studied at Conservatorio Nacional López Buchardo and, moving to the United States, the University of Miami, where he studied jazz performance. Upon graduation, Schissi remained in the States performing in ensembles led by Tito Puente, Nestor Torres and Maria Schneider, among others.
Schissi returned to Buenos Aires in 1996. Up until that point, he had been entirely engrossed in jazz in study and performance over a span of 10 years. Schissi began playing with his own ensembles and with the popular Quinteto Urbano. His return to Buenos Aires found him increasingly drawn to the music of the legendary tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Schissi s focus began to shift to tango composition, a music that he had never played before.
In 2009, Schissi created the Diego Schissi Quinteto, a new ensemble that focused on Schissi s contemporary take on the tango model. The ensemble featured Schissi on piano along with violinist Guillermo Rubino, bandoneón player Santiago Segret, guitarist Ismael Grossman and bassist Juan Pablo Navarro. The performers came from different musical backgrounds. Where most contemporary ensembles featured members with classical and/or tango backgrounds, Grossman, Navarro and Schissi came from a strong jazz grounding.
The music takes many of the elements that Piazzolla established and embellishes them with the compositional concepts that were originated by 20th century classical composers like Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. All these influences combine to create a sound that is not tango, but close.

Orlando Haddad brings a wealth of influences not only from his country of Brazil but as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, songwriter, recording artist, and arranger. A native of

Lavras, in the state of Minas Gerais, Orlando has been a bandleader since the age of 12. His father was a physician and his mom a piano teacher. Orlando studied classical piano before moving to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied the Villa-Lôbos Institute of music, taking guitar lessons privately from Marcel Gilbert Pierren, a Swiss expatriate living in Rio.

In 1974 he came to the US to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied under Robert Ward (Pulitzer prize for The Crucible), and graduated with a bachelor degree in Composition. He received a Masters of Science in Arts Administration from Drexel University in 1986, and in 2002 another Masters in Composition, from Temple University, in Philadelphia.

Orlando taught Brazilian Music at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia for 10 years; his expertise in Brazilian music has inspired invitations to teach courses, classes, and clinics at numerous universities in the United States.

In addition to the collection of songs recorded on 6 album releases with Minas, Orlando has written 20th Century-style works: 2 song cycles, the chamber piece Transparencies, performed by Rèlache, and 12-tone duets for oboe and viola. Orlando has written music for 3 documentaries and was commissioned to write arrangements for The Orpheus Club of Philadelphia, a choir of 80 men, and commissioned by Live Connections to write a suite, "Baroque Meets Bossa", presented by Minas and the early music ensemble Melomanie. His latest chamber music piece, "Lendas Amazônicas" was commissioned by Orchestra 2001 and was premiered in June of 2021.

Minas has been working on a new album, “Beatles in Bossa”, featuring 14 Beatles songs reimagined in Brazilian styles.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between composer/producer HPrizm and drummer Gerald Cleaver. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

HPRIZM aka HIGH PRIEST (Music Producer) Professionally known as -Hprizm is an American Avant-Garde Artist, Composer, New Media artist and Performer whose work spans performance art, pop music and multimedia projects. Formally trained as a visual artist, Prizm, later developed from the axis of poetry, hip hop and the experimental arts community of the Lower East Side in the Early Nineties. Noted for evoking images of “Sun Ra and Africa Bambatta at once...” (Jesse Sewer XL8R Magazine) Austin is the founding member of the critically acclaimed Hip Hop collective, the Antipop Consortium and cited figure in the Afrofuturist canon. With a career that spans the last 20 years, Prizm has shared the stages with a wide array of artists ranging from The Roots,Radiohead and ,MFDoom to Matthew Shipp, Vijay Iyer and Steve Lehman As a composer his pieces have been presented in The Whitney (NYC) The Guggenheim, PS1/Moma The Walker Museum, The New Museum, Cal Arts as well as the Mazzoli Gallery (ITALY) As the Creative Director of PRIZMLABS his recent client base includes Kehinde Wiley, Simone Leigh, Moor Mother, Ursula Rucker, The Barnes Center (Philadelphia) Bahamadia. & The Banff Center, Meredith Monk, The So Percussion Ensemble, Loris Greaud, Snorks (feat. David Lynch and Charlotte Rampling) amongst others.

Drummer Gerald Cleaver, born and raised in Detroit, is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. He has performed or recorded with a wide variety of artists: Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, William Parker, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Ralph Alessi, Jacky Terrasson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Joe Morris, Tomasz Stanko, Jeremy Pelt, David Torn, Miroslav Vitous, Charles Lloyd and Bill Frisell.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter in collaboration with PRISM Quartet presents an online artist talk between Melissa Aldana and Terell Stafford, two composer/performs who are joining PRISM in free performances of their works on Sept 12-14 in three Philadelphia parks. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, Aldana and Stafford will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

The event is co-presented with the PRISM Quartet ahead of PRISM in the Parks with Melissa Aldana and Terell Stafford: Heritage/Evolution 3 concerts in Philadelphia, September 12 to 14, 2021.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

The Washington Post describes Chilean saxophonist and Blue Note recording artist Melissa Aldana as representing “a new sense of possibility and direction in jazz.” In 2013, at age 24, she became the first female musician and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. She is a recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award from Jazz at Lincoln Center and a double recipient of the Altazor Award, Chile’s highly prestigious national arts prize. Her most recent album, Visions (Motéma, 2019), connects her work to the legacy of Latina artists who have come before her, creating a pathway for her own expression. Inspired by the life and works of Frida Kahlo, Aldana creates a parallel between her experiences as a female saxophone player in a male-dominated community, and Kahlo’s experiences as a female visual artist working to assert herself in a landscape dominated by men.

Terell Stafford has been hailed as “one of the great players of our time” by piano legend McCoy Tyner. Stafford is recognized as an incredibly gifted and versatile player, he combines a deep love of melody with his own brand of spirited and adventurous lyricism. He has played with Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath and Dizzy Gillespie, to name a few. He is a member of the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and can be heard on over 130 albums. Stafford is the Managing and Artistic Director of The Philly POPS Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Artistic Director of Jazz for the Philly POPS, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Jazz, Director of Jazz Studies and Chair of Instrumental Studies at Temple University.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between inti figgis-vizueta & Charmaine Lee, two composers whose works often intersect with themes of personal identity, improvisation, and collaboration. During this free event, inti and Charmaine will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

The event is co-presented with the Young Women Composers Camp and will be hosted by Erin Busch.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

“[inti’s] music feels sprouted between structures, liberated from certainty and wrought from a language we’d do well to learn” writes the Washington Post. 

Originally from Washington D.C. and now residing in New York City, inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) focuses on close collaborative relationships with a wide range of ensembles and soloists. She describes her own musical practice as physical and visceral, attempting to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & indigenous futures. The New York Times speaks of her music as “alternatively smooth & serrated”, The Washington Post as “raw, scraping yet soaring”, and the National Sawdust Log as "all turbulence" and “quietly focused”. inti is the 2020 recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award for “work that defies boundary and genre”.

Recent commissions include works for the Attacca Quartet, JACK Quartet, Crash Ensemble, Music from Copland House Ensemble, & Earspace Ensemble, as well as Jennifer Koh, Matt Haimovitz, & Andrew Yee. Her music has been presented in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Louise M. Davis Symphony Hall, and the Dublin National Concert Hall. She is currently in residency at So Percussion’s Brooklyn studio for the ‘21-22 season.

inti is a mentor for the ‘21-22 Luna Composition Lab and returning ‘21 faculty member for the Young Women Composers Camp. inti maintains a busy presentation schedule, with recent talks at McGill University, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Institute, UC Boulder, and UC Santa Barbara. inti also regularly appears on artist panels including engagements with National Sawdust/Center for Ballet & the Arts @ NYU, University of Kansas, American Composers Forum, and the New Latin Wave Festival. 

inti studied privately with Marcos Balter, George Lewis, Donnacha Dennehy, and Felipe Lara. inti received mentorship from Gavilán Rayna Russom, Du Yun, Angélica Negrón, Tania León, and Amy Beth Kirsten.

Charmaine Lee (b. 1991) is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Charmaine uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice. She has performed with leading improvisers Nate Wooley, id m theft able, C. Spencer Yeh, and Ikue Mori, and maintains ongoing collaborations with Conrad Tao, Victoria Shen, Zach Rowden, and Eric Wubbels. Charmaine has performed at ISSUE Project Room, the Kitchen, Roulette, The Poetry Project, and MoMA PS1, and participated in festivals including Resonant Bodies, Huddersfield Contemporary, and Ende Tymes. She has been featured in group exhibitions including The Moon Represents My Heart: Music, Memory and Belonging at the Museum of Chinese in America (2019). As a composer, Charmaine has been commissioned by the Wet Ink Ensemble (2018) and Spektral Quartet (2018). In 2019, she was an Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room, and is an upcoming 2021 Van Lier Fellow at Roulette. Charmaine is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Sound American.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Missy Mazzoli and Shelley Washington, two versatile artists who are active as composers, performers, and educators. During this free event, Missy and Shelley will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work. 

The event is co-presented with the Young Women Composers Camp and will be hosted by Erin Busch.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award. She is Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. In 2016, with composer Ellen Reid, she founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program for female, nonbinary and gender nonconforming composers in their teens. Upcoming commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia, the National Ballet of Canada, Chicago Lyric Opera and Norwegian National Opera. Her works are published by G. Schirmer. www.missymazzoli.com

Shelley Washington (b. 1991) writes music to fulfill one calling- to move. With an eclectic palette, Washington tells stories focusing on exploring emotions and intentions by finding their root cause. Using driving, rhythmic riffs paired with indelible melodies, she creates a sound dialogue for the public and personal discourse. Shelley performs regularly as a vocalist and saxophonist, primarily on baritone saxophone, and has performed and recorded throughout the Midwest and East Coast- anything from Baroque to Screamo. She holds degrees from Truman State University; a BA in Music focusing on saxophone, and a Masters of Arts in Education. She also holds a Masters of Theory and Composition from NYU Steinhardt, where she studied with Dr. Joseph Church, Dr. Julia Wolfe, and Caroline Shaw. As an educator, she taught for the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, and was acting Artistic Director for the Noel Pointer Foundation, located in Brooklyn, NY. In the Fall of 2018 she began studies at Princeton University in pursuit of the PhD of Music Composition. Shelley is a founding member of the composer collective, Kinds of Kings.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Rajna Swaminathan and Linda May Han Oh, two composers and performers whose creative practice bridges jazz, improvisation, and other musical forms and styles. During this free event, Rajna and Linda will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.

The event is co-presented with the Young Women Composers Camp and will be hosted by Erin Busch.

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Rajna Swaminathan is an acclaimed mrudangam (South Indian percussion) artist, composer, and scholar. Described as “a vital new voice” (Pop Matters), Rajna’s creative trajectory has blossomed through a search for resonance and fluidity among musical forms and aesthetic worlds. She leads the ensemble RAJAS, writing expansive, boundary breaking music for herself and like-minded improvisers, spanning multiple musical approaches. Rajna’s debut album with RAJAS, Of Agency and Abstraction (Biophilia Records, 2019), has been lauded as “music of gravity and rigor… yet its overall effect is accessible and uplifting” (Wall Street Journal). As a composer, she has recently received commissions from the LA Philharmonic, Chamber Music America, and National Sawdust, among others. In addition to her projects, Rajna performs extensively in ensembles led by Vijay Iyer, Amir ElSaffar, Ganavya Doraiswamy, and Aakash Mittal. She is currently completing a PhD in Music (Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry) at Harvard University.

Bassist/composer Linda May Han Oh has performed and recorded with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, and Geri Allen. Raised in Perth, Australia, based in NYC, Linda has received many awards and was voted the 2018, 2019 and 2020 Bassist of the Year award by the Jazz Journalist’s Association and was listed as one of five musicians in 2021 pushing jazz into the future by Grammy.com. She is a Jerome Foundation Fellow and recently received the 2020 APRA award for Best New Jazz Work for her album “Aventurine.” Linda has had five releases as a leader, receiving critical acclaim. She has written for large and small ensembles as well as for film. She was recently the bassist in the Pixar movie "Soul." and is Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music. She has also created a series of lessons for the BassGuru app for iPad/iPhone.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Monnette Sudler and Diane Monroe, two Philadelphia based composers and performers whose creative practice bridges jazz, improvisation, and other musical forms and styles. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Grammy nominated jazz guitarist, composer, vocalist, bassist and recording artist has composed music of diverse genres for over fifty years. Her latest release Stay Strong was WTRI’s album of the week. Monnette Sudler’s catalog is extensive. She has written for big bands like the Change of the Century Orchestra, covered genres from avant garde, singer song writer, ballads, R & B, children’s music, music for theater and has collaborated with poets as well as fellow composers. She is also the creator and artistic director of the Philadelphia Guitar Summit which features internationally acclaimed artists showcasing the range of guitar music through performances and workshops.Monnette has performed with Reggie Workman, Odean Pope, Hugh Masakela, and the late Grover Washington Jr. She is owner/executive producer for MSM Records. Her creative improvisation reflects in her compositions and arrangements. Monnette self published an improvisational workbook called Motif Mojo in 2015. She has performed in Europe, Japan, South Africa, and Jamaica and throughout the United States. Ms. Sudler is a recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, the City of Philadelphia Jazz Legend Award and Senator Vincent Hughes Jazz Legacy Award. In 2020 Monnette received two composer grants from the Jazz Coalition and the Painted Bride New Music for a New Day.

Violinist and composer Diane Monroe, bridges classical string repertoire, jazz, blues, spirituals, and contemporary experimental music. Lauded by The Philadelphia Inquirer for having “one foot in the old world and another stylish one in the new,” Monroe is known for her ability to expressively interpret and improvise varying musical styles and periods in both European classical and American jazz traditions. Her cross-genre work has included engagements with artists and groups such as Pew Fellows Bobby Zankel, Odean Pope, and John Blake; the Max Roach Double Quartet/Uptown String Quartet, String Trio of New York; Tom Lawton, Arnold Steinhardt, Harlem Symphony Orchestra; and Bang on a Can All Stars. Monroe has been leading her own ensembles for more than 20 years, including The Diane Monroe Quartet and Septet, and a duo with her longtime musical partner, vibraphonist Tony Miceli, with whom she released the album Alone Together in 2014. Monroe received a 2018 Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Project Grant to create Violin Woman, African Dreams, an evening-length suite inspired by drawings and prints of visual artist and collaborator, Curlee Raven Holton.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Daniel Fishkin and Peter Blasser, two composers whose creative practice incorporates electronics, self-made isntruments, and improvisation. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Daniel Fishkin’s ears are ringing. Composer, sound artist, and instrument builder. Completely ambivalent about music. Daniel studied with composer Maryanne Amacher and with multi-instrumentalist Mark Stewart. He has performed as a soloist on modular synthesizer with the American Symphony Orchestra, developed sound installations in abandoned concert halls, and played innumerable basement punk shows. Daniel’s lifework investigating the aesthetics of hearing damage has received international press (Nature Journal, 2014); as an ally in the search for a cure, he has been awarded the title of  “tinnitus ambassador” by the Deutsche Tinnitus-Stiftung. He is the only luthier that studied with the inventor of the daxophone, Hans Reichel; Daniel’s instruments have traveled the world, and are played everyday by players based in Canada, California, Norway, Germany, France, Japan, Kazakhstan, and Australia. Daniel received his MA in Music Composition from Wesleyan University, and has taught analog synthesis at Bard College. He is currently a PhD Fellow in Composition and Computer Music at the University of Virginia.

Peter Blasser, tubist since 4th grade. In high school, unallowed to purchase ethnic instruments, he began making them in the basement out of wood. Later, in college, he discovered electronic circuits, and their possibilities for infinite tunings, infinite timbres. He made a career out of electronic modulations, and making these intangibles touchable through nodes, case flexure, and radio fields. His company: ciat-lonbarde.net, sells these devices to musician around the world. He teaches the design of electronic instruments to his interns, as well as in workshops for larger groups. Some paper circuits can be downloaded from his website, printed out, and assembled to yield sound objects. The cybernetic interface uses the subtleties of touch, through discrete components, often "woven" together geometrically, to simulate intuitive patterns and chaotic sophistication. His designs are spurred into existence to explore platonic or philosophical concepts, which then acquire a narrative as they are refined into essential analog synthesizers.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Dan Blacksberg and Kinan Abou-afach, two Philadelphia based composers whose creative practice reaches between avant garde and traditional musics. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Philadelphia-native Dan Blacksberg has created a singular musical voice as a trombonist, composer, and educator. One of the foremost practitioners of klezmer trombone and a respected voice in jazz & experimental music, Dan is known for a formidable virtuosity and versatility. This has led to performances with artists such klezmer masters as Elaine Hoffman Watts and Adrienne Cooper, and experimentalists like Anthony Braxton and extreme doom metal band The Body. Dan composes music from danceable klezmer melodies on Radiant Others, to genre-busting projects like his Hasidic doom metal band Deveykus and Name Of the Sea, Dan forges music that “aims to infuse the fearless avant-garde with timeless sounds and techniques, and vice versa.” (WXPN’s The Key) Dan currently teaches jazz and klezmer at Temple University, coordinates the Instrumental and Dance programs at Yiddish New York with Deb Strauss, and is the musician-in-residence at Kol Tzedek Synagogue. He also makes the Radiant Others Klezmer Podcast.

Kinan Abou-afach is an acclaimed cellist, oud player, composer, and recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in 2013. The Syrian-born musician began his musical studies at the age of seven studying at the Arabic Institute of Music in Damascus, where he eventually joined the National Syrian Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Middle Eastern Ensemble. He holds a Bachelor’s Degrees in cello and oud performance from the Higher Institute of Music where he Studied the cello repertoire with Fayez Zahril-Din, Rasi Abdullaiev, and Valery Volkov, and a Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from DePaul University School of Music where he studied with Stephen Balderston. As a composer, described as “a Journey in Sound” and “Phenomenal”, Abou-afach crafts music that is​ ​saturated with unique scales, rhythmic grooves​, and improvisation-esque​ ​​progressions, keeping with some traditions while sounding contemporary. He ​works on creating a sound that’s ​​​based​ ​loosely on the Arabic modal traditions known as maqam​, while using elements from the western traditions (Classical, Jazz, Electronic, Musique concrète)​.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Joo Won Park and Sam Pluta, two composers who make extensive use of interactive electronics in their artistic practice. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Joo Won Park makes music with electronics, toys, and other sources that he can record or synthesize. He is the recipient of Knight Arts Challenge Detroit (2019) and the Kresge Arts Fellowship (2020). His music and writings are available on ICMC DVD, Spectrum Press, MIT Press, PARMA, Visceral Media, MCSD, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels. He currently teaches Music Technology at Wayne State University.

Sam Pluta is a composer and electronics performer whose work explores the intersections between instrumental forces, reactive computerized sound worlds, traditionally notated scores, improvisation, audio-visuals, psycho-acoustic phenomena, and installation-like soundscapes. Since 2009, Sam has served as Technical Director and composing member of Wet Ink Ensemble. Laptop improvisation is a core part of Pluta’s artistic practice. Performing on his custom software instrument, he has toured internationally with Rocket Science, the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, and the Peter Evans Ensemble. Sam appears as a composer and performer on over thirty albums of new music and jazz, many of which are released on his label, Carrier Records. Prof Pluta is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, where he teaches composition and directs the CHIME Studio.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between Ithaca based composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies and Swedish-Finnish composer Marja Ahti. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Sarah Hennies (b. 1979, Louisville, KY) is a composer based in upstate New York whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer & trans identity, love, intimacy, psychoacoustics, and percussion. She is primarily a composer of small chamber works, but is also active in improvisation, film, performance art, and dance. She presents her work internationally as both a composer and percussionist with notable performances at Le Guess Who (Utrecht), Festival Cable (Nantes), send + receive (Winnipeg), O’ Art Space (Milan), The OBEY Convention (Halifax), Cafe Oto (London), ALICE (Copenhagen), and the Edition Festival (Stockholm). As a composer, she has received commissions across a wide array of performers and ensembles including Bearthoven, Bent Duo, Cristian Alvear, Claire Chase, R. Andrew Lee (Denver), LIMINAR, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Two-Way Street, and Yarn/Wire. Her ground breaking audio-visual work Contralto (2017) explores transfeminine identity through the elements of “voice feminization” therapy, featuring a cast of transgender women accompanied by a dense and varied musical score for string quartet and three percussionists. The work has been in high demand since its premiere, with numerous performances taking place around North America, Europe, and Australia and was one of four finalists for the 2019 Queer|Art Prize. She is the recipient of a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a 2016 fellowship in music/sound from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has received additional support from New Music USA, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a Swedish-Finnish musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Ahti works with field recordings and other acoustic sound material combined with synthesizers and electronic feedback in order to find the space where these sounds start to communicate. She makes music that rides on waves of slowly warping harmonies and mutating textures – rough edged, yet precise compositions, rich in detail. Ahti has presented her music in many different contexts around Europe, in Japan and the United States. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner Niko-Matti Ahti and in the artist/organizer collective Himera. Ahti’s activities also extend into performance art and sound art.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between composers Annie Gosfield and Flannery Cunningham. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Annie Gosfield, whom the BBC called “A one woman Hadron collider,” lives in New York City and works on the boundaries between notated and improvised music, electronic and acoustic sounds, refined timbres and noise. Her music is often inspired by the inherent beauty of found sounds, noise, and machinery. In 2017 Gosfield collaborated with Yuval Sharon and the Los Angeles Philharmonic on the multi-site opera “War of the Worlds” that incorporated three defunct air raid sirens that were re-purposed into public speakers to broadcast a free, live performance to the streets of L.A. from Walt Disney Concert Hall. She has composed sitespecific music for factories; researched jammed radio signals; led a band driven by vacuum, machine, and analog synth sounds; and developed two orchestral pieces during a 2016 residency sponsored by the League of American Orchestras. Annie has been awarded fellowships and grants from the American Academy in Rome (2015), American Academy in Berlin (2012), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2008), New York Foundation for the Arts, the Siemens Foundation, the MAP Fund, NYSCA, Meet the Composer, and others. Gosfield’s discography includes four portrait CD’s on Tzadik, and compositions on Sony Classical, EMI, Innova, CRI, Mode, ReR, Harmonia Mundi, Wergo, CRI, and ECM. She has worked with The L.A. Philharmonic, Bang on a Can All-Stars, JACK Quartet, MIVOS Quartet, FLUX Quartet, Talujon Percussion, So Percussion, Joan Jeanrenaud, Kathleen Supové, Lisa Moore, Felix Fan, FrancesMarie Uitti, Stephen Gosling, Anthony DeMare, James Ilgenfritz, String Noise, and Jennifer Choi. Active as a writer and teacher, she contributes to the New York Times series “The Score,” and has been the Milhaud Professor of composition at Mills College, a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and a visiting artist at Cal Arts.

Flannery Cunningham is a composer and musicologist fascinated by vocal expression, illusion and auditory perception, and the compositional process.  She aims to write music that surprises and delights.  Among others, she has been commissioned by the Minnesota Center Chorale, the Cornell University Chorus, the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, and Grace Chorale of Brooklyn.  Archival work forms part of her process as both a composer and researcher, and she has written dramatic works including an oratorio about the 6th-century Irish monk St. Brendan the Navigator and a (pre-Hamilton) opera about the Burr-Hamilton duel.  An active poet, Flannery often writes her own texts and libretti.  She is attracted to both the very old and very new; she has presented on the 14th-century master and fellow poet-composer Guillaume de Machaut at the International Medieval Congress and performed with Cork-based electronic ensemble CAVE at the 2014 International Computer Music Conference.  In addition to acoustic ensembles she writes for live players with real-time electronics, always striving to create an environment that foregrounds the skills and musical voice of the performer.  Flannery has also scored, performed, and sound designed for theatrical and dance productions in Oxford, UK and New York.  She holds a BA from Princeton University, an MA from University College Cork as a Mitchell Scholar, an MA from Stony Brook University, and is currently pursuing a joint PhD in composition and musicology at the University of Pennsylvania.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between acclaimed saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins and composer Jacob Cooper, a 2020 Pew Fellow. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Immanuel Wilkins is a Saxophonist, Composer, Arranger, and Bandleader from the greater Philadelphia-area. While growing up, he honed his skills in the church and studied in programs dedicated to teaching jazz music like the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts.  Immanuel earned his bachelor’s degree in Music at Juillard (studying with the saxophonists Bruce Williams and the late Joe Temperley) while simultaneously establishing himself as an in-demand sideman working and/or recording with artists like Jason Moran, the Count Basie Orchestra, Delfeayo Marsalis, Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton, Gretchen Parlato, Lalah Hathaway, Solange Knowles, Bob Dylan, and Wynton Marsalis. It was also during this same period that he formed his quartet featuring his long-time bandmates:  Micah Thomas (piano), Daryl Johns (bass) and Kweku Sumbry (drums). Being a bandleader and having a working group for over four years has  allowed Immanuel to grow both as a composer and arranger — and has led to  him receiving a number of commissions  including, most recently, from The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, The Jazz Gallery Artist Residency Commission Program (A collaboration with Sidra Bell Dance NY, 2020 ) and The Kimmel Center Artist in Residence for 2020 (a collaboration with photographer Rog Walker and videographer David Dempewolf) Being emerged in the scene at a young age and sharing the stage with various jazz masters,  has  inspired Immanuel  to pursue his goal of being a positive force in music and society. Through studying the human pathos of the music and the culture of jazz, Immanuel aspires to bring people together through the commonality of love and belief in this music. His debut recording, Omega — produced by Jason Moran— will be released on Blue Note Recordings on August 7, 2020.

Composer Jacob Cooper enjoys collaborating with performers, poets, and directors, as well as with machines, environments, and questionable histories. Lauded as “richly talented” (The New York Times) and a “maverick electronic song composer” (The New Yorker), Jacob has fulfilled commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Eighth Blackbird, the Calder Quartet, singer Jodie Landau, cellist Ashley Bathgate, and Ensemble Connect (formerly ACJW). Pitchfork praised Jacob’s recent album Terrain (New Amsterdam Records) as “vital and compulsive,” highlighting its “surprisingly magnetic meditations on time” that are “firmly rooted both in the distant past and music much closer to the present,” while San Francisco Classical Voice characterized the album as a “beautiful way to look at sky when sky is not available.” The String Orchestra of Brooklyn’s recording of his expansive Stabat Mater Dolorosa was listed by National Public Radio as a Top 10 album of January 2020, and the New York Times described the work as “exhaustingly poignant.” Jacob’s song cycle Silver Threads, written for soprano Mellissa Hughes and electronic track, was released by Nonesuch Records and hailed as a “Best of 2014” recording by WQXR. Other works of his appear on Cedille Records, New Focus Recordings, and Innova Recordings. Jacob is a 2020 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellow, and has earned awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, and New Music USA. He teaches at West Chester University and lives in Philadelphia, PA with his wife Claudia and children Asher and Lia.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between two leading composers from Philadelphia: Jennifer Higdon and Andrea Clearfield. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Jennifer Higdon, Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy winner, is one of the most performed living American composers working today. She is the recent recipient of Northwestern University’s Nemmers Prize and the UT Austin EM King Award. Previous honors include the Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, and Pew Fellowships, as well as two awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Commissions have come from a wide range of performers: from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony, to The President’s Own Marine Band; from the Tokyo String Quartet to Eighth Blackbird, as well as individual artists such as singer Thomas Hampson, violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist, Yuja Wang. Her first opera on Charles Frazier’s book, “Cold Mountain”, was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, NC Opera, and Minnesota Opera; it has been a resounding success, selling out all of its runs and winning the International Opera Award. Her 2 nd opera, “Woman With Eyes Closed”, will be given its world premiere by Opera Philadelphia, at the Kimmel Center in September 2021. She makes her living from commissions and serves as composer-in-residence with various orchestras throughout the country. Her works are recorded on over 70 CDs. She holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Andrea Clearfield is an award-winning composer who has written more than 150 works for orchestra, opera, chorus, chamber ensemble, dance and multimedia collaborations. Clearfield creates deep, emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges. Recent works are inspired by Tibetan music fieldwork that she conducted in the Nepalese Himalaya. She was appointed the Steven R. Gerber Composer in Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for their 2018-19 season. She is a 2020 recipient of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage International Artist Residency, was named the 2020 The David Del Tredici Residency Fellow at Yaddo and was awarded a 2020 Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico Fellowship. She is currently 2020-2022 Composer-in-residence with National Concerts at Carnegie Hall. Her first opera, MILA, Great Sorcerer, to libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden, was presented at the acclaimed NYC Prototype Festival in January, 2019. Dr. Clearfield was awarded a 2017 Independence Foundation Fellowship, a 2016 Pew Fellowship in the Arts and Fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, Copland House and the MacDowell Colony among others. As a performer, she played keyboards with the Relâche Ensemble for 25 years and had the great honor of performing with the Court of the Dalai Lama. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Recording Academy/Grammy’s Philadelphia Chapter. A strong advocate for building community around the arts, she is founder and host of the renowned Salon featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic, dance and world music since 1986.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between two preeminent composers and guitarists: Mary Halvorson and Nick Millevoi. The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In recent Downbeat Critics Polls Halvorson has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year, and in 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Halvorson has released a series of critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and finally an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). She also released the solo recording Meltframe (2015), and most recently debuted Code Girl (2018), a new ensemble featuring vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (singing Halvorson’s own lyrics), trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, saxophonist/ vocalist Maria Grand, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.  One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.

Nick Millevoi is a guitarist, composer, and writer whose music attempts to take on the history of electric guitar music and throw it in a blender. Millevoi leads the band Desertion Trio, who have released three records, the most recent of which was Twilight Time, described by Rolling Stone as “warmly nostalgic and potently surreal.” As a guitarist, Millevoi has toured throughout the US and Europe and has performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and Jazz Night in America with artists such as Moppa Elliott’s Unspeakable Garbage, Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, Deveykus, and Many Arms, as well as performing with Nels Cline, John Zorn, Bill Orcutt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fugazi’s Joe Lally, and many others. NPR Music says, “When Nick Millevoi plays the guitar, it's like a rocket darting skyward between clouds.” Nick is a regular contributor to publications such as Premier Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, and Reverb. His latest release is Streets of Philadelphia, a songbook of 25 compositions inspired by and named after streets in Philadelphia, and an album of ten of those compositions featuring a chamber quintet.

American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present an online artist talk between composer and DJ King Britt and composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey.  The two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.  

FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. SPACE IS LIMITED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.

King James Britt (his real name) is a Philadelphia born, Pew Fellowship recipient, composer and dj. Traveling globally, he carries the history of his musical legacy into the future. Honing his skills as the first resident (’90) DJ at the legendary, Silk City (Philadelphia), King established Back2Basics; a new and innovative music collaboration which merged a live band with a DJ performance. King has performed his live work as himself and his sci fi pseudonym, Fhloston Paradigm,  in a number of forward thinking performance contexts and spaces, including National Sawdust (Brooklyn), CTM Festival (Berlin), The Kitchen (NYC) and Le Guess Who? (Utrecht).  As a composer and producer, he has collaborated with the likes of De La Soul, Madlib, Alarm Will Sound Orchestra, Saul Williams and many others, being called for remixes from an eclectic list of giants, including, Meredith Monk , Solange to Calvin Harris, and composing for films like Miami Vice. His biggest productions for Josh One, Ursula Rucker and H Foundation, are now Ibiza staples. Transmissions, his monthly radio show on the global hub, NTS Radio, has been hailed as one of the most creative, consisting of live electronic improvs and experiments. His latest achievement is becoming an Assistant Teaching Professor at UCSD in the Computer Music Department, with focus on production and recording research.

Newark-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980) is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity, effortless mastery and memorization of highly complex scores, and an extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. He has performed nationally and internationally with his own ensembles, as well as artists such as John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Claire Chase, Steve Lehman, Jason Moran, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Myra Melford, among many others. Sorey has composed works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble, soprano Julia Bullock, PRISM Quartet, JACK Quartet, TAK Ensemble, the McGill-McHale Trio, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, Alarm Will Sound, the Louisville Orchestra, and tenor Lawrence Brownlee with Opera Philadelphia in partnership with Carnegie Hall, as well as for countless collaborative performers. His music has been performed in notable venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Village Vanguard, the Ojai Music Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Kimmel Center, and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Sorey was named a 2017 MacArthur fellow and a 2018 United States Artists Fellow. Sorey received a B.Music in Jazz Studies and Performance from William Paterson University, an M.A. in Music Composition from Wesleyan University, and a D.M.A. in Music Composition from Columbia University. He is currently Presidential Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.