When the Tucson Symphony Orchestra launched its Young Composers Project 33 years ago, there were few, if any, American orchestras teaching young people classical music composition.
Today, there are several similar programs, including the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program open to children as young as fourth grade and Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s three-year-old Young Composers Initiative.
Young composer Andrew Wei talks with the audience at Tucson Symphony Center during last year’s Young Composers Project performances. The orchestra will perform works from introductory and intermediate students on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 29-30.
It’s a safe bet to say, though, that Tucson’s program pretty much predating everyone else’s is the most comprehensive.
Students 18 and younger meet weekly from September through May with TSO musicians and composition instructors to learn music theory, orchestral instrumentation, and the creative process of composition. Throughout the process, the young composers get feedback from musicians, composers and TSO Conductor José Luis Gomez.
At the end of the journey, the orchestra, with Gomez at the podium, performs the works before an audience in what has grown into the annual Young Composers Festival.
This year’s four-concert festival opens Tuesday, April 29, and Wednesday, April 30, with the small ensembles (TSO String Quintet, Wind Quintet and Brass Quintet) performing works by introductory and intermediary students. Performances each day begin at 7 p.m. at Tucson Symphony Center, 2175 N. Sixth Ave.
On May 10, advanced YCP students will take the spotlight with the full orchestra in two performances, at 2 and 6 p.m., at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
Krish Vedantham addresses the audience at last year's Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Project performances at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall. The TSO, with Music Director José Luis Gomez at the podium, will perform works by this year's young composers on Saturday, May 10.
Admission to the concerts is free.
Here’s the schedule of performances and works.
April 29: Avery J. F. Toomey’s String Quintet No. 1 in G Minor; Francis Ali-Osman’s String Quintet No. 2; Coen S. McKenna’s “In Light of Bad Decisions”; Lincoln Pangburn’s “British Grenadiers”; Simon Hagerman’s “Take a 180”; Joshua Cho’s Wind Quintet; Akatl Rodriguez-Cervantes’s Wind Quintet No. 1; Sierra Hammond’s “The Strongest Emotions”; Max Hao’s “Final Project”; Leo West’s “Reawakening”; Max Frost’s “Owl’s Hunt.”
April 30: Isaac Ballesteros’s “Where are we going?”; Graham F. Cooper’s “Prismatic Twilight” and String Quintet No. 1 in B minor; Dylan Krzysik’s “Crazy Song”; Comfort Ching’anda’s “Heliosphere”; Liam Lambeth’s “Before the Shooting Star Crashes”; Isaac Ornstein’s “The Lonely Cowboy”; Merik Jarasviroj-Brown’s Brass Quintet No 1; Joshua Caraballo’s “Return to Knowhere”; Karim Trammel’s Brass Quintet No. 2 in C minor; Charlie Linneman’s Brass Quintet in A-flat Minor.
Over two performances May 10: Carrick Montague’s “Nighthunter”; David Nguyen’s “Embers in the Snow”; Don Caedrick Markham’s “Ein Frühlingstagezyklus”; Krish Vedantham’s “Sneezing: But Without the Blessings”; Wexler Mackey’s “Bloom”; Oliver Ward’s “Adventure for Orchestra: A Musical Journey Expressed by Orchestra”; Ryoto Brumitt’s “From Sunset to Nightfall”; Ryoto Brumitt’s “First Steps.”
