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  • 10 PARTICIPANTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC'S NATIONAL COMPOSERS INTENSIVE 2016
  • Sep. 13, 2016
  • Young Composers Program Returns For Second Edition

    Select Works To Be Performed by wild Up at Walt Disney Concert Hall During LA Phil's Noon to Midnight Marathon Contemporary Music Festival On October 1

    Los Angeles, CA (September 13, 2016) - The Los Angeles Philharmonic announces the 10 participants of the 2016 National Composers Intensive. Taking place September 27 to October 1, 2016, the Intensive offers 10 young composers (ages 18 to 30) an opportunity to create works for the acclaimed modern music collective wild Up. Participants will work with renowned composer and Director of the Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program (CFP) Andrew Norman and Artist Director of wild Up Christopher Rountree to rehearse and refine their works. In addition, participants will observe LA Phil rehearsals, attend performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and work with a faculty of renowned artists including Ashley Fure, Ted Hearne and Kate Soper. Following the program, participants will also receive a professional recording of wild Up performing their works.

    The Intensive will conclude with a selection of the newly composed works performed on the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall by wild Up, conducted by Christopher Rountree, on October 1 at 1pm. The performance will be part of the LA Phil's Noon to Midnight marathon contemporary music festival, which also kicks off the 2016/2017 season of the LA Phil's Green Umbrella series. Noon to Midnight will also feature the world premiere of a work by CFP alumnus Andrew Moses.

    The National Composers Intensive is an outgrowth of the LA Phil's Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program - one of the LA Phil's landmark education initiatives celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year. The National Composers Intensive was launched in 2015, and focuses on young composers who are currently studying in, or recently graduated from, a music composition program at an accredited U.S. college or university. Ten participants are selected from a pool of applicants who each submit recordings of two works that best represent their compositional style. The LA Phil covers round-trip economy airfare and room and board for all accepted composers.

    The 2016 Intensive continues to demonstrate the LA Phil's commitment to supporting young composers across the nation, providing tools for the development and evolution of new music from genesis to creation, from commission to performance. It brings together contemporary American composers - both established and emerging - for an immersive multi-day workshop in downtown L.A.

    The participants for the National Composers Intensive 2016 are:

    Katherine Balch
    Columbia University

    Katherine Balch (b. 1991) writes music that explores lyricism through textural soundscapes. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony (First Music Commission), Ensemble Intercontemporain (IRCAM ManiFeste), Alea III, Antico Moderno, FLUX Quartet (Santa Fe Chamber Music), ZOFO duo, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Yale Philharmonia, ICE, American Modern Ensemble, and others in such venues as Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, and Centquatre (Paris). Upcoming performances include those by Contemporaneous, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and violinist Michiko Theurer on a collaborative project based on Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Recognition for her work includes fellowships from Fontainebleau, Aspen and Norfolk music festivals, several ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, New England Conservatory's Donald Martino Prize, Fontainebleau's Prix du Composition, first prize in America Modern Ensemble's 8th annual Composition Competition, Yale's Woods Chandler Memorial Prize and Alumni Association Prize. Katherine completed her B.M. / B.A in the Tufts/ New England Conservatory double degree program and her M.M. at Yale School of Music, where she studied with Aaron Kernis, Chris Theofanidis, and David Lang. She recently began her D.M.A. at Columbia University, studying with Georg Haas. When not making or listening to music, Katherine can be found baking, collecting leaves, and playing with her cat, Zarathustra.

    Daniel Bayot
    Bowling Green State University

    Daniel Bayot (b. 1995) is a composer for concert and film particularly interested in creating works that satisfy the cerebral, visceral, or kinetic facets of a listener's experience. As a kamaʻaina from Hawaiʻi and an alumnus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Daniel is a recipient of the Interlochen Fine Arts Award for Composition in 2012 with works read and performed by a variety of ensembles, including the Interlochen Philharmonic, the World Youth Wind Symphony, members of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, members of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and professional chorus Melemai Kapuʻuwaimai. As a vocalist, Daniel is an active performer of choral and contemporary music and a third of the experimental trio, 3 dB Vocal Ensemble. He is currently pursuing a B.M. in composition at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

    Carlo Diaz
    Conservatorium van Amsterdam

    Carlo Diaz (b. 1994) is a composer who explores the physicality of historical, rudimentary, and simplified instruments and the relationship between music, history, place, and sensation. At Northwestern University, he studied with Jay Alan Yim, Hans Thomalla, and Juan Campoverde. In Fall 2014 he studied visual cultures and composition with Patricia Alessandrini at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and in Summer 2015 returned to the U.K. to conduct historical musicology research at the British Library and the London Metropolitan Archives regarding the Jew's harp in early modern England. His music has been performed in the U.S. and Italy in co-operation with Make Music Chicago, the Bienen School of Music, Ensemble Linea, the highSCORE New Music Festival, Studio 22 Productions, and Continental Players. He is a graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Music in composition and interdisciplinary arts and a minor in music technology. In September 2016 he began a Master of Music in composition with Wim Henderickx and Willem Jeths at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

    Tamzin Ferré Elliott
    University of Southern California Thornton School of Music

    Tamzin Ferré Elliott (b. 1992) is a composer from a small surfing town in northern San Diego. Alongside composing she engages in a range of performance art from classical harp and Georgian folk singing to performance poetry. Tamzin graduated from Bard College and Conservatory with degrees in Composition and Written Arts, where she studied composition with Joan Tower and George Tsontakis, and completed her senior thesis in Poetry studying under Ann Lauterbach. Throughout high school Tamzin studied with Roger Reynolds, Professor of Music at University of California, San Diego. She was a Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellow for the 2009-2011 program, in which she studied composition with James Matheson and A.J. McCaffrey. In the fall of 2016, she will begin graduate studies in composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

    Susanna Hancock
    New York University

    Susanna Hancock (b. 1992) is a composer, whose work explores color, process, and acoustic phenomena, drawing from a wide array of influences including minimalism, spectralism, folk music, and electronic mediums. Her compositions have been featured in concerts and festivals throughout the world, including the Vox Novus/Composers Voice Concert Series, Taneycomo Music Festival, USF New-Music Festival, and the Dimitria Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece. Her music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Montclair New-Music Ensemble, and NYU Symphony Orchestra. In addition to composition, Susanna enjoys playing and advocating new works for bassoon, most often as a soloist and as one-half of BASSLADY (bassoon and baritone saxophone duo). Susanna has also performed at the Ash Lawn Opera Festival and Hot Springs Music Festival. Currently, Susanna teaches aural theory at the University of South Florida and serves as the public relations manager of Global Premiere Consortium Commissioning Project. She received a Master of Music Theory & Composition from New York University and Bachelors of Bassoon Performance and Composition from the University of South Florida. Primary teachers have included Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Baljinder Sekhon, and Paul Reller.

    William Healy
    The Juilliard School

    William Healy (b. 1990) is a composer and pianist based in New York. Known for his "lushly bluesy" sound and "adroitly blended... textures" (New York Times), Healy is the artistic director of ShoutHouse, an orchestral hip-hop collective. An accomplished pianist, he has been featured as a concerto soloist on many occasions, and he performed Bach's complete Goldberg Variations in a series of concerts in 2013. His work has been featured on New Sounds (WNYC), at Bargemusic, the Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theater. Healy is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Scholarship at The Juilliard School. He is currently completing an M.M. in Composition there, where he studies with John Corigliano.

    Thomas Kotcheff
    University of Southern California

    Thomas Kotcheff (b. 1988) is a native of Los Angeles whose music has been described as "truly beautiful and inspired" (icareifyoulisten.com) and "explosive" (Gramophone magazine), and has been performed internationally by The Riot Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, Trio Appassionata, the Argus Quartet, USC Thornton Edge, HOCKET, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Kotcheff has received awards and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presser Foundation, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, BMI, the National Association of Composers USA, and the American Composers Forum, and has been a composition fellow at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. He holds degrees in composition and piano performance from the Peabody Institute and the University of Southern California, where he is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Music in composition.

    Ali Can Pisculcu
    Robert Schumann Musikhochschule

    Ali Can Pisculcu (b. 1989) was born in Istanbul, Turkey. At the age of 6 he began to play the violin, studying with Kemal Gullu. When he was 10 years old, Ali was accepted to Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory by Professor Cigdem Iyicil and pursued studies in composition under Dr. Volkan Barut. In 2007, Ali entered the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Dusseldorf, Germany under the instruction of Professor Ida Bieler. In 2010 he was invited to the renowned Schwetzingen Festspiele as a guest artist to perform music by contemporary Turkish composers. In July 2012, Ali graduated from the violin class of distinguished pedagogue Rosa Fain. He holds both a Bachelor and Master of Arts Diploma from the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule. In March, 2013 Ali made his Carnegie Hall debut as the Second Prize Winner of the American Protégé Strings and Piano Competition. He has received the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for his ensemble piece "Broken". He currently resides in New York City, where he is enjoying a vibrant composition, chamber music, and solo career.

    Tina Tallon
    University of California, San Diego

    Tina Tallon (b. 1990) is a San Diego-based composer, computer musician, soprano, and arts documentarian pursuing her doctoral studies in composition at the University of California, San Diego. Her music has been performed around the world by such esteemed musicians as Tony Arnold, Talea, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Calder Quartet, members of the JACK Quartet, h2 quartet, and Transient Canvas. Her first string quartet, selective defrosting, won grand prize in the 2013 PARMA Student Composer Competition and her saxophone concerto, studies on the intensification of light and shadow, was a finalist for the 2016 ASCAP Morton Gould Award. Recent commissioners include the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, The College of New Jersey Wind Ensemble, soundSCAPE Festival, Transient Canvas, and the OSU Frontiers New Music Ensemble. Ms. Tallon holds B.S. degrees in Biological Engineering and Music from MIT and an M.F.A. in Composition and Music Theory from Brandeis University. Her primary teachers include Peter Child, David Rakowski, and Lei Liang. Ms. Tallon is also the owner and lead documentarian of SALT Arts Documentation, a company that specializes in artistically-informed audiovisual recordings of the performing arts.

    Chaz Underriner
    University of North Texas

    Chaz Underriner (b. 1987) is a composer and intermedia artist based in Denton, Texas. His work explores the notions of landscape and portraiture through the juxtaposition of video projections, audio recordings and live performers. Chaz has collaborated with numerous choreographers, experimental filmmakers, animators, and writers. As a composer, he has created works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, chamber and symphony orchestras, jazz combos, choir, and electronics. Chaz's work has been programmed at the Proyector International Video Art Festival (Madrid, Spain), the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (Hawick, Scotland), the International Computer Music Conference, the Impuls Festival (Graz, AU), the Morley College Engine Room Sound Art Exhibition (London, UK), the National Building Museum (Washington DC), the 2012 Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt (DE), the Global Composition Conference (Dieburg, DE), Ostrava New Music Days (CZ), Champ dAction's Laboratorium (Antwerp, BE), the Charlotte New Music Festival (USA), the Louisville New Music Festival (USA), Dogstar Orchestra (Los Angeles), the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (Texas), and the American College Dance Festival Association Regional Conference (Texas). Chaz earned a Ph.D. at the University of North Texas where he studied with Joseph Klein, Panayiotis Kokoras, David Stout and Jon Nelson, and he holds an M.F.A. in composition at California Institute of the Arts, where he studied primarily with Michael Pisaro and Anne LeBaron.

    National Composers Intensive 2016 Program Highlights Include:

    • Create new work for wild Up
    • Rehearse and refine works plus recording sessions with wild Up
    • Attend Noon to Midnight marathon contemporary music festival concerts and observe dress rehearsals
    • Participate in masterclasses, talks, and Q&A with key composition faculty
    • Select newly-composed works by Intensive participants performed on Walt Disney Concert Hall stage by wild Up as part of Noon to Midnight

    Noon to Midnight, taking place on Saturday, October 1, 2016, is an opportunity for audiences to experience performances by a number of LA's most exciting new music ensembles throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring twelve world premiere works commissioned by the LA Phil, in addition to new works by National Composers Intensive participants, in a festival-like atmosphere including food trucks and beer tastings. In addition to launching the 2016/2017 Green Umbrella series, Noon to Midnight helps to kick off the season-long Adams @ 70 celebration featuring the LA Phil New Music Group conducted by John Adams at 8pm and marks the beginning of Yuval Sharon's three-year residency as Artist-Collaborator with the Walt Disney Concert Hall lobby installation - Nimbus. Patrons can purchase a $15 ticket for all performances between noon and 8pm and all ticket holders for the 8pm Green Umbrella subscription performance receive access to all 12 hours of events. For more information, please visit http://www.laphil.com/tickets/noon-to-midnight.

    wild Up is the Los Angeles contemporary music ensemble heralded as "Searing. Penetrating. And thrilling" by Fred Child of Performance Today and "Magnificent" by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times. Led by Artistic Director Christopher Rountree, the 24-piece group blurs the borders between classical music, rock and performance art, believing music is a catalyst for shared experience, and that a concert venue is a place to excite, challenge and provoke a community of listeners. Since forming in 2010, wild Up has collaborated with orchestras, rock bands and cultural institutions around the world.

    The LA Phil's Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program is a unique offering among American orchestras. Founded in 2007 by Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky, this innovative program gives young composers ages 13-18 the tools and the freedom to shape the future of music at the highest level and make a substantial contribution to the future of new music through an intensive multi-year curriculum including individual and group instruction, access to world-class artists, and two LA Phil premieres. Composer Fellows are guided through the creative process from start to finish with the help of acclaimed composer and Program Director Andrew Norman and Teaching Artist Sarah Gibson.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music Director & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (www.laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (www.HollywoodBowl.com). The LA Phil's season extends from September through June at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

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  • Contact:

    Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org, 213.972.3422
    Lydia Fong, lfong@laphil.org, 213.972.3689
    PR Office: 213.972.3034