You’ll find yourself at the very center of contemporary music-making with a special free concert featuring new works by three young composers—Natalie Dietterich, Charles Peck and Carlos Simon—conducted in rotation by six emerging conductors, the culmination of the prestigious Conductors/Composers Workshop. The concert is a chance to hear new voices now shaping the future of orchestral music, and a fascinating look at variations offered by a conductor’s interpretation. Don’t miss the excitement when the creative sparks fly!
No tickets are required for this concert.
2018 Composers:
NATALIE DIETTERICH (b. 1992) Natalie Dietterich is an American composer and vocalist from Harleysville, Pennsylvania. Her visceral work mines patterns and is often inspired by social issues. Recently her music has been performed by the Shanghai Symphony, wild Up as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, The Crossing as part of the Big Sky New Music Initiative, and as a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. Dietterich has been awarded residencies at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute; the Norfolk Chamber Music Institute; and at Arts, Letters, and Numbers. She is the recipient of a 2018 New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, the 2016 Leo Kaplan Prize of the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and has been an honorable mention for awards from BMI, ASCAP, and The American Prize, among others. Dietterich is a graduate of the Yale School of Music with an M.M. and M.M.A. in composition, and of West Chester University with a dual degree in composition and violin. She will be pursuing her Ph.D. in composition at Princeton University this fall.
CHARLES PECK (b. 1988) Charles Peck is an American composer whose work has been called “daring” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “vivid” (UArts Edge magazine), and “spell-binding” (Rappahannock News). His music has been performed by Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Symphony in C, New York Youth Symphony, JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Locrian Chamber Players, sTem, Derek Bermel, Ji Hye Jung, and Holly Roadfeldt, among others. Peck has been named winner of composition competitions at the Lake George Music Festival, Boston New Music Initiative, Frame Dance Music, NC New Music Initiative, Symphony in C, and Castleton Festival Young Composer’s Forum. In addition, he has received grant awards from the McKnight Foundation, American Composers Forum, and the Cornell Council for the Arts. His music has been featured at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, Mizzou International Composers Festival, Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s New Music Workshop, American Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival, Mise-En Music Festival, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, New Music Gathering, and as of this summer, ISCM World Music Days in Beijing. Peck currently teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University.
CARLOS SIMON (b. 1987) Carlos Simon’s most recent accolades include winning the Underwood Emerging Composer Commission from the American Composers Orchestra in 2016, the prestigious Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Award in 2015, and the Presser Award from the Theodore Presser Foundation in 2015. In 2017, Simon received a commission from Morehouse College to celebrate its 150th anniversary and was honored to receive a commission by the University of Michigan Symphony Band celebrating the university’s 200th anniversary in 2015. His music has been performed by Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Hub New Music Ensemble, Asian/American New Music Institute, American Composers Orchestra, Flint Symphony, and many others. The Detroit Chamber String and Winds named Simon as its young composer-in-residence for 2015-16. He is a member of many music organizations including ASCAP, where he was honored as one of the “Composers to Watch” in 2015. Simon is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. He now serves as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers.