September 29, 2011 Sacramento — New nonprofit organization Composers and Schools in Concert (CSIC) will make a compelling entry to the musical education scene with its first annual Commissions in Concert event, pairing renowned composers with high school music ensembles for a single night of original music.
Commissions in Concert 2011, to be held at the Veterans Memorial Theatre in Davis, California, on October 27th, at 6:30 p.m., will pair three world-class professional composers with two Northern California high school music programs comprising three musical ensembles. The result will be an unprecedented world premiere of newly-commissioned compositions, written expressly for and performed by student musicians. Composer Steve Horowitz, (Grammy award-winner; composed the film score for “Super Size Me”), the Vatican-commissioned composer Christopher Caliendo, (composed the film score for “The Iron Horse,” voted one of the top 10 film scores of 2007 by Film Score Monthly), and Berklee College of Music professor and award-winning composer Omar Thomas, will each premiere an original work. The talented musical ensembles of Sacramento’s Rio Americano High School and Berkeley High School will perform the new pieces. The well-known British composer, musician, and icon in avant-garde music, Fred Frith, will join Berkeley High in performance of Steve Horowitz’s composition. The Sacramento State University Jazz band will round out the bill, and a master class facilitated by the composers, open to the public, and free to students, will kick off the event.
“Our nonprofit is about a lot of things– reviving music education, providing funding for gutted school music programs, providing opportunities for composers, and the creation of new music,” says Lisa Oman, Founder and Executive Director of the organization. “But one of the main things we do is to connect professional composers with high school music programs. How it works is that the composer writes an original piece for the student ensemble, the students rehearse with the composer, and the students perform the world premiere at an event called Commissions in Concert—hence this year’s pilot event, Commissions in Concert 2011. All ticket sale revenue goes back to the school music programs. It’s an engaging, educational, fun and revenue-generating event for composers and schools.”
Commissions in Concert 2011 will serve as a model for similar collaborations and CSIC projects across the country. CSIC– as a community of professional composers, music educators, music organizations and school music programs who connect, collaborate and support music education and the creation of new music– offers networking tools, a membership program, and grant programs to support these projects.
Visit http://composersandschools.com for more information about Composers and Schools in Concert and Commissions in Concert 2011.