SLSO Composer Workshop
Launched in January 2022, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Workshop is a yearly, multi-day immersive residency for composers pursuing post-graduate studies that includes performances of their work by the SLSO. The residency also includes guidance and feedback from an annually appointed workshop mentor; seminars with mentors and SLSO administration, musicians, and librarians; and a free community concert by the SLSO of the composers’ works at Powell Hall. The workshop is led each year by a composer/conductor who is scheduled also to conduct the SLSO in subscription concerts. Composer/conductor John Adams, a longtime collaborator with the SLSO, led the inaugural workshop in 2022.
Long-term commitment
As part of the SLSO’s commitment to the further promotion and performance of the workshop’s composers, future St. Louis Symphony: Live at the Pulitzer seasons—a concert series in collaboration with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation that presents bold, adventurous chamber music programming of the 20th and 21st centuries—will include a piece by each composer. Additionally, the SLSO will record, post-produce, and share performances of the composers’ works for free, on-demand audio-visual streaming to help the composers promote their work.
Aiyana Braun
An Israeli American composer, Braun, at the age of 15, was commissioned to write her first orchestral piece for the New York Philharmonic. She received her B.M. under full scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with GRAMMY® and Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon; the Juilliard School’s Dean of Music, David Ludwig; and GRAMMY® nominee Richard Danielpour. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division where she studied composition with Dr. Manuel Sosa, during which time she was a Teaching Artist at the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program.
Christian Quiñones
Quiñones is a Puerto Rican composer whose music explores concepts including cultural identity and the intersection between vernacular music, electronic textures, rock, and Latin music. He was recently selected as a composer in residence at the Copland House and in 2020 he was selected for the Earshot Underwood Orchestra Readings with the American Composers Orchestra. Quiñones is a graduate of theConservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico (B.M.) and the University of Illinois (M.M), where he was the recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship. Currently, he is a Ph.D. President’s fellow at Princeton University.
Peter S. Shin
Shin investigates issues of social and national belonging, the co-opting and intermingling of disparate musical vernaculars, and the liminality between the two halves of his second-generation Korean-U.S. American identity. The New York Times described him as “a composer to watch” and his music “entirely fresh and personal” following his premiere at Carnegie Hall. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he is the son of South Korean immigrants with over 30 years of service to the United States Postal Service. With degrees from the University of Michigan (B.M.), the University of Southern California (M.M.), and the Yale School of Music (M.M.A.), Peter is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nicky Sohn
A doctoral student at The Shepherd School of Music of Rice University, Sohn holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music. Characterized by her jazz-inspired, rhythmically driven themes, Sohn’s work has been described as “like John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine on steroids” (YourObserver), “dynamic and full of vitality” (The Korea Defense Daily), and having “elegant wonder” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). As a result, Sohn has enjoyed commissions from the world’s preeminent performing arts institutions, including sold-out performances at the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, The National Orchestra of Korea, and the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra.
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