In celebration of the 10th anniversary, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists has announced their season schedule, which will take place from May 26 – June 9, at various venues in NYC, including the Kaufman Music Center and Tishman Auditorium.
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, founded in 2013, provides young performers and composers (ages 20-30) with an immersion into 21st century music. Designed to cultivate the next generation of 360° artists, the Festival focuses on contemporary music, entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and developing artist citizens. A champion for living composers, Next Festival commissions new compositions by both established and early career composers every year, presenting over 75 Guest Artists in the last 10 years, including Pulitzer, Grammy, and MacArthur award winners. Prioritizing artist futures, not the present bottom line, the Festival supports Fellows through a radical “pay-what-you-can” model, ensuring that deserving talent is able to participate regardless of financial circumstances. The Festival has been awarded grants by the Amphion, ASCAP and BMI foundations, and the Copland Fund for Music.
Headling this years festival is guitarist Yvette Young. Hot off the heels of a national tour with her math-rock band Covet, Young will work directly with 20 hand selected string musicians from all over the country in the creation of new work for string orchestra.
Residencies and performances will take place as part of American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC Festival in New York City and at PS21/Performance Spaces for the 21st Century in Chatham, New York.
It is extremely rare to find a festival that fosters an environment of hard work and camaraderie while making contemporary music its primary focus. The Next Festival is an extraordinary home for new music.
-Jeffrey Zeigler, Cellist, Past Next Festival Guest Artist
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists Schedule
The 2023 SONiC Festival opens with Ecstatic Music, featuring multi-Grammy nominated violinist Curtis Stewart, alongside pianist and Kaufman Music Center Resident Aaron Diehl, the Harlem Quartet, and a chamber orchestra of musicians from The Next Festival of Emerging Artists and Kaufman Center’s Special Music School, conducted by Peter Askim. A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer, the program brings new creative voices to the fore, in part through reinterpreting works from the past, including the world premiere of Stewart’s ACO-commissioned work Embrace.
Thursday, June 1, 7:30pm
Ecstatic Music Series / American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC Festival
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023
Tickets $25:
Friday, June 2, 7:30pm
Program of World Premieres for String Orchestra
PS21/Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, 2980 NY-66, Chatham, NY 12037
Pay As You Wish
All proceeds benefit the Crellin Community Parks & Recreation Department
Next Festival Performance Fellows will present a 10th Anniversary program of world premieres for string orchestra by 2023 Guest Artist and guitarist Yvette Young, 2022 Pulitzer-Finalist Leilehua Lanzilotti, violinist and 2022 fellow alum Che Buford, saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor, and The Next Festival’s Artistic Director Peter Askim. This event is the culmination of a weeklong residency at PS21’s state-of-the art venue on 100 acres of unspoiled meadows, trails, and woodlands in the heart of the Hudson Valley.
Saturday, June 3, 7:30pm
Program of World Premieres / American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC Festival
Tishman Auditorium at Mannes, 63 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003
Tickets $20 Suggested Donation
After two weeks of rehearsals, performances, and individual coaching, Next Festival Fellows share their 10th Anniversary program as part of ACO’s 2023 SONiC Festival, a NYC-wide celebration of the breadth and vibrancy of the nation’s modern composers. The Next Festival will perform new innovative works by Featured Guest Artist Yvette Young, as well as Leilehua Lanzilotti, Che Buford, Matthew Evan Taylor, and Next Festival Director Peter Askim.
Thursday, June 8, 7pm
Composer/Choreographer Workshop / ACO’s SONiC Festival and EarShot Program
Tishman Auditorium at Mannes, 63 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003
Free with RSVP
The Next Festival’s 2023 Choreographer, Composer and Performance Fellows premiere new music and dance works, intermingling the world premiere of ACO EarShot compositions with a works-in-progress dance showing. This is the culmination of a week-long workshop, consisting of rehearsals, collaboration and spontaneous creation. ACO’s EarShot is the nation’s first ongoing program for creating relationships between orchestras and composers, in partnership with American Composers Forum, League of American Orchestras and New Music USA.
For Tickets and more information, please visit the Next Festival’s website.
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