Opportunities for Student Composers

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Orchestra Performances

Frost Symphony Orchestra: Each year a composition student is chosen to be performed by one of the three major instrumental ensembles on a rotation basis: Frost Symphony Orchestra, Frost Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Ibis.

Frost Symphony Orchestra Readings: Reading Sessions are offered by all three major instrumental ensembles and choruses.

Chamber Music Performance

The Frost School of Music enrolls exceptional performance majors, rising stars in the concert world who are eager to perform and premiere new works by Frost Student Composers.

 

Ensemble Ibis: Our top performance ensemble dedicated to performing 20th- and 21st-century music sponsors a yearly competition for student composers.

 

Major Visiting Ensembles perform and read student works. 

Choral Music

Frost Chorale: Each year a composition competition is held for Student Composers. The winning works are performed in concert and taken on tour with the choir. The non-winning works receive a reading.

Seraphic Fire/Frost Student Composer-in-Residence (SCiR) program: Each year a new graduate student is chosen to compose for and work with the professional choral ensemble, GRAMMY®-nominated Seraphic Fire.

Digital Arts

The Electroacoustic Ensemble gives several concerts each year featuring works exploring music technology such as laptops, synthesizers, real-time processing, EDM, interactive electronics, game controllers, smartphones, and other new media including new works by Frost Student Composers.

Student Composition Organization

Society of Composers, Inc. Student Chapter (UMSCI): The Frost Student Composers have a long tradition of activism and embrace the spirit of creating opportunities for their music to be heard. In fact, UMSCI was the first student chapter in the country.

UMSCI presents up to six concerts each year. One of those concerts is "Scares and Scores" that pairs the University of Miami film students with Frost Student Composers to create short films with original music for Halloween. The films are projected at the University of Miami Cosford Cinema and accompanied by a live ensemble or chamber orchestra performing the Frost Student Composers’ scores.

UMSCI also brings in ensembles each year for a mini-residency at which time student works are read, critiqued, and premiered. Recent performers and ensembles-in-residence include:

  • Baltimore’s Lunar Ensemble
  • Boston’s ONDA experimental improvisation ensemble
  • Pulse Trio featuring clarinet, violin, and piano
  • Marimbist Eduardo Leandro from the Conservatory of Music in Geneva, Switzerland and Director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at Stony Brook
  • Saxophonist Eliot Gattegno
  • Horn, Percussion, and Piano Trio featuring The Cleveland Orchestra’s principal horn.
  • The Borup-Ernst Duo featuring violin and piano
  • Kookabura featuring saxophone, violin, and piano
  • Ars Duo
  • Transcient Canvas

Frost Distinguished Composers-in-Residence (DCiR)

Each year a major figure in the world of composition teaches for six weeks at the Frost School of Music. Students are given private lessons with these composers three times each semester, attend masterclasses featuring the DCiR, and have opportunities to meet with the DCiR informally as well.

DCiR includes:

  • 2023 Matthias Pintscher
  • 2022 Anthony Davis
  • 2021 Tania León
  • 2020 George Lewis
  • 2019 Melinda Wagner
  • 2018 Christopher Theofanidis
  • 2017 Augusta Read Thomas
  • 2016 Martin Bresnick
  • 2015 Steven Hartke

Miami’s Cultural Offerings

Miami has become one of the rich cultural centers of the world, with many professional ensembles and organizations performing new repertoire. Living in a major city with a highly active international arts scene is an important aspect of a Frost Student Composer's educational experience. Many Frost Student Composers collaborate with community artists and present their works at the numerous off-campus performance spaces promoting new arts in Miami.

Here is a very short list of some community ensembles, concert series, and organizations devoted to new music and art:

 

New World Symphony 

The highly acclaimed New World Symphony in South Beach is a major asset for Frost Student Composers. Under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas and Michael Linville and featuring major new music conductors including Esa-Pekka Salinen and Reinbert de Leeuw, New World Symphony regularly presents works by the most dynamic composers of our time, including Thomas Adés, Kaija Saariaho, Julia Wolfe, John Adams, Matthias Pintscher, Sven Tuur, James Macmillan, and Michael Daugherty. New World Symphony’s commitment to presenting major orchestral and chamber music of the 20th and 21st century is unheard-of among today’s major orchestras, and many composers come to Miami to conduct or coach their works. Frost School of Music students are frequently invited to attend rehearsals and meet and greets with guest composers, conductors, and performers.

 

Twelve Nights and Acoustica21 Concert Series 

The FETA (Foundation for Emerging Technologies and Arts) Foundation’s programs include two monthly concert series presented in the Wynwood Arts District and other community venues, the former focusing on new electroacoustic works and the latter on instrumental/vocal performance. Frost Student and Faculty Composers are often featured, both by presenting their works and having their works performed by featured artists.

 

Art Basel Miami and Satellite Festivals  

Art Basel Miami describes their mammoth and highly influential international art show, a sister of Art Basel in Switzerland, as “269 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show significant work from the masters of Modern and contemporary art, as well the new generation of emerging stars. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, films, and editioned works of the highest quality are on display in the main exhibition hall. Ambitious large-scale artworks, films, and performances become part of the city's outdoor landscape at nearby Collins Park and SoundScape Park.”


More About The Miami New Music and Arts Scene:

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