Composer Curator

Composer Curator offers groundbreaking music creators working in and around genres, with technology and collaborating with artists in other arts disciplines, a platform to share with audiences their creative process, curate a program and engage in conversation with fellow composers. Performance examples, insightful questions and compelling comments will build pathways to better listening and expand horizons for composers, performers and audiences.

Watch previous Composer Curator events in our Digital Library.

Composer Curator: Annie Gosfield

Tuesday, January 16, 2024, 7 pm EST

YouTube stream
Chat live with Annie Gosfield and her guest creatives

featuring composers:

Jessie Cox, Carl Stone, and Theresa Wong

Composer Curator: Mosaic Composers Collective

Alexis Cuadrado, host

Friday, December 16, 2022, 7:30 pm
Live Performance + livestream

DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street

Murphy Severtson | Ashtyn Brown | Kevin Arthur, Jr. | Alexa Letourneau |Aidan Arbona | Naamia Rivera || Alexis Cuadrado

Composers Now and Mosaic Composers Collective, featuring Kevin Arthur Jr., Aidan Arbona, Naamia Rivera, Murphy Severtson, Alexa Letourneau, and Ashtyn Brown, co-presented an evening of chamber music, performed at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. This concert, which marks the collective's debut, featured works by all six collective members performed by some of the most exciting new music performers in New York City, as well as interviews and a discussion. Hosted by Alexis Cuadrado.

Composer Curator: Miya Masaoka

Monday, June 27, 2022, 7 pm (NYC)
YouTube stream
Chat live with Miya and her guest creatives

Patricia Alessandrini | James Fei | Miya Masaoka | Guillermo Galindo

Get the inside story through performance and conversation with host composer & sound artist Miya Masaoka for a peek into her creative process and that of composers she has invited to join her - Patricia Alessandrini, James Fei and Guillermo Galindo. Performance examples, insightful questions and compelling comments stimulate deeper listening and expand horizons for composers, performers and audiences.

Tune in for the YouTube presentation on Monday, June 27 at 7pm (NYC) for her Composer Curator event and chat live with Miya, Patricia, James and Guillermo.

Miya Masaoka is an American composer and sound artist. Her work explores bodily perception of vibration, movement and time while foregrounding complex timbre relationships. In 2018 she joined the Columbia University Visual Arts Department as an Associate Professor, where she is the director of the Sound Art Program, a joint program with the Computer Music Center. A 2019 Studio Artist for the Park Avenue Armory, Masaoka has also received the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2013, a Fulbright Fellowship to Japan in 2016, and an Alpert Award in 2003. Her work has been presented at the Venice Biennale, MoMA PS1, Kunstmuseum Bonn, and the Park Avenue Armory. She has been commissioned by and collaborated with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Glasgow Choir, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Bang on a Can, Jack Quartet, Del Sol, Momenta and the S.E.M. Ensemble. She has a 2019 commission for an outdoor installation at the Caramoor, Katonah, New York.

Composer Curator: Texu Kim

Tuesday, December 14, 2021, 7 pm
YouTube stream
Chat live with Texu and his guest creatives

Texu Kim | (Anne) Leilehua Lanzilotti | Miguel del Aguila | David Hurd

Get the inside story through performance and conversation with host composer/performer Texu Kim on sonic exploration, alongside the imagination and ingenuity of three equally groundbreaking creators, in a unique program he has crafted for Composers Now.

Tune in for the YouTube Premiere on Tuesday, December 14 at 7pm (NYC) for his Composer Curator event and chat live with Texu, Miguel del Aguila, David Hurd and (Anne) Leilehua Lanzilotti.

As a Korean-American, Texu Kim writes music inspired by everyday experiences; music about modern (South) Korea, reflecting its multicultural nature. He explores the localization of imported traditions, incorporating cross-cultural elements in his work, often expanding upon Korean folk music elements and systems, creating music that is humorous yet sophisticated. Kim served as the Composer-in-Residence at Korean Symphony Orchestra in 2014-18. His works have also been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, the New World Symphony, Oregon Symphony, San Diego Symphony, National Orchestra of Korea, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Alarm Will Sound, C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, NOTUS, Cardinal Singers, among others. Upcoming performances include those by Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Kim's music has earned awards and honors from Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Copland House, SCI/ASCAP, etc., and his music has been presented at Brucknerfest, SONiC Festival, SCI National Conferences, to name a few. His arrangements have featured on numerous albums, with labels including DECCA and DG. Having received a D.M. from Indiana University and taught at Syracuse University, Kim teaches at San Diego State University as an assistant professor of music composition/theory.

Composer Curator with Mari Kimura

Friday, September 24, 2021, 7 pm
YouTube stream
Chat live with Mari and her guest creatives

Get the inside story through performance and conversation with host composer/performer Mari Kimura on how she captures her own creativity, alongside the imagination and ingenuity of three equally groundbreaking creators, in a unique program she has crafted for Composers Now.

Tune in for the YouTube Premiere on Friday, September 24 at 7pm (NYC) for her Composer Curator event and chat live with Mari, Val-Inc (Val Jeanty), Meriheini Luoto, and Chelsea Loew of Ensemble Decipher.

Mari Kimura is at the forefront of violinists who are extending the technical and expressive capabilities of the instrument. As a composer, performer, researcher, and entrepreneur, she has opened up new sonic worlds and new musical possibilities for the violin. Notably, she has mastered the production of pitches that sound up to an octave below the violin's lowest string without re-tuning. This technique, which she calls Subharmonics, has earned Mari considerable renown in the concert music world and beyond. She is also a pioneer in the field of interactive computer music. At the same time, she has earned international acclaim as a soloist and recitalist in both standard and contemporary repertoire. Her most recent efforts involve entrepreneurship, bringing her prototype motion sensor MUGIC™, (pronounced "mu" as in music +"gic" as in magic) to the market.

PDF Program

Composer Curator with Eleonor Sandresky

Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 6 pm
YouTube stream
Chat live with Eleonor and her guest creatives

WATCH NOW

Composers Now launches its newest initiative, Composer Curator, with Eleonor Sandresky hosting an evening of music streamed to the comfort of your living room.

The program includes Jessie Montgomery's "Rhapsody No. 1," performed by violinist Jannina Norpoth; Trevor Weston's "Shape Shifter," performed by cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach; Gilda Lyons' "hush," performed on alto saxophone by Carrie Koffman, and Lyons performing her work "Hydroxychloroquine."