Learning Lab
Each season, ACO presents a series of digital professional development sessions led by composer mentors and industry leaders. An evolving resource for composers at all stages of their careers, sessions have covered topics including orchestration, networking, publishing, copyright, orchestra unions, media rights, fundraising, public speaking, educational program design, and more.
Composing the Future: Engaging Schools and Students as a Composer
Featuring Speakers: Charlie Ortiz and Melissa Ngan
New music isn't just for adults - a growing population of grade school students are also pushing the boundaries of music creation. Charlie Ortiz, Executive Director of WHIN Music Community Charter School, will join Melissa Ngan to offer insights on successful collaboration between composers, teachers, and students.
Helping Hands: Traversing Artist Management
Featured Speakers: Peggy Monastra and Melissa Ngan
Professional representation has helped countless artists reach the next levels of their careers, but the process of identifying and securing management can be a heavy lift for those who are unfamiliar with how to do so. This session will highlight both the ways in which representation can help orchestral composers continue their professional trajectories, and how composers can gain the attention of management agencies.
Put Me On: Commissions and Consortia Workshop
Featured Speakers: Melissa Ngan and Vanessa Rose
Being a part of a consortium is not only artistically beneficial to composers, but financially beneficial as well! In this session, Melissa Ngan will unpack some of the need-to-know information surrounding orchestral commissions and the creation of consortia for composers.
Onstage Do’s and Do’s: Rehearsal Techniques and Procedures
Featured Speakers: Tito Muñoz and Adam Schoenberg
Receiving a performance by an orchestra isn’t the end of the road for a composer, but the beginning of an ongoing relationship. This webinar will offer rehearsal techniques to composers, and will speak to how they should engage conductors, orchestras, and its musicians throughout the rehearsal process.
Signing the Dotted Line: Licensing and Publishing
Featuring Speakers: Melissa Ngan and Deirdre Chadwick
Understanding media rights, broadcast regulations, and payments is a vital part of making a living as a composer. BMI’s Deirdre Chadwick will lead a dialogue built to demystify some of the fine print that composers face as their careers reach larger scale.