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eligibility and guidelines 2007 readings participants 2006 readings participants 2005 readings participants 2004 radings participants 2003 readings participants 2002 readings participants readings by other orchestras home concert schedule	Clint Needham Wins American Composers Orchestra's 2007 Underwood Commission Composer Clint Needham has been named the winner of American Composers Orchestra's 2007 Underwood Emerging Composers Commission, bringing him a $15,000 commission for a work to be premiered by American Composers Orchestra. Chosen from nine finalists, in one of the most coveted opportunities for emerging composers in America, Mr. Needham won the top prize at ACO's annual Underwood New Music Readings with his work, Earth and Green. In awarding Mr. Needham the Underwood Commission, ACO has singled him out as a composer who "knows how to both orchestrate and create a compelling music narrative. His music demonstrates remarkable range and color," says ACO artistic director Robert Beaser. Clint Needham, originally from Texas, is currently a Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellow in composition at Indiana University. He received a Bachelor's degree from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and a Master's degree from Indiana University. He has studied with David Dzubay, Per Mårtensson, P.Q. Phan, Sven-David Sandström, Richard Wernick, and Loris Chobanian. He has also studied with Robert Beaser, Sydney Hodkinson, Christopher Rouse, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival as a Susan and Ford Schumann Composition Fellow. Prior to his participation in ACO's New Music Readings, Mr. Needham's music has been performed by the American Brass Quintet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the Oberon Trio, among others. Recent awards include a New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, 2007 William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Washington International Competition for Composers Award, Brass Chamber Music Forum Award, and an International Trumpet Guild composition award. His music has been performed at such venues as the Aspen Music Festival, Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, Meadowlark Music Festival, Midwest Composers Symposium, and the Music Educators National Conference. Mr. Needham's music is published by Brass Chamber Music Press, Southern Music Company, and Triplo Press. His brass quintet will be included on an American Brass Quintet CD entitled Jewels, which is scheduled to be released later this summer. About the New Music Readings The 16th annual Underwood New Music Readings were held at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York on May 8 and 9, 2007 under the direction of ACO's artistic director, composer Robert Beaser. Mentor composers included Tania León, and Yehudi Wyner as well as Derek Bermel, ACO's Music Alive composer-in-residence. Guest conductors were Paul Lustig Dunkel and David Alan Miller. This year's new music readings attracted nearly 200 submissions from emerging composers around the country. This year's finalists were: Philippe Bodin, who received his Doctor in Musical Arts from Yale University, where he studied with Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman and Nicholas Maw; Roshanne Etezady, who completed her doctorate at the University of Michigan and has worked with William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, Michael Daugherty, and Ned Rorem; Chia-Yu Hsu, who is pursuing her doctorate at Duke University under Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth and Anthony Kelley, and has studied with Ezra Laderman, Martin Bresnick and Roberto Sierra at Yale, David Loeb and Jennifer Higdon at Curtis, and Pan-Yen Chan at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts; Amy Beth Kirsten, who received her masters in Composition from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and is currently a post-graduate student at the Peabody Conservatory; Xinyan Li, currently a doctoral student studying at University of Missouri-Kansas City under composers Chen Yi, James Mobberley, Zhou Long, and Paul Rudy; Norbert Palej, who received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory of Music, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Cornell University, studying with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra; Joseph Pereira, who received a master's degree in percussion from The Juilliard School and a double bachelor's degree in performance and composition/theory from Boston University, and who has been the Assistant Principal Timpanist of the New York Philharmonic since January 1998; Ryan Streber, who received his bachelors and masters degrees in composition from The Juilliard School, studying with Milton Babbitt and Christopher Rouse. Since 1991, ACO's New Music Readings have provided invaluable career-development opportunities for emerging composers, and served as a vital resource to the music field by identifying a new generation of important American composers. To date, over 100 composers have participated in the Reading Sessions, hearing a full orchestral rendering of their work, receiving critical professional feedback and mentoring from conductors, composers and performers, and obtaining a professional quality recording to assist in their advancement. Past participants have included such award-winning composers as Melinda Wagner, Derek Bermel, Pierre Jalbert, Randall Woolf, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Jennifer Higdon. Since its inception in 1977, ACO has helped launch the careers of many of today's top composers, including Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Joseph Schwantner, who both received Pulitzer Prizes for ACO commissions; Robert Beaser, Ingram Marshall, Joan Tower, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Rouse, and Tobias Picker were all championed by the orchestra when they were beginning their careers. Last year's winner, Fang Man, won the top prize with her work Black and White. The 2005 winner, Michael Gatonska, saw his newly commissioned work, After the Wings of Migratory Birds, premiered by ACO on October 13, 2006 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Bradley Lubman. The 17th annual New Music Readings are scheduled for May 6 and 7, 2008 at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts in New York City. The submission deadline for composers interested in applying is Friday, November 16, 2007. Complete submission guidelines and application will be available in print and online this August by contacting www.americancomposers.org/nmr/, email info@americancomposers.org, or telephone 212-977-8495. Lead support for the Underwood New Music Readings comes from Mr. Paul Underwood, The Helen F. Whitaker Fund, the Fromm Music Foundation, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. ACO's emerging composers program is supported by The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Greenwall Foundation, The Henfield Foundation, Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and ACO's Inner Circle. Major support of American Composers Orchestra is provided by American Symphony Orchestra League, Amphion Foundation, Argosy Contemporary Music Fund, Arlington Associates, ASCAP, ASCAP Foundation, Bay and Paul Foundations, BMI, BMI Foundation, NY City Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Citigroup Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Consolidated Edison, Fidelity Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Irving Harris Foundation, Victor Herbert Foundation, Jephson Educational Trust, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, John and Evelyn Kossak Foundation, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Neil Family Fund, The New York Community Trust, The New York State Music Fund established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Rodgers Family Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Susan and Ford Schumann Foundation, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, Paul Underwood Charitable Trust, The Sonata and Watchdog Charitable Trusts and The Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. ACO programs are also made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Derek Bermel is the Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with American Composers Orchestra. Music Alive is a national program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer.

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