Composers Now presents

2023 Composers Now Festival Opening Event

Monday, January 30, 2023, 8 pm

Marc Scorca Hall of the National Opera Center

Hosted by Founding Artistic Director Tania León, the January 30 event kicks off the 13th annual month-long festival with a diverse program and the Composers Now Visionary Award - presented, this year, to Adolphus Hailstork and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Presented at the opening event of the festival, the award recognizes members of the arts community who, through their own creative practice and advocacy for others, have made a profound, positive and lasting impact in our culture.

The evening also celebrates Dorian Tabb with the organization's First Commission Award and the world premiere of his new work by the Bergamot Quartet. The First Commission Award provides pre-college composers with support aimed to encourage artistic potential and creative development. Composers, selected by a jury, receive a Composers Now commission and a world premiere.

The program continues with presentations from composer/choreographer pairs inti figgis-vizueta/Wu Chien-Wei & Selma Savolainen/Cheuk Wing Nam created during their Fall 2022 Composers Now Composers Creative Residencies, co-produced with the Asian Cultural Council and Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

The evening also includes performances of works by Paola Marquez, David Virelles, Gity Razaz, RIck Baitz and hip hop collective SPACE CADE7S.

For those with livestream tickets, a URL to the event will be emailed to you shortly before the event.

Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society.