WHAT’S IN A DECADE
A commissioning project for 2023 & 2024
Hub New Music is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an ambitious commissioning project spanning 2023 and 2024. Included in this project are works by today’s most celebrated composers along with a newly developed fellowship program with recent graduate of the Luna Composition Lab, Sage Shurman.
WORKS BY
Marcos Balter, Donnacha Dennehy, Jessica Meyer, Nico Muhly, Angélica Negrón, Andrew Norman, Tyshawn Sorey, and Sage Shurman
Interested presenting and co-commissioning partners should contact Michael Avitabile (hub@hubnewmusic.org) or Stuart Wolferman (stuart@unfinishedside.com).
A NOTE FROM HUB
Since our organization’s founding in 2013, Hub has maintained an unyielding dedication to building a repertoire that is uniquely ours. With our instrumentation being both non-traditional and full of untapped artistic potential, it was clear from the onset that commissioning music would be the lifeblood of what we do.
Being active commissioners of new music has also fostered a creative community we cherish deeply. Over the years, the composers with whom we collaborate have become close colleagues and friends. Our artistic process forges relationships built on mutual trust, willingness to explore uncharted territory, and a desire to imagine something special to that time and place. The energy in that process is indescribable.
Creating a body of music that reflects the world we collectively inhabit is also a high priority in Hub. For us that means building a lexicon that transcends borders imposed by genre. It means curating large projects in which programmed works converse with one another around a central theme, like friends at a dinner party. It means creating a repertoire in which all voices are heard and valued equally.
For our tenth anniversary, we’ve asked an esteemed cohort of composers to usher Hub into our second decade. These composers offer us the opportunity to further push the envelope of our creativity, and build an ever larger community around the work we love. We’re beyond thrilled to celebrate our tenth birthday party in this way, and can’t wait to have you there.
About the Composers
Andrew Norman (b. 1979) is a composer, educator, and advocate for the music of others. Recently praised as “the leading American composer of his generation” by the Los Angeles Times, and “one of the most gifted and respected composers of his generation” by the New York Times, Andrew has established himself as a significant voice in American classical music.
Newark-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980) is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity, effortless mastery and memorization of highly complex scores, and an extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. Sorey has received support for his creative projects from The Jerome Foundation, The Shifting Foundation, Van Lier Fellowship, and was named a 2017 MacArthur fellow and a 2018 United States Artists Fellow.
Praised by the Chicago Tribune as “minutely crafted” and “utterly lovely,” the New York Times as “whimsical” and “surreal,” and the Washington Post as “dark and deeply poetic,” the music of composer Marcos Balter (b.1974, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in experimental manipulations of timbre and hyper-dramatization of live performance.
Donnacha Dennehy’s music has been featured in festivals and venues around the world, such as the Edinburgh International Festival, Carnegie Hall New York, The Barbican London, The Wigmore Hall London, The Linbury at the Royal Opera House London, BAM New York, Tanglewood Festival, Holland Festival, Kennedy Center, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK.
With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (New York Times), Jessica Meyer is a GRAMMY® – nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Her first composer/performer portrait album recently debuted at #1 on the Billboard traditional classical chart, where “knife-edge anticipation opens on to unexpected, often ecstatic musical realms, always with a personal touch and imaginatively written for the instruments” (Gramophone Magazine).
Nico Muhly (b.1981) is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose influences range from American minimalism to the Anglican choral tradition. The recipient of commissions from The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tallis Scholars and St. John’s College, Cambridge and others, he has written more than 100 works for the concert stage, including the opera Marnie (2017), which premiered at the English National Opera and was staged by the Metropolitan Opera in the fall of 2018.
Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”.
luna lab fellow: Sage Shurman
Sage Shurman (b. 2005) is an award-winning composer and pianist based in Los Angeles. She loves telling stories through her compositions and is interested in film scoring as well as orchestral and chamber music. Sage is going on her second year as a member of the LA Phil Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program where she studies with Dr. Andrew Norman, Dr. Sarah Gibson, and Dr. Thomas Kotcheff. She also studies privately with Dr. Ian Krouse at UCLA. Additionally, she has participated in many other programs including Tanglewood and Luna Composition Lab. Sage has had her work performed by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Sandbox Percussion, and Triple Helix. Outside of music, Sage is a competitive soccer player. She loves to incorporate that experience and perspective into her compositions.