On Monday, multiple award-winner Ted Hearne was named the third New Voices composer by Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and Boosey & Hawkes.
Hearne — a recipient of the Gaudeamus Prize; ASCAP’s Leonard Bernstein Award and Morton Gould Award; fellowships from the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm Music Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and two residencies at the MacDowell Colony — will participate in the multi-organizational residency of New Voices.
He was selected by a panel consisting of MTT, and composers John Adams, Steven Mackey, and David Del Tredici.
A singer, composer, and conductor whose works have crossed the boundaries of classical, pop, and rock, Hearne has collaborated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, and San Francisco's Volti. It is a current joint commission from Volti and The Crossing of Philadelphia that will bring the next Hearne premiere here, in an open rehearsal on May 14 in the Center for New Music, then performances in San Francisco on May 17 and in Berkeley on May 18.
Some of Volti's past performances of Hearne's works, such as excerpts from Privilege can be heard on the Volti website. A spirited example of Hearne's fun with postmodernism is his takeoff on L'Histoire du soldat in Randos III, performed by the Deviant Septet.
After what is described as "hands-on experience" at the New York offices of Boosey & Hawkes, Hearne will work with the New World Symphony in workshops, rehearsals, and performance of two new works in the 2014–2015 season. A work for chamber ensemble and another for orchestra will then received West Coast premieres by the San Francisco Symphony during the 2015–'16 season.
Cynthia Lee Wong, the second New Voices composer, will have her orchestral work, Carnival Fever, premiered this month by the New World Symphony under the baton of MTT. Both Wong and the first New Voices composer, Zosha Di Castri, will have their works performed in San Francisco next season; Di Castri's composition is a percussion quartet, Manif.