LACO Presents World Premieres by Eight Female-Identifying Teens from Kaufman Music Center's Luna Composition Lab

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) teams up with New York City’s Kaufman Music Center (KMC) to present a special digital performance featuring the world premieres of eight works by the 2019-20 Fellows in the KMC’s Luna Composition Lab program, including three participants in Luna Lab Meets LACO initiated last season. The virtual program, filmed in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, includes LACO artists performing new works by teen composers Olivia Bennett (age 18), KiMani Bridges (age 18), Madeline Clara Cheng (age 16), Ebunoluwa Oguntola (age 15), Anya Lagman (age 18), Sage Shurman (age 15), Chloe Villamayor (age 17) and Emily Webster-Zuber (age 16). Thanks to the generosity of Santa Monica/Westside Legacy Fund for Women and Girls, the program was recorded last fall and has now been made available to the public at no cost and can be streamed on demand following its premiere on Thursday, February 11, 2021, at 4:00 pm (PT), at https://www.laco.org, LACO’s YouTube and Facebook live channels. Luna Lab, founded in 2016 by 2018 GRAMMY Award-nominee Missy Mazzoli and 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid with Kaufman Music Center, addresses the gender imbalance in the field of classical music by providing aspiring female-identifying, non-binary and gender non-conforming composers ages 12 -18 with a year of one-on-one mentorship, performance opportunities and high-quality recordings of their works. The digital program, conducted by LACO Artistic Advisor Derrick Spiva Jr., features LACO musicians Tereza Stanislav, violin; Jason Issokson, violin; Robert Brophy, viola; Trevor Handy, cello; Ben Smolen, flute; and Wade Culbreath, timpani; plus special guest Vicki Ray, piano. Each year, Luna Lab Fellows are selected from across the country and paired with acclaimed female-identifying, non-binary and gender non-conforming composers who act as individual mentors. Luna Composition Lab joined forces with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2019-20 to develop Luna Lab Meets LACO, which provided mentorship and performance opportunities to young female-identifying, non-binary and gender non-conforming composers from Southern California throughout Spring 2020.