We are thrilled to announce the 2014-15 EtM Con Edison Resident Composers. Each composer will receive three months of residency space in a cultural facility in his/her borough of residence in addition to a $1250 stipend. The composer and host facility will also collaborate on presenting a public program for the community as the culmination of the residency.

Presenting the 2014-15 awardees and their host facilities:

Manhattan

Richard Carrick

Juan Pablo Contreras

Turtle Bay Music School

 

Eric Lemmon

Bloomingdale School of Music

 

Ian Ng

The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School 

at Lighthouse Guild International

 

Brooklyn

Mary Kouyoumdjian

Matt McBane
Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy

 

Queens

Kento Iwasaki

Nina Siniakova

Flushing Town Hall

Manhattan:

Richard Carrick is a composer, conductor and pianist living in New York City. His music, described as “charming, with exoticism and sheer infectiousness” by The New York Times, and “addictive” by The Wire, is regularly presented by leading ensembles in the US and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival, ISCM World Music Days, JACK Quartet and the Konzerthaus Wein.  He also writes multi-media works integrating video and live performers. Portrait CD’s include The Flow Cycle for Strings and Stone Guitars. Carrick is co-artistic director of the critically acclaimed contemporary music ensemble Either/Or, with whom he regularly conducts and premieres new works by leading and emerging composers.  He has taught composition at Columbia University and New York University, lectures internationally, and currently teaches for the New York Philharmonic and privately.  Scores are distributed by Project Schott New York.

Juan Pablo Contreras is “one of the most prominent young composers of Latin America” (El Informador). His music has been performed by major orchestras such as the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico, the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Cordoba Symphony Orchestra. Contreras has won awards and grants including the BMI William Schuman Prize, the Dutch Harp Composition Contest, the Brian M. Israel Prize, the Nicolas Flagello Award from the Manhattan School of Music, and the Mexican Endowment for the Arts and Culture Young Artist Fellowship. He holds degrees in composition from the Manhattan School of Music (M.M.) and the California Institute of the Arts (B.F.A.).

Violist and Composer Eric Lemmon’s music has been described as using “a broad range of extended techniques and complex rhythms to create [a] beautifully ethereal nebulousness of sound”.  His works have appeared in venues ranging from (le) Poisson Rouge and SubCulture to the FIGMENT arts festival on Governor’s Island. They have been reviewed by the New York Times and featured on WQXR’s Q2.  Eric has been awarded NYU’s Creative Collaboration Grant, Mannes’ Peter M. Gross Grant, and MetLife’s Creative Connections Grant.  Recent commissions include works for Jacqueline LeClaire and the International Double Reed Society, and Cadillac Moon Ensemble.

Ian Ng is a NYC-based composer.  He graduated from NYU with a Master’s Degree in Music Composition.  A winner of the NYU Composition Competition, Robert Avalon International Music Composition Competition and ACL Young Composers’ Competition, Ian’s music has been performed at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, Symphony Space, NY City Center, Florence Gould Hall, Indianapolis Old National Center, and Provincetown Playhouse.  Ian has composed music for the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, NY Symphonic Brass, JACK Quartet, City Contemporary Dance Company and Some Dance Company.  His most recent work (and second collaboration with American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Marcelo Gomes) premiered this past July at the 20th Anniversary of the Fire Island Dance Festival.

 

Brooklyn:

Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic pallet that draws on her heritage, interest in folk music, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. She has received commissions from Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, American Composers Forum/JFund, REDSHIFT, Nouveau Classical Project, Friction Quartet, and Experiments in Opera. In her film work, she recently orchestrated on The Place Beyond the Pines.

Matt McBane has been described as “a natural composer, a fresh voice ” by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times and as having “a fantastic intuitive sense that is backed up by a serious amount of compositional craft” by Sequenza21. Matt McBane is the violinist and composer for his Brooklyn-based band, Build, described by New York Magazine as a “rocking post-classical quintet which takes inspiration from minimalist chamber music, instrumental rock, modal jazz, and more.” He is also the Founder and Director of the Carlsbad Music Festival, an annual festival of “adventurous music by the beach.” Matt has written for many ensembles and instrumentalists including the Calder Quartet, Meehan/Perkins Duo, Chatham Baroque, Wild Up, NOW Ensemble, Real Quiet, the California EAR Unit, and pianists Vicky Chow and Michael Mizrahi, and has appeared at venues and series including Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Brooklyn Festival, the Bang on a Can Marathon (NYC), the Whitney Museum of Art, (le) Poisson Rouge (NYC), and many others.

 

Queens:

Kento Iwasaki is a composer and koto player. He was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Champaign, IL; Ottawa; Princeton and Philadelphia before moving to New York City. Kento received his B.A. in Music Composition at Temple University and his M.M. in Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music.  He studied koto with Satomi Fukami as part of an expenses-paid program by Columbia University and continues his koto studies with Yoko Reikano Kimura. Kento has received training in opera composition from Libby Larsen, John Corgliano and and William Bolcolm as part of the John Duffy Composers Institute. Previous composition teachers include Mark Jurcisin, Matthew Greenbaum and Richard Danielpour. Kento is currently developing operas that utilize traditional Japanese instruments.

Praised as “one of the most interesting composers of her generation,” Nina Siniakova is active as a pianist, composer, and a music manager.  Holding the degree of Doctor of Music Arts, Nina received her education at Minsk Music College, St- Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and Cologne Academy of Music. She also studied acting professionally. Nina Siniakova’s music has been performed throughout Europe, Japan and in the U.S. She is a recipient of  DAAD Stipend, Grant of St-Petersburg Government and a winner of the Melodia Women’s Choir NYC commission competition.  In 2013 she launched Metis Music Management, presenting her first project Have a Very Jazzy Christmas! at Carnegie Hall.

 

The EtM Con Edison Composers’ Residency program is funded by Consolidated Edison, The Amphion Foundation, the George L. Shields Foundation, The Endeavor Foundation, AOH Foundation, DJ McManus Foundation, The Reed Foundation and individuals. This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.