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Announcing the Panelists of the 2019-20 EtM Con Edison Composer Residencies!

Katie Cox September 5, 2019

We are pleased to announce this year’s amazing group of panelists for the 2019-20 EtM Con Edison Composer Residencies! The panel met on June 25, 2019 to choose six composers from 96 applicants. Each artist receives a six-month residency at one of our residency partners plus a $2,500 stipend. 

For this cycle – our eleventh! –  we will have six composers-in-residence at four facilities. Two residents will be at Flushing Town Hall and two will be at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in Brooklyn. Turtle Bay Music School and Bloomingdale School of Music will host one composer each. Click here to learn more about this year’s resident artists.

Meet our 2019-20 Panelists!

Brooklyn-based drummer and composer KATE GENTILE is originally from Buffalo, NY. Her music explores unconventional and often complex harmonic and rhythmic material, as well as the intersections of acoustic and electronic sounds, while equally valuing improvisation and composition. Gentile has been involved in many forward-thinking projects including Matt Mitchell’s sextet Phalanx Ambassadors; Snark Horse, Mitchell and Gentile’s collaborative-led rotating cast ensemble; Dustin Carlson’s Air Ceremony, and Will Mason’s noise-rock/classical crossover band Happy Place. Gentile has also worked with Michaël Attias, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Marty Ehrlich, Michael Formanek, Helado Negro, Matana Roberts, Chris Speed, Anna Webber, and John Zorn.

ELENA MOON PARK is a musician and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She is a co-Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based organization Found Sound Nation, which uses collaborative music creation to connect people across cultural divides, and is an active freelance multi-instrumentalist in NYC, specializing in contemporary classical music and family music. Originally from Oak Ridge, TN, she studied anthropology and ethnomusicology at Northwestern University and completed her M.A. in Urban Policy from The New School in New York. Before moving to the city, Elena served as a development consultant for grassroots social justice organizations in south and west Chicago. In 2012, Elena released Rabbit Days and Dumplings, an album for families featuring folk and children’s music from East Asia. A second all-ages album is coming soon.

KAMALA SANKARAM has been praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times) and “new voice from whom we will surely be hearing more” (LA Times). Recent commissions include Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Memphis, Opera on Tap, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Awards, grants and residencies include: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, BRIO Award, NY IT Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, the Civilians, HERE, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Also a performer, notable appearances include the LA Philharmonic, the LA Opera, and the PROTOTYPE Festival, among others. Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble (recipient of two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards). In addition to her musical pursuits, Kamala holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and can be heard as a voice on the Cartoon Network show Superjail. www.kamalasankaram.com

KEN THOMSON, composer, clarinetist and saxophonist, is a staple of New York City’s contemporary music and jazz communities; he is widely regarded for his ability to blend a rich variety of influences and styles into his own musical language while maintaining a voice unmistakably his own. He has released three recordings combining the sounds of jazz and contemporary music to great acclaim: Sextet (2018) and Slow/Fast (2010, 2014). His two full-length CDs of his chamber compositions are with JACK Quartet (Thaw, 2013) and with cellist Ashley Bathgate and pianist Karl Larson (Restless, 2016). Ken plays clarinet for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, is the musical director for the Asphalt Orchestra, and is on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. He has performed and recorded with Ensemble Signal, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Novus NY and more. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, Doug Perkins, Mariel Roberts, and others. He has been the subject of profile features in Downbeat, NewMusicBox and Critical Read. He is a Selmer Paris, Conn-Selmer and D’Addario Woodwinds Artist.
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