2019 Composers Now Festival Opening Event

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"The Composers Now 2019 Festival Opening Event showed off an organization on target. Few evenings wrap such an exemplary program with such a collegial atmosphere."

The evening began with the presentation of the 2019 Composers Now Visionary Awards, recognizing members of the arts community who, through their own creative practice and advocacy for others, have made a profound, positive and lasting impact in our culture. This year, the awards were presented to:

Laura Kaminsky T.J. Anderson

‍Laura Kaminsky frequently addresses issues of sustainability, war, and human rights in her work. "Full of fire as well as ice, [she write] in n idiom that contrasts dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection. It is strong stuff." (American Record Guide) With co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed she has created the most widely-produced contemporary opera in the U.S., As One (2014), Some Light Emerges (Houston Grand Opera 2017), and the forthcoming Today It Rains (Opera Paralléle/American Opera Projects 2019). Upcoming: a Piano Quintet for Ursula Oppens and the Cassatt String Quartet; and with Reed, Postville, inspired by the unprecedented and devastating immigration raid there in 2008, for a consortium led by Santa Fe and San Francisco Operas. She is head of composition at the Conservatory of Music/SUNY Purchase.

T.J. Anderson is one of the leading composers of his generation. He was born on August 17, 1928 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he devotes full time to writing music. He studied composition with George Ceiga, Philip Bezanson, Richard Hervig, and Darius Milhaud. Anderson is well known for his orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha, which he made while composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1972. As a lecturer, consultant, and visiting composer, he has appeared in institutions in the United States, Brazil, Germany, France, and Switzerland. He was the first composer-fellow of the National Humanities Center in 1996. In 1997 he was honored as a founder and first president of the National Black Music Caucus with a concert of his music. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, May 18, 2005.