Three Queens-based composers have been chosen as winners of the newly-created Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program.  The winners will each receive use of composition and rehearsal space in Flushing Town Hall, in Flushing, Queens, for a three-month period, as well as a stipend.

The winners of the Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program were selected through a competitive review process by panelists from the New York City music community.  Applicants were judged on their composer’s statement, project proposal for the residency period, and two samples of their music.  The 2009 winners of the Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program are:

Matthew Schickele
In exploring the underlying differences between sound traditions, composer and musician Matthew Schickele has written songs, string quartets, bagpipe tunes and orchestra pieces.  During his residency, Mr. Schickele will complete the writing of and arrange a piano reduction for his current project, a chamber opera entitled "Marymere,” which tells the story of a man from Maine who moved to Wyoming in 1888, and which uses both classical and folk singers and musicians.

David Schober
Composer, music theorist, and pianist David Schober will use his residency to write an extended work for wind ensemble (16 instruments) in response to a commission from Timothy Weiss, director of the Oberlin Conservatory Wind Ensemble in Ohio. The impetus for the work was a devastating flood that struck Mr. Schober’s home town of Rushford, Minnesota, in August 2007, and the remarkable recovery that the community has made since that time.

Nivedita Shivraj
A composer, performer and teacher of Carnatic (South Indian classical) music, Nivedita Shivraj works on cross-genre projects with western classical musicians, African American percussionists, gospel singers and jazz musicians. She will use her residency to compose new pieces based on a Carnatic raga (traditional melodic pattern), and rendered in a contemporary style on the veena, a plucked stringed instrument, in collaboration with a western classical piano, Indian percussion, and western percussion.

A public program component of each Con Edison Musicians’ Residency — such as a free public workshop, master class, public performance or other community-based activity — will be presented by Flushing Town Hall.

Flushing Town Hall is a historic early 20th century building owned by the City of New York that houses the Flushing Council on the Arts, the host of the program.

Applications for the Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program were reviewed by an independent panel of five musicians and music professionals, chosen based on recommendations by professionals in nonprofit music service organizations and government arts agencies.  Participating as panel judges were:

Gene Caprioglio received a BA in music education, and is currently the Vice President for New Music and Rights at C. F. Peters.  As a guitarist, he has appeared at hundreds of metropolitan area venues.

Gilbert Galindo’s music has been heard at venues in the U.S., Germany, and Scotland. He has received commissions from the Chicago Fine Arts Society and Duo Petrarca, with additional premieres and performances from Ensemble Dal Niente and the Bard Institute Composers Orchestra, among others.

Ramin Heydarbeygi is the Music Director of the Barbad Chamber Orchestra and has conducted numerous world-, U.S.- and New York premieres by various composers from around the world. He has received commissions and awards from the New York State Council on the Arts and ASCAP, among others.

Pianist Michael Mizrahi has appeared as concerto soloist with some of the leading orchestras of the United States. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music, and is a founding member of NOW Ensemble and the Moët Piano Trio.

Dr. Lara Pellegrinelli received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2005, focusing her research on jazz studies. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, Village Voice, and Jazz Times. She currently contributes to National Public Radio and WNYC.

The Con Edison Musicians’ Residency had its genesis in NYC Performing Arts Spaces’ 2008 study “Where Can We Work?”, an examination of how access to workspace in New York City impacts musicians’ ability to compose, rehearse and perform.  The study was made possible by a seminal grant from the New York State Music Fund.

Funding for this pilot program comes from Con Edison, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, The Amphion Foundation, and the Reed Foundation.  NYC Performing Arts Spaces developed and administered the program, and expects to expand this residency program, serving both performing artists and cultural facilities, to other locations and boroughs.

NYC Performing Arts Spaces is a program of Fractured Atlas, Inc., a non-profit organization serving the basic resource needs of a national community of performing and visual artists and arts organizations.  For more information, contact Kirsten Nordine at kirsten.nordine@fracturedatlas.org.