Top Young Composers Coming to Steinmetz
by Geri Throne
After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, the National Young Composers Challenge will return April 10 to Orlando. The Composium – part concert, part competition, part seminar – will be largest in the NYCC’s 17-year history. It will be held in the new Steinmetz Concert Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Admission is free. Winning compositions will be rehearsed, discussed and recorded before the live audience. The NYCC receives submissions from throughout the United States for the event. A panel of judges selects the top three orchestral and top three ensemble compositions to be performed. Because of the Covid hiatus, twice as many composers as in past years will be featured.
The national event is billed as a chance for audience members to connect to the orchestra and view the inner workings of orchestral composition. Christopher Wilkins again will serve as maestro and audience guide. The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, expanded this year with 11 more string players, will perform the works. It also will perform winning compositions from the 2021 national challenge and from the previous two years.
Founded in 2005, the NYCC is a non-profit charitable organization whose goal is to promote the creation of new orchestral music and foster the careers of the next generation of American composers.
The Composium begins at noon and continues through 6 p.m., followed by a reception. Attendees can come and go during the day, but they are encouraged to register online in advance at www.drphillipscenter.org.
The library building is still up.
There’s no reason why it can’t be the library again.
McKinney gets it. The most intelligent comment written on The Voice all year.
Vivienne McKinney
The Citizens of The City of Winter Park are losing our only Main, stand alone, Library building… This building can still be updated and remain the Main library for our City, located in the historic, walking district corridor… Expand and value the benefit to the City of maintaining a “state of the art” library… Using imagination, continued use as a library can include a ground level cafe with outdoor seating… a small business incubator staffed by experienced local retirees who mentor young people with start-up businesses… Expand the offerings and holdings of our Main Library… Rollins College must accept a town and gown relationship. Rollins owns much nearby space in the City in which it may relocate its art museum. However, this is the only City-owned site for a Main Library in our historic downtown walking corridor. I hope that the Mayor and City Commission will decide to update and expand services in our Main Library building. Reimagining this Main Library will balance the shopping/eating atmosphere of Park Avenue. The City should not continue the trajectory of becoming a grimy tourist destination. Prioritizing the services of a “state of the art” Main Library benefits everyone in the City by adding a philosophical center, a site dedicated to the exchange of ideas and promoting the love of learning.