Anna Clyne, Director
               Paola Prestini, Associate Director
               Gordon Beeferman, Teaching Associate

Ground-breaking seminars

for young composers

Making Score session with Stephen Sondheim

Now in its tenth season, Making Score is the first series of workshops in the country for young musicians to explore the world of composition and orchestration. Students under age 23 who have a sense of curiosity and a taste for musical adventure are invited to apply. The program is directed by Anna Clyne, four-time winner of the ASCAP Plus award, who succeeds founding director Derek Bermel.

The Making Score course includes eleven workshops, held from October through May. The sessions explore the musical thought of a wide variety of composers, with a focus on instrumentation and orchestration. Examples are drawn from the vast classical repertoire and a range of musical traditions from throughout the world. Using tools such as study scores and orchestration books, the course aims to cultivate the students' own voices through class discussion, written exercises, and free composition.

Click here to view a video of a Making Score session with Christopher Rouse.
To order an auditions brochure, click here.

Guest Lectures

Guest lecturers for the 2009-10 season include:

Dorothy Lawson, cellist
Joe Magnarelli, trumpeter
Jody Elff, sound artist
Ethel, string quartet
Phyllis Chen, toy pianist
Jefferson Friedman, composer
Magos Herrera, vocalist/improviser/collaborator Anna Clyne, Director

London-born Anna Clyne is a composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Her work, which includes collaborative projects with cutting-edge choreographers, film-makers, visual artists and musicians, has been commissioned and performed throughout the US and internationally. Recent commissions have come from American Composers Orchestra, ASCAP & SEAMUS, Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Opus21, Roulette/Jerome Foundation, Seattle Chamber Players and Tactus. Her work has been performed by by the American Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, ETHEL, Electric Kompany, janus trio, and the Los Angeles-based Hysterica Dance Company where she is resident composer. Anna Clyne holds a first-class Bachelor of Music degree with honors from Edinburgh University and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She currently resides in New York where she is represented by Boosey & Hawkes.

Paola Prestini, Associate Director

Italian born composer PAOLA PRESTINI is the director and co-founder of the award-winning interdisciplinary performing collective, VisionIntoArt (VIA). VIA has performed in theaters, museums, and clubs all over the world and specializes in creating collaborations that stem from new music. Her works and arrangements have been commissioned and performed by groups such as VIA, Kronos Quartet, the Aleph Ensemble, the Verge Ensemble, the Tucson Symphony, Concert Artist Guild, and the Prism Quartet in venues such as the Whitney Live series, BAM Café, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, Performance Space 122, the Krannert Center, and Royce Hall at UCLA. She has participated in international performances and festivals such as EtnaFest in Sicily, Concerti Apertivi in Milan, and the new music festival BEMUS in Belgrade, Serbia. Other activities include curating at the Stone (Zorn's downtown venue), an upcoming article on collaboration for Arcana Writers series, and a new release on Tazdik Records "Body Maps". She has composed scores for numerous films that have garnered awards from the Sundance Film Festival and the Film Festival at Austin. She has been the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, the American Society for Composers and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Music Center, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and the Cary Trust for New Music. Ms. Prestini has taught and created curricula for the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, and the American Symphony Orchestra League, and is an advocate for music education in schools; she directs a music initiative through VIA that reaches inner-city high school students through instrument lessons and music technology. The program is housed at Brandeis High School in Manhattan and is a VisionIntoArt education program in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra. Ms. Prestini received her BM and MM at the Juilliard School and has studied with Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Gordon Beeferman, Teaching Associate

The Works of Gordon Beeferman have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, eighth blackbird, Anti-Social Music, and the New York Youth Symphony, among others. The New York City Opera recently presented an excerpt from his chamber opera-in-progress, "The Rat Land," as part of the VOX 2007: Showcasing American Composers series.