Members Attending:
- Susan Elliott
- Barbara Jepson
- Rick Ginell
- Gail Wein
- Keith Powers
- Jennifer Melick
- Angela Allen
- John Fleming
A Music Critics Association of North America institute for from six to 10 critics will be held Feb. 2-4 at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. New World is celebrating its 30th anniversary as America’s Orchestral Academy, training conservatory and music school graduates for careers in professional orchestras and ensembles.
The centerpiece of the institute will be the annual New Work concert on Feb. 3, with NWS cofounder and artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas leading a program of newly commissioned pieces. It includes the world premieres of a musical composition by MTT and a short play by New York playwright Christopher Wall in collaboration with the Playwrights Realm, with NWS fellows performing both musically and theatrically. Also on the agenda is Project 305’s Miami in Movements, a multisensory reflection of contemporary Miami created by composer Ted Hearne and filmmaker Jonathan David Kane, the culmination of a collaborative, yearlong process, that included crowdsourced audio and video submissions by the public. There will be sessions with MTT, fellows and composers, and the opportunity to attend a rehearsal.
Institute activities will be in the innovative performance facilities and state-of-the-art practice and ensemble rooms of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. The center is one of the most technologically advanced music venues in the world, with distance learning and audition coaching projects that amount to as many as 150 interactive musical exchanges a season with other institutions. There will be activities taking advantage of these high-tech resources during the institute, such as a behind-the-scenes look at production of New World’s trademark Wallcast concerts in SoundScape Park.
MCANA scholarships to the institute will cover critics’ round-trip airfare (or comparable transportation) plus ground transportation to and from the airport in Miami; three nights at the Albion Hotel, a few blocks from the center on South Beach; and press tickets (guest tickets will be available for purchase).