Chamber Music America grant to fund Eric Chasalow composition
Chamber Music America has awarded Professor of Music Eric Chasalow and the ensemble New York, New Music a grant to finance creation and performance of a new piece of classical music.
Under the chamber music organization’s annual grant program, ensembles apply for funding to commission a specific composer to create a piece of music and to present the work. The grant funds both the commission to the composer and the first performance of the piece.
Chasalow’s piece for New York, New Music will be for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin and cello with combinations of electronic manipulations of text and voice. He said he is “very excited” about the award and is currently at work on the piece, which is expected to premier in the 2011-12 concert season.
Chasalow, who is Irving G. Fine Professor of Music and director of the Brandeis Electroacoustic Music Studio, is known internationally for works that combine traditional instruments with computer-generated sound. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship and two awards from American Academy of Arts and Letters in recognition of his work, which is in the forefront of efforts to expand electronic music into the classical music arena.
Chamber Music America awarded a total of $170, 700 this year to nine US-based ensembles and composers through its Classical Commissioning Program for creation and performance of new chamber works by American composers. More than 80 ensembles competed for the grants.
