Society of Composers

The 2009 Annual Conference of the Society of Composers will hold three sessions at Santa Fe Complex on Friday, April 3. The society is “dedicated to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music.” The conference will be held in conjunction with the 13th Annual Santa Fe International Festival of Electroacoustic Music, and will be hosted by the College of Santa Fe’s Contemporary Music Program and its director, Steven Paxton.

The conference focus will be on electroacoustic music, sound installations, and works related to Acoustic Ecology. Also solicited are compositions involving rock band, Javanese gamelan, African drum ensemble, Celtic instruments, traditional folk instruments from America and other parts of the world, or combinations of any of these with traditional concert instruments and/or electronics. Works for conventional combinations of instruments and/or voices are also encouraged, especially chamber music.

The first concert will begin at 3:00pm and feature Zae Munn, Mark Dal Porto, Ming-Hsiu Yen, Jason Sommerfeldt and Simon Fink. They will be followed by Barton & Priscilla McLean, Bruce Reiprich, Jerry Hui, Mark Philips and Paul Osterfield at 7:30pm. The evening closes with a reception and late night performances by Luke Gullickson, Joseph Post and Nautilus.

The conference begins on Thursday, April 3rd and concludes on Saturday, April 5. Guest speakers during the event will include ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, and the keynote speaker, composer Annea Lockwood. Steven Paxton, Chair of the Contemporary Music Program at the College of Santa Fe, will be the conference host, and David Dunn, Visiting Professor of Electroacoutic Music and Acoustic Ecology at CSF, will curate the electroacoustic music presentations, paper sessions, and sound installations.

Visit the conference’s website for more information. The society’s website is here.