This year, MCI composer Josh Trentadue's newest work for concert band The Great River Rapid Chase has received consortium premieres across the Midwest regions of the United States. On Wednesday, May 8th, this piece will make its debut in familiar territory for the composer - his alma mater Grand Ledge High School, as part of the Wind Symphony's final Spring Concert of the year.

For this special event, we've had the opportunity to discuss with the composer his thoughts on this upcoming consortium premiere. Read on to learn more about the piece and the inspirations behind it:

On Saturday, April 27th, MCI composer Rebecca Nisco will be hosting her Senior Composition Recital in Washington, D.C. This special event will feature performances of past works along with several world premieres composed for the occasion. Read on to learn more about the inspirations behind the composer's program:

Sometimes, video games can become a source of inspiration for new musical works. The original Snake game became the spark that drove MCI composer Nicholas E. M. Osborn to create one of his latest works for flute and clarinet, Two Snakes. This piece receives its world premiere tonight at 8pm EST at Bowling Green State University by performers Taylor Francis and Kendra Sachs.

Read on to learn more about Nicholas's new piece and what drove him to create this new duet:

Bluesy, improvisational-like material with rhythmic drive characterizes the clarinet and piano duet in MCI composer Nicholas E.M. Osborn's piece Groovy Grenadilla. The work was first premiered in 2017; since then, Osborn has created a newly revised version that will be making its debut this Saturday at Bowling Green State University, to be performed by Gretchen Hill and Steven Naylor as part of Gretchen's Junior Recital.

We had the opportunity to speak with the composer regarding the details behind Groovy Grenadilla. Read on to learn more about the piece:

On Thursday April 11th, MCI composer Jeff Herwig's Hope for Tomorrow will be premiered by the Beaver County Honors Band at New Brighton Area High School in Pennsylvania. Read on to learn more about the inspirations that drove Jeff to create this new work for concert band:

On Thursday, April 4th, MCI composer Jeff Herwig's new concert band work The Bridge will be recognized during the 2019 PMEA/NAfME Eastern Division Conference. This piece was written for the conference's Composition Contest and subsequently selected as the winning work. Read on to learn more about the inspirations which drove Jeff to create this new piece:

On Sunday, April 7th, the world premiere of MCI composer Janay Maisano's new work "Bad Show, Bad Show Indeed" will take place at the University of Redlands. This new jazz piece features a unique quartet of instruments and demonstrates various extended techniques for each of the players in the group.

Read on to learn more about Janay's compositional process for this brand-new work: 

This weekend will see two performances of MCI composer Brittany J. Green's "Portraits," a five-movement piano suite composed and premiered in 2017. Green's piece is based on several works by poet Bessie Irene, each of which explores multiple aspects of the human condition in various shapes and forms. The first performance of "Portraits" will take place this Thursday, March 28th at the University of New Mexico, while the second will happen on Sunday March 31st in Chicago, Illinois [check out our Events page for more details on each of these performances!]
We had the opportunity to interview Green this week on this piece! Read on to learn more about her composition:

[from left to right, top to bottom]
Chelsea Williamson - Oklahoma
Dominic Matthews - United Kingdom
Jeff Herwig - Pennsylvania




Nicky Sohn - Seoul, Korea
Ben Lunn - Scotland


​
Thomas Erik Nielsen - New York City
Salvador Alan Jacobo - New Mexico
Sarah Keirle - United Kingdom
​Janay Maisano - California

Ching-Shan Chang - New York City
Adam Zolty - British Columbia
Stephen Ryan Jackson - Massachusetts



Piotr Bednarczyk - Poland
Tianyi Wang - Massachusetts




Brittany J. Green - North Carolina
Eddie Jonathan Garcia Borbón - Colombia
Conner Shaw - Colorado
Daniel de Togni - California

​Jessie Rivést - British Columbia
Nicholas Osborn - Michigan




Rebecca Nisco - Connecticut
Dánae Atacho - Venezuela




JaRod Hall - Texas
​Dylan Tran - Louisiana

This week sees the world premiere of a new and unique orchestral work composed by MCI member Duncan Petersen-Jones. It features the Highland Bagpipes in a soloistic setting that stretches the limits and capabilities of what the instrument is able to accomplish. The world premiere for "An Deireadh" will take place on Wednesday, February 20th as part of the University of Michigan Philharmonia Orchestra's annual Concert of New Works, featuring premieres of new music written by students of U of M's composition studio.
Read on to learn more about Petersen-Jones's brand-new composition:

Energy. Rhythm. Unity. These are some of the traits which inspired MCI composer Quinn Mason to create "Faster", a new work for wind ensemble that will be featured at the Midwest Clinic's New Music Concert Band Reading Session next week. Read on to learn more about Mason's experiences with creating this new composition:

The Millennium Composers Initiative will be exhibiting the music of seven of its composers at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference this year in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, MCI composers Chris Evan Hass and Quinn Mason will have their music featured in the conference's New Music Concert Band (and Orchestra) Reading Sessions, while Harrison J. Collins's piece "O rose of May" will receive its world premiere during a concert given by the Stoneman Douglas High School Wind Symphony.

MCI will be exhibiting at Booth #1927 for the duration of this year's Midwest Clinic. The composers represented will include Josh Trentadue, Duncan Petersen-Jones, Harrison J. Collins, Quinn Mason, Chris Evan Hass, Kevin Day, and Casey Thomas. Be on the lookout for more information within the coming weeks!!

Our final Composer Spotlight features MCI composer Duncan Petersen-Jones's Bac'd​, a new work for saxophone quartet exploring the intricacies of an inherently musical idea. The composer writes:

"Bac'd started off as an experiment, to see what I could do with only 4 notes. After starting with this, I continued to write it out until I felt the piece was fully written. With having only a limited number of pitches, I had to rely on rhythm, motives, and the interactions between the pitches to add variety. It was definitely a challenge to keep the piece interesting with these limitations, but I felt that I overcame this through having different implied pitch centers and through the interactions between the quartet. Throughout composing this piece, I was very tempted to include additional pitches, but ultimately forced myself to only use these four, which is something that I'm glad I did in the end."

Bac'd received its world premiere this year at the University of Michigan. It will be performed at our collaborative concert with the Zenith Saxophone Quartet this Sunday, October 14th at Central Michigan University, which will also include several world premieres composed by MCI members.
RSVP today to this special event!

Our collaborative concert in October with the Zenith Saxophone Quartet opens with a premiere by MCI composer Kevin Day entitled Converging Spectrums, a multi-movement work whose first movement will be performed. This piece is an exploration of various different concepts that the composer elaborates in greater detail below:

The program for our collaborative concert this October with the Zenith Saxophone Quartet includes a piece that introduces another element to the stage - performers interacting with electronic music. Composer Josh Trentadue's Bread and Circuses incorporates a fixed media track that accompanies the quartet, creating a soundscape that's altogether unique to each  performance. Read on as Trentadue divulges more about how these elements, and many others, helped shape this brand-new piece:

Often, we find that our influences and personal experiences help to define how we individually perceive and experience listening to music. Such is the case with composer Casey Thomas's Missoula, his new work for the Zenith Saxophone Quartet premiering this October on our first collaborative concert of the year. Thomas's quartet is an exploration of his personal experiences attending the funeral of composer David Maslanka in 2017. Read on to learn more about Thomas's new work for saxophone quartet:

Of all the pieces included in our collaborative concert with the Zenith Saxophone Quartet this October, this one is perhaps the most improvisational of the program to be premiered. Composer Jordan VanHemert's background as a jazz musician is at full force with his new work Into the Darkness, testing the limitations and creative freedom of both the saxophone quartet and the music they are given. Read on to discover VanHemert's conceptualization of this exciting new work:

This academic year, the Millennium Composers Initiative will be co-hosting two collaborative concerts with two different chamber groups. The members of the initiative are given the opportunity to compose a brand-new work for the performers and participate in rehearsals leading up to the concert performance.

The first concert of the year consists of entirely new music performed by the much-lauded Zenith Saxophone Quartet, including multiple world premieres of music by MCI composers. The event will take place on Sunday, October 14th at Chamichian Recital Hall in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The concert is generously co-hosted by the Zenith Saxophone Quartet and the Central Michigan University School of Music.

Starting this week, we will be introducing the music that will be featured on the program, including some insight by our composers as to how each of the pieces came to be. First up is Burning Away by Isaac Mayhew, a brand-new piece for saxophone quartet that is as personal as it is emotional.

On March 26, 2018, the world premiere of Duncan Petersen Jones's Devastation Deconstruction by the Vanguard Reed Quintet will be taking place at the University of Michigan. Scored for reed quintet (consisting of oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, and bassoon), the premiere is part of an ongoing collaboration concert series between the university's student composers and chamber groups.
We had the opportunity to speak with Petersen-Jones last weekend to learn more about his brand-new chamber work. You can read our full interview with him below:

On Saturday, March 17th, the world premiere of a brand-new work by composer Josh Trentadue will be taking place at the Michigan State University College of Music. Concerto for Double Bass features the virtuosity and wide artistic range of Matthew Gibson, a doctoral student at MSU who commissioned the piece and is also hosting the concert where the premiere will be taking place. Trentadue will be in attendance for the premiere, which will see the piano reduction of the concerto come to life.

We've had the opportunity to sit down and speak with him about this new concerto. Here is our full interview with him about this exciting new work: