September 13 – October 12, 2021
(5 virtual sessions)
The Argus Quartet Composers Institute aims to provide high school age composers (ages 13 – 18) from communities with untapped potential access to the tools they need to develop as young artists and prepare for study at the collegiate level. The tuition-free Institute offers these young composers the opportunity to study, workshop, and collaborate with the Argus Quartet and two Artist-Faculty composers.
Nuestra misión como Instituto de compositores “Argus Quartet” es promover el desarrollo de compositores jóvenes (High-school/secundaria, 13 – 18 años) con potencial artístico, fomentando las habilidades necesarias para su desarrollo y preparación para estudios posteriores (collegiate level). La tuición gratuita ofrece a los jóvenes compositores acceso a talleres y colaboraciones con Argus Quartet y otros dos compositores.
Click here to support the Composers Institute financially via Fractured Atlas.
Under “Donation Attribution,” please select “This is a memorial or special occasion gift” and include “Composers Institute” in the memo box. Thank you for your support!
Our Vision
We have recognized an absence of programs of this type for high school age composers (ages 13 – 18), and particularly BIPOC, female, LGBTQ+, and gender non-conforming composers. The Argus Quartet’s multi-year goal through the Composers Institute is to regularly offer a majority of spots in the Institute to applications from BIPOC, female, LGBTQ+, and gender non-conforming composers, with a rotating focus each year on a single subset within these broad groups. In 2021, this subset will be BIPOC composers. Consequently, the Artist-Faculty each year will reflect that year’s focus.
Six student composers will be selected by application for the opportunity to work with this Faculty team on pieces they will compose specifically for the seminar. Over the course of five virtual sessions (including a culminating virtual performance), the young composers will have lessons, workshop their pieces, and have the unique opportunity to work directly with professional performers throughout the curation-to-completion process. The Argus Quartet will record the students’ works for the culminating showcase, and the young composers will then be able to use these recordings for any non-monetary purpose, such as college applications, competitions, and calls for scores.
The Institute is tuition-free for all students. For the 2021 Institute, the Argus Quartet will prioritize applications from BIPOC composers, and a majority of the spots in the Institute will be given to these composers. Thus, in addition to assessing individual applications, we will look at the range of composers being supported across the whole program.
Nuestra visión
Hemos reconocido la ausencia de este tipo de programas para compositores jóvenes (High-school/secundaria, 13 – 18 años) y en particular BIPOC, mujeres, LGBTQ + y jóvenes genero no conforme. El objetivo plurianual del Argus Quartet, a través del Instituto de compositores, es favorecer la inclusión de estos grupos de forma rotativa. El 2021, nos enfocaremos en compositores BIPOC. Teniendo cada año un enfoque distinto.
De los estudiantes que solicitar, se seleccionaran seis. Los cuales tendrán la oportunidad de trabajar con nuestro equipo de profesores en las piezas compuestas específicamente para este seminario. A través de quatro sesiones virtuales (más una sesión de finalización), los jóvenes compositores tendrán lecciones, talleres de sus piezas y la oportunidad única de trabajar directamente con artistas profesionales durante todo el proceso de curación hasta su finalización. El Argus Quartet grabará las obras de los estudiantes para la exhibición final y los compositores podrán usar estas grabaciones para cualquier propósito (no monetario), como solicitudes universitarias, concursos y convocatorias de puntajes.
El Instituto es gratuito para todos los estudiantes. Para el 2021, el Argus Quartet priorizará las solicitudes de los compositores de BIPOC, y la mayoría de los cupos en el Instituto se otorgarán a estos compositores. Por lo tanto, además de evaluar las aplicaciones individuales, analizaremos la variedad de compositores que se admiten en todo el programa.
2021 Dates & Schedule
All sessions take place virtually over Zoom from 7-9pm EST.
SESSION 1 (Monday, September 13) - Welcome and workshop with Argus.
SESSION 2 (Monday, September 20) - Workshop with faculty composers + Argus.
SESSION 3 (Monday, September 27) - Workshop with faculty composers + Argus.
SESSION 4 (Monday, October 4) - Revisions of pieces due + final workshop with Argus.
SESSION 5 (Tuesday, October 12) - Final performance! Zoom/YouTube premiere of student compositions.
Note on Eligibility:
If you are age 13 - 18, and have graduated high school, you are eligible to participate in the Composers Institute as long as you are not enrolled in a college program at the time of the Institute.
Why this and why now?
We understand that a problem exists in our field in terms of access to serious but tuition-free compositional study for high school age composers, especially individuals from marginalized communities. Additionally, programs for young composers are often facilitated by institutions or organizations; there are fewer spaces where professional performers themselves facilitate giving voice to younger composers. As a string quartet working regularly with composers both young and established, the Argus Quartet is in a unique position to be simultaneously an active collaborator with and promoter of young artists in their journeys towards deepening their sense of creative discovery/authenticity.
The idea of creating an institute for young composers that would specifically target individuals from communities with untapped potential has always been on our minds. If there is one thing the Black Lives Matter movement has taught us, it’s that we have to act radically now. There is no reason and no time to wait to solve these very present problems of access. Often, the prevailing attitude for a young quartet is a desire to work with top established composers, but we recognize our responsibility to reach in the other direction as well, supporting young adults who would like the opportunity to express themselves through composing. We want to do all we can to expand who we bring into our community, and engage with this future generation of composers.
¿Por qué esto y por qué ahora?
Reconocemos en nuestra área un problema de acceso a estudios de composición formal y gratuito, particularmente para jóvenes de comunidades marginadas. Adicionalmente, en los programas para jóvenes compositores impartidos por otras Instituciones u organizaciones; existen menos espacios donde estos, los jóvenes compositores, pueden expresar su propia voz. De esta forma, como cuarteto de cuerda que trabaja regularmente con compositores tanto jóvenes como profesionales, el Argus Quartet representa un espacio único de colaboración y promoción activa de artistas jóvenes en su trayecto hacia la profundización de su sentido de descubrimiento creativo.
La idea de crear un instituto para jóvenes compositores con potencial dirigido específicamente a personas de sin oportunidades de acceso, ha sido siempre un proyecto en nuestras mentes. Pero si hay algo nos ha enseñado el movimiento Black Lives Matter es que tenemos que actuar de forma radical ahora; no hay razón ni tiempo que perder para solucionar estos problemas de acceso tan presentes. La actitud de un cuarteto joven a menudo es querer trabajar con compositores de renombre, pero nos hemos dado cuenta de que también debemos ir en otras direcciones. Queremos hacer todo lo posible para expandir y diversificar nuestra comunidad y comprometernos con las futuras generaciones de compositores.
Listen to AQ performing Modes by Dorothy Rudd Moore
We love the beautiful colors and rich textures in Moore’s 1968 piece for string quartet, Modes. In this video, you’ll hear the first movement, “Moderato,” and the second movement, “Adagio.”
Dorothy Rudd Moore was born in 1940. Her music has been performed and recorded world-wide and is admired for its high level of artistry and its seriousness of purpose. As a child, Moore studied piano at the Wilmington School of Music in Delaware, and learned to play clarinet so that she could join her high school’s all-male band. She graduated from Howard University in 1963, and in 1968 she became a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers in New York City. In the 1960s and 70s, she taught voice, piano, and ear training courses at Harlem School of the Arts, New York University, and Bronx Community College.
Artist-Faculty
DAVID SANFORD
Director of the contemporary big band the Pittsburgh Collective, composer David Sanford received degrees in theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, New England Conservatory, and Princeton University.
His works have been performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the Berkeley Symphony under Kent Nagano, the Detroit Symphony under Leslie Dunner, the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, Dinosaur Annex, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Chamber Players, and he has received commissions from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, and cellist Matt Haimovitz, among others.
His honors include the Rome Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Radcliffe Institute. He is currently Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Music at Mount Holyoke College.
CARLOS SIMON
Carlos Simon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia whose music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism. Simon’s latest album, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT, was released on the Navona Records label in April 2018. Described as an “overall driving force” (Review Graveyard) and featured on Apple Music’s “Albums to Watch”, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT incorporates spoken word and historic recordings to craft a multifaceted program of musical works that are inspired as much by the past as they are the present.
As a part of the Sundance Institute, Simon was named as a Sundance Composer Fellow in 2018, which was held at the historic Skywalker Ranch. His string quartet, Elegy, honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner was recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Mason Bates JFK Jukebox Series. With support from the US Embassy in Tokyo and US/Japan Foundation, Simon traveled with the Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI) on a two-week tour of Japan in 2018 performing concerts in some of the most sacred temples and concert spaces in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. Additionally, he studied in Baden, Austria at the Hollywood Music Workshop with Conrad Pope and at New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop.