Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Melody Eötvös  

Melody Eötvös's work Saqqara Bird (2016) for symphony orchestra will be showcased by the Philadelphia Orchestra on 6 September 2018, as part of a working session involving six female composers. All composers have been invited to attend the rehearsal led by assistant conductor Kensho Watanabe at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where their works will also be recorded. The other participants are Hilary Purrington, Chen-Hui Jen, Robin Holcomb, Xi Wang and Nina C. Young.

The composers will be able to take part in sessions with the Orchestra's leadership as well as roundtable conversations with the Orchestra's artistic committee and mentor composers, and will receive feedback from co-facilitators, American Composers Orchestra's artistic director Derek Bermel and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner.

The six composers were selected from the alumni of American Composers Orchestra's programs. ACO is both a performing orchestra and a catalyst for the creation and programming of new orchestral music by American composers through several platforms. Melody took part in the ACO's Underwood New Music Readings program in 2014.

'Identifying and collaborating with living composers from all backgrounds is of paramount importance to our organisation and for the future evolution of this art form,' said Jeremy Rothman, vice president of artistic planning for the Philadelphia Orchestra. 'Our goal is for these readings to foster dialogue between composers and musicians, provide valuable tools for composers to have their works heard and promoted, and spark deeper relationships with a broader selection of composers.'

Melody Eötvös has been based in Bloomington, Indiana, for a number of years. Towards the end of 2018, she will move back to Australia together with her family, to start in a new position as lecturer of composition and aural skills at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

She is currently working on her third string quartet for the MIVOS quartet (New York), and a guitar and cello piece for Duo Atlas (France). Recent premieres include an orchestral work Ruler of the Hive for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, premiered on 4 August.

> Melody Eötvös - AMC profile

> Press release on the Philadelphia Orchestra website and a blog article about the program on the orchestra website [link added 17 October 2018].