Grants for new music this year announced by the organization Meet the Composer will total $511,000 - the money will pay for works commissioned by 107 bodies to be performed in 57 cities in 28 states.
Awards will include funding for a double concerto by veteran Nashville session man Edgar Meyer; a triple concerto by Pulitzer-Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; and trio compositions by famous jazzmen who will play the works together - alto saxman Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille.Other grants will go to new operas by John Adams, Hugo Weisgall and Leroy Jenkins; a new ensemble piece by Philip Glass that will be played in six cities; and three new works for four American-based gamelan ensembles - the gamelan is from the Indonesian music tradition.
"Only in the U.S.A. could you have such an extraordinary range of compositions from composers representing the vast geography and variety of ethnic backgrounds of this remarkable land," said John Duffy, founder and president of Meet the Composer, now celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The 1994 Meet the Composer-Reader's Digest Commissioning Program grants are awarded in partnership with the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.