Alistair joins the YCA roster with a three-year comprehensive management contract, and will be awarded $18,000 for three YCA commissions to be written over the course of the residency, and premiered in upcoming debut concerts. He was selected out of nearly 150 composers who submitted for the YCA composer search, representing an incredibly high level of talent and imagination.

Alistair’s music has been commissioned and performed by leading soloists across the country. His music has also been performed by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Orchestra, National Cathedral Choral Society, and the Washington Master Chorale. He is the composer for Vestibule, a short film directed by Julian Elia (Spielberg’s West Side Story). He is actively pursuing an M.M. at Curtis Institute of Music, and is the winner of two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2020, 2021), the 2020 Brian Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, and awards from the American Composers Forum, NPR’s From the Top, and the National YoungArts Foundation.

YCA would like to recognize the three composers selected as finalists for the 2023 Composer-in-Residence Program: Bobby Ge, Luke Haaksma, Hannah Ishizaki, Max Vinetz.

YCA acknowledges and thanks the following members of the jury, who spent countless hours listening and reviewing scores: composer Katherine Balch, composer Kenji Bunch, composer Chen Yi, pianist Anthony De Mare, flutist Brandon Patrick George, composer Missy Mazzoli, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, composer Carlos Simon, and pianist Jeffrey Swann.

 

 

Selection Process
Applications are reviewed by a panel of distinguished proponents of contemporary music, including YCA alumni, professional musicians, and composers.

 

Prizes
Commissions: Over the course of three years, the new Composer-in-Residence receives three commissions totaling $18,000 ($6,000 each).

• Debut Commission 1 & 2: Each of your first two commissions are written for a current YCA artist. During the composition process, you will work closely with the artist to bring your piece to life, and the artist will premiere your work on their YCA debut concerts. Premieres will be augmented by warm-up concerts and post-premiere performances.
• YCA Alumni Commission: Your third commission is written for (and in collaboration with) an alumnus/alumna of Young Concert Artists. After the initial premiere performances, YCA will secure 1-3 additional artists (of same instrumentation) from within the YCA family to learn and perform your work, thereby ensuring multiple performances.

 

Management Services: The most unique component of YCA’s Composer-in-Residence Program is that each composer joins the YCA roster with a minimum three-year comprehensive management contract. YCA’s managers:

• Promote each composer’s career through their connections with the industry’s managers, concert presenters, conductors of major orchestras, and financial supporters, as well as YCA’s long-standing reputation for discovering and furthering the careers of extraordinary young artists.
• Develop opportunities for performances of existing works and new commissions, as well as participation at residency programs with orchestras and new music institutions nationwide.
• Provide a full package of publicity materials and services, travel arrangements, extensive professional development and educational residency experience.
• Support ongoing career guidance through a mentorship with a YCA alumnus/alumna.

 

Notable Accomplishments by YCA Composers
The talents of YCA’s composers have been recognized with numerous prizes and accomplishments including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Career Advancement Award, a GRAMMY Award, The Grawemeyer Award for Music, a Pulitzer Prize, a Heinz Medal in the Humanities, four Rome Prizes, two Berlin Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the first Benjamin H. Danks Commission from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, five Charles Ives Fellowships, over twenty ASCAP awards, numerous BMI prizes, a Koussevitsky Prize and many prestigious commissions from renowned performers such as Evelyn Glennie, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne Akiko Meyers, and Jeremy Denk, and from orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Amarillo Symphony, the Mobile Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

 

History
The YCA Composer Program was founded 28 years ago by YCA’s Alumni Association to discover and support exciting young composers and to provide opportunities for collaboration with excellent performers. Since the inception of the program, YCA has brought 13 exceptional composers to public attention: Dan Coleman, Kevin Puts, Kenji Bunch, Mason Bates, Daniel Kellogg, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, Andrew Norman, Chris Rogerson, David Hertzberg, Tonia Ko, Katherine Balch, Saad Haddad, and most recently, Nina Shekhar.

 

YCA Contact
Erol Gurol, Director of Programs & Auditions
Young Concert Artists, 1776 Broadway, Suite 1500, New York, NY 10019

auditions@yca.org 

(212) 307-6656

 

Learn more about YCA alumni