Metropolitan Wind Symphony Commissioning Fund
Many famous and wonderful pieces of music for concert band (and other mediums) exist only because they were commissioned. It is an essential method of encouraging new music to be written, and for that music to become part of the permanent band repertoire. As the Metropolitan Wind Symphony approached our twenty-fifth anniversary season, we made the first public announcement of a major project: our commissioning fund.
A generous and anonymous donor gave a substantial amount of money as a permanent endowment to us. The income from this endowment is to be used only to commission new pieces of concert band music. Ideally we would like to obtain original works on an annual basis, although this is a future goal. However, during that season we were able to obtain major new commissions presenting new works works by Peter Schickele and James Curnow, and we have continued to bring new works to our players and our audience. In the seasons that followed, we were honored to have new commissions from one of the leading composers of Britain (Guy Woolfenden), and of the Netherlands (Johan de Meij). We also performed a piece for solo clarinet and band, written for our music director David Martins, by Boston University composer Marjorie Merryman. Showing our belief in and support of composers at all levels, we have provided commissions to emerging and student composers as well. As all community arts groups do, we welcome contributions from any source. Usually those go to general operating funds. If you wish to, however, you may designate part or all of any contribution you'd like to make to the Wind Symphony to our commissioning fund.
- Commissioning Process: for interested composers.
- Commissioned and Premiered Works: a complete history of our commissioning program.
Current Commissioning Projects
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Internationally known Chinese-American composer Chen Yi is currently writing a piece which the MWS will premiere in 2008.
Previous Commissioning Projects
- 2005 North American Student Composer Competition: the application deadline was November 30, 2005; the winner was announced on December 27, 2005.
- 2003 New England Student Composer Competition: the application deadline was May 15, 2003; the winner was announced on December 7, 2003.
- 2002 Emerging Composer Project: the application deadline was March 15, 2002; two co-winners were announced on January 13, 2003.
