In reflecting on our season theme of Give and the many gifts that are present in our community, I recently compiled a list of every new piece of music that ACG has commissioned and supported over the years.
All together there are over 300 pieces and arrangements totaling over 20 hours of music. It was staggering to see it written out in one place and I couldn’t help but ask: Why has creating new music been such a big part of our work?
We’ve made large scale pieces by internationally celebrated composers such as Reena Esmail, Nico Muhly, Graham Reynolds, Clarice Assad, Marek Pasieczny, and Jorge Morel. There are three silent film scores, ambitious chamber music pieces and powerful works with community voices.
So many friends, near and far, have created new music for us: Roland Dyens, Celil Refik Kaya, Olga Amelkina Vera, Mark Anthony Cruz, Jurg Kindle, Russell Pinkston, Matthew Lyons, and our own Travis Marcum and Justice Phillips, just to name a few.
On top of this, our EducationTeam has written and arranged a sizable catalogue of pieces for young guitarists in public schools and our Music & Healing Artists recently finished writing their 100th song.
When you consider that it requires significant resources to create a new piece of music, and there are plenty of perfectly good pieces already in existence, why is it important that we continue to make new works?
I believe the answer is you. Our community is rich and varied in its experience and is so worthy of expression. A new piece is a manifestation of its place and its time and it helps us recognize and celebrate the significance of life itself.
A new piece empowers us to ask great and timely questions: Who are we now? What do we want to remember? What is special about our time? How do we want to be?
And I believe that a new piece is filled with energy and promise. The energy comes from three advocates: the composer who writes the piece, the performers who bring it into being, and the community where it is created. The deeper the connection between all of those involved, the more energy it creates and the more meaning it has to offer.
Some of my favorite examples of pieces that are filled with energy are:
- Presence (2023) by ACG Artist in Residence Reena Esmail. The product of a year-long collaboration, the lyrics were co-written by a very special orchestra of guitarists made up of middle school, high school and university students as well as community members.
- Mosaic Variations (2021) by Clarice Assad was co-created with 50 students from across our city. There are two versions of this piece: one with Clarice and the students and the other with Jorge Caballero and the Miró Quartet.
- Garden Green (2019) was written by Lullaby Project participant Meg with artists Travis Marcum and Amelia DeVivo. As she thought about meeting her baby for the first time, Meg used the familiar image of a garden as a symbol of growth and peace through the joy and challenges of life.
- I wrote i/we in collaboration with Travis Marcum in 2017 as reflection on how connected and divided we are. It features the voices and stories of refugees settling in Austin at that time. We revisited the work with ARCOS Dance during the pandemic and created I/WE 2020 with the original live recording and ARCOS’ exquisite choreography and videography.
This, as they say, is the tip of the iceberg. This library of music is in turn beautiful, fun, heartbreaking, and riveting and it is steadily becoming a collection that reflects our time and who we are.
With gratitude,
Dr. Joe Williams III, Artistic Director