Composer-in-Residence
The Bruce and Hilde Howden American Commissioning Project
Through the generosity of Hilde Howden and the Bruce E. Howden American Composers Project, Music from Angel Fire has created an enviable commissioning history that rivals major international festivals. Each year, Music from Angel Fire invites an internationally renowned composer and a Young Artist Composer to each compose a work premiered at the festival. The Composer-in-Residence Program began in 1986, and the Young Artist Composer-in-Residence Program was initiated in 2005. As a result, Music from Angel Fire has commissioned and presented more than 45 world premieres in its 36-year history.
Music from Angel Fire has received national acclaim for its commissioning history from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In February of 2016, OPUS ONE presented a special concert at Lincoln Center, performing four major works commissioned by Music from Angel Fire.
Marc Neikrug, Composer-in-Residence for 2024
Composer, Marc Neikrug, has had an international career for half a century. He has written chamber music, symphonic music, music-theater and opera. Major performances have taken place with the New York, Los Angeles and Buffalo Philharmonics, as well as the symphonies in Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, New World (Miami), St. Louis, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Chicago, Utah, Dallas, Phoenix, New Mexico, the Minnesota and Cleveland orchestras, and the St. Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras.
His works have been performed internationally, by the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, the BBC Symphony, London Synfonietta, English Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, NDR Hamburg, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Liege Orchestra, Lisbon Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Montpellier Symphony, Marseille Opera, Osaka Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Festival performances have been at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, Aspen, Angel Fire, La Jolla, Marlboro, Menlo, Savannah, London’s South Bank, Aldeburgh, Berlin Festival, Frankfurt Festival, Schleswig Holstein, Zurich, Melbourne, Tokyo’s Music Today, and Jerusalem Festival.
Among noted performers of his music are Zubin Mehta, Loren Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Alan Gilbert, David Zinman, Leonard Slatkin, Donald Runnicles, Lawrence Foster, Oliver Knussen, James Galway, Pinchas Zukerman, Susan Graham, Yefim Bronfman, Jeremy Denk, Maximilian Schell, John Turturro, John Rubenstein, and the Emerson, Vermeer, Tokyo, Shanghai, Flux, Jerusalem, Dover, Escher, and Orion Quartets.
His music theater work ‘Through Roses’, was commissioned by London’s South Bank Festival with the National Theater. Since its premiere in 1980 it has had hundreds of performances in fifteen countries and has been translated into 11 languages. There are three CD’s on Deutsche Grammaphon, Enya, and Koch International.
There have also been two films produced, a documentary by Christopher Nupen, and a feature film directed by Jurgen Flimm and starring Maximilian Schell, which debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. Los Alamos, an anti-nuclear opera written in 1988, is the only American opera ever commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Its American premiere was at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Neikrug has been composer-in-residence at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, Angel Fire, Aspen, Bravo Vail, and La Jolla festivals. Works have been recorded on Deutsche Grammaphon, Koch International, Stereophile, Laurel, and Enya records. Publishers of sixty works are G. Schirmer and Chester.
Composer-in-Residence History
2024 Marc Neikrug
2023 Andy Akiho
2022 Stephen Prutsman
2021 Paul Wiancko
2020 Festival canceled due to Covid-19 Pandemic
2019 Richard Danielpour
2018 Andrea Clearfield
2017 Kenji Bunch
2016 Gabriela Lena Frank
2015 David Ludwig
2014 Bright Sheng
2013 Chick Corea
2012 Stephen Stucky
2011 Roberto Sierra
2010 Lowell Lieberman
2009 Augusta Read Thomas
2008 Joan Tower
2007 Marc Neikrug
2006 Michael Daugherty
2005 George Tsontakis
2004 Kevin Puts
2003 Previous composers wrote short pieces for anniversary: Adolphe, Fine, Greatbatch, Deak, Kernis, Coleman, Hartke, Singleton, Crockett, Higdon, Larson, Lowry
2002 Douglas Lowry
2001 Libby Larson
2000 Jennifer Higdon
1999 Donald Crockett
1998 Stephen Hartke
1997 Jon Deak
1996 Alvin Singleton
1995 Dan Coleman
1994 Bruce Adolphe
1993 Aaron Jay Kernis
1992 Jon Deak
1991 Timothy Greatbatch
1989 Vivian Fine
1988 Bruce Adolphe
Young Composer-in-Residence
2022 Elise Arancio
2021 Not selected
2020 Canceled due to COVID-19
2019 Dai Wei
2018 Not selected
2017 Nick DiBerardino
2016 Gabriella Smith
2015 Alyssa Weinberg
2014 Andrew Hsu
2013 Thomas Oltarzenski
2012 Daniel Temkin
2011 Michael Djupstrom
2010 Daniel Shapiro
2009 Chris Rogerson
2008 Christopher Weiss
2007 Ke-Chia Chen
2006 Sheridan Seyfried
2005 James Ra