Project Overview

Orchestra students will have the opportunity to ignite their own imaginations when consider the concept or idea for a new work to be create by composer Jessica Meyer. Below is information about this unique opportunity and experience. 

What Is The Timeline?

2023

• Now-Aug 1       Schools/ensembles register to become a ComMission Possible Member
• Sept 1-Oct 20    Ideas are generated by students using curriculum materials supplied by Beyond The Notes (BTN). Schools apply to be host ensemble.
• Oct 20-Nov 1     BTN panel selects top 15 ideas and host school. Information shared with the composer for consideration.
• Nov 20               Composer Interview #1 revealing concept selected/decided for the new composition.
• Late Dec            Composer Interview #2 focusing on questions from students.

2024

• Feb 1                 Composer Interview #3 sharing final work, ideas for rehearsal and performance.
• April-June         Composer visit to the selected school for world premiere performance and residency! Schools that did not apply for the world premiere performance or were not selected will have the opportunity to perform the new composition listed as a "regional premiere".

Suggested Student Ideas

Ensemble	School	Student	Idea
Orchestra	Mt. Horeb	Everett	Chernobyl
Orchestra	Shorewood	Amalia	Ocean
Orchestra	Mt. Horeb	Sydney	Adversity Suffered By Indigenous People
Orchestra	Shorewood	Hannah	Walk Through The Forest
Orchestra	Green Bay West	Adriana	Magic of the Soul
Orchestra	Green Bay West	Allison	Inner Workings of the Brain
Orchestra	Green Bay West	Hailey	Machu Picchu: The Incan Empire
Orchestra	Green Bay West	Lilly	If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
Orchestra	Green Bay West	Riv	Aliens
Orchestra	Glacier Creek MS	Grace	Dark Woods At Night
Orchestra	Glacier Creek MS	Sanjana, Abby, Anuhya	Nebula
Orchestra	Decorah MS	June	Gaits of a Horse
Orchestra	Platteville	Arianna	Sirens
Orchestra	Platteville	Llija	Flying Paintbrush
Orchestra	Platteville	Zoe	Snow Globes

Composer Interview #1 - Concept Reveal

Composer Interview #2 - Student Questions

Composer Interview #3 - "The Forest's Call"

In The News

Read Full Article Here

---

World Premiere

Jessica Meyer (String Orchestra)

Jessica Meyer - With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (New York Times), Jessica Meyer is a GRAMMY® – nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Her first composer/performer portrait album in 2019 debuted at #1 on the Billboard traditional classical chart, where “knife-edge anticipation opens on to unexpected, often ecstatic musical realms, always with a personal touch and imaginatively written for the instruments” (Gramophone Magazine).

Meyer’s compositions viscerally explore the wide palette of emotionally expressive colors available to each instrument while using traditional and extended techniques inspired by her varied experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Since embarking on her composition career eight years ago, premieres have included performances by acclaimed vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, cellist Amanda Gookin for her Forward Music Project, Sybarite 5, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, a work for A Far Cry commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Juilliard School for a project with the Historical Performance Program, and by the Lorelei Ensemble for a song cycle that received the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America.
​
Her first Symphonic Band piece was recently premiered by the President’s Own Marine Band (first at Strathmore then the NY premiere in Carnegie Hall), and her orchestral works have been performed by the Phoenix, North Carolina, Charlotte, and Vermont Symphonies, the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, at Tanglewood in Seiji Ozawa Hall, and all around the country as part of Carnegie Hall’s nationwide Link Up Program. She was the winner of the 2nd Annual Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer’s Award to write a piece for the Bangor Symphony, and a winner of Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Program Award to write for the Argus Quartet. Recent chamber/solo premieres included a work for CityMusic Cleveland, musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, and for the Five Borough Songbook.This season brings the premiere of “GAEA”, a concerto for herself and orchestra, as well as works for the Dorian Wind Quintet, Hausmann Quartet, Hub New Music, the Portland Youth Philharmonic in collaboration with the female vocal ensemble In Mulieribus.

---