News Item: London Chamber Orchestra launches LCO New

London Chamber Orchestra has announced the launch of LCO New, a revival of its emerging composer scheme.

LCO New will offer a nurturing and high profile opportunity for five composers. All participants will work with LCO Composer in Residence Freya Waley-Cohen throughout summer 2022, and have their work performed in the opening concert of LCO’s 22/23 season. The programme welcomes composers of all ages who are early in their careers and have never heard their work performed by professional musicians.

LCO New builds on the success of the orchestra’s earlier composer scheme, which was active in the early 2000s and included Daniel Kidane as a course participant.

Kidane commented: “It's brilliant to hear that the LCO are reviving their emerging composer scheme, LCO New. It was such a fantastic experience for me as a student to be able to work with LCO and Graham Fitkin, who was the composition coach at the time. Having my piece Temporal Decay performed and recorded by professional musicians was an invaluable opportunity and it's been great to hear it performed again by LCO with Christopher Warren-green at Cadogan Hall, 10 years later.”

Graham Fitkin will return to the programme this season as a panellist, alongside LCO Composer in Residence Freya Waley-Cohen and Blaiso Kavuma.

Applications are now open and will close on 18th March 2022. For more information, visit https://www.lco.co.uk/learning/lco-new
LCO is proud to support SAM Fair Access Principles. LCO Diversity, Inclusivity & Equality Officer Elise Campbell comments: “LCO New is about finding the most exciting emerging talent and, wherever possible, removing any barriers to participation.  Working with partners, including Sound Scotland and Sound & Music, we’re doing everything we can to ensure LCO New is accessible, inclusive and feels truly open to emerging composers from all musical, cultural and social backgrounds. With this in mind, there is no upper age limit, and applicants won’t need to read music or write a score and we will offer a long application window to give composers the time and space to submit their work. Personalised feedback will be available to any applicant who wants to receive it and we’ll make sure they have an opportunity to share their views confidentially on our application process as well.  There is a place for everyone in classical music and LCO is excited to champion and support the pipeline of future talent from all backgrounds which make up our vibrant musical community.” For more information, visit https://soundandmusic.org/post/lco-fair-access-commitments/

LCO New is a crucial part of the orchestra’s ongoing commitment to pursuing fresh new compositions. The orchestra regularly commissions and performs UK and world premieres by living composers. Previous premieres include works by Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Poulenc, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan and Freya Waley-Cohen. Recent seasons saw new commissions by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Prokofiev, Freya Waley-Cohen and Nicholas Korth, and repeat performances of recent works by Timothy Jackson and Graham Fitkin.

Below are a couple of LCO discs available for purchase via Amazon: