[FROMM Music Foundation News Release] The Board of Directors of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University is pleased to announce the names of fourteen composers selected to receive 2018 Fromm commissions. These commissions represent one of the principal ways that the Fromm Music Foundation seeks to strengthen composition and to bring contemporary concert music closer to the public. In addition to the commissioning fee, a subsidy is available for the ensemble performing the premiere of the commissioned work.

The composers who received commissions are Oscar Bettison,Jersey City, NJ; Richard Festinger, Richmond, CA; Darius Jones,Woodside, NY; Chihchun Chi-sun Lee, Weatherford, OK; Elainie Lillios,Bowling Green, OH; Eric Nathan,Larchmont, NY; Eugene O’Brien, Bloomington, IN; Yoshiaki Onishi, Columbia, MO; Igor Santos,Evanston, IL; Carl Schimmel, Grinnell, IA; Bright Sheng,Saline, MI; Sheila Silver, Spencertown, NY; Andrew Waggoner, New York, NY; and Nina C. Young, New York, NY.

Founded by the patron of contemporary music, the late Paul Fromm, the Fromm Foundation is now in its sixty-second year, having been located at Harvard University for the past forty-two. Since the 1950s, it has commissioned well over 300 new compositions and their performances, and has sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series. “I want to know you,” Igor Stravinsky once said to Fromm, “because contemporary music has many friends but only a few lovers.”

Among a number of other projects, the Fromm Music Foundation sponsors the annual Fromm Contemporary Music Series at Harvard; this year’s performance, Perle Noire: Meditation for Joséphine, will take place May 3 at 10pm at Oberon (2 Arrow Street, Cambridge). Perle Noire is a unique evening honoring the brilliance, daring, public courage and private tragedies of Joséphine Baker. Conceived by Peter Sellars, this tour-de- force features soprano Julia Bullock, with original music by Tyshawn Sorey and texts by Claudia Rankine. Performed by International Contemporary Ensemble.

Applications for commissions are reviewed on an annual basis. The annual deadline for proposals is June 1. Requests for guidelines should be sent to The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, Department of Music, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. website.