American Composers Forum

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American Composers Forum The American Composers Forum facilitates an ecosystem of creativity through music.

Our goal is to make music creators, and their music, a vibrant and integral part of human culture.

2014 McKnight Composer Fellow Jocelyn Hagen joins ACF Program Director Brian Dowdy for a conversation about her new piec...
10/29/2026

2014 McKnight Composer Fellow Jocelyn Hagen joins ACF Program Director Brian Dowdy for a conversation about her new piece, "Creation." Receiving its world premiere by the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, University Treble Chorus, and Minnesota Chorale, "Creation" is an immersive, transcendent experience that invites audiences to reflect on the interconnectedness of life, light, and love, reimagining the story of existence through a feminine lens. Tickets and more information at https://cla.umn.edu/music/news-events/events/creation-jocelyn-hagen

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10/28/2026

Composer opportunity!
We are one of the co-sponsors of the Edvard Munch House residency, and will send one Minnesotan artist to WarnemĂĽnde, Germany in 2027 for a creative residency. Applications are open until November 30th. Apply today!

10/23/2026

2025 McKnight Composer Fellow Shruthi Rajasekar is band-ing together with Minnesota wind band students for a performance this weekend! Learn more by watching this video, and stay tuned for more activity from our McKnight fellows!

10/22/2026
Recomposing America is back! Learn more about the amazing artists and activations coming to you this season by visiting ...
10/20/2026

Recomposing America is back! Learn more about the amazing artists and activations coming to you this season by visiting our website. https://composersforum.org/recomposing-america

From composer Juhi Bansal, ACF has commissioned a new work for Del Sol Quartet The piece will be part of their Angel Island Concert Series in the San Francisco Bay.

For Hunter BDM's Recomposing America project, ACF has commissioned a new album titled Heart of a Lion King 3 that fuses hip-hop, punk, and soul.

From Natalie Brown ACF has commissioned a new blues opera titled 90 Miles from Anywhere that is set among Black migrant farmworkers on Long Island during the winter of 1965–66.

Zeelie Brown's Recomposing America residency includes the creation of a new work titled americasongs. The collection of pieces for choir also includes a site-specific installation of found objects gathered around the Twin Cities.

L.A. Buckner's Recomposing America project, in partnership with the in Minneapolis, is part social experiment, part American popular music masterclass, featuring drums, guitar, piano, sampling, DJing, singing, and rapping.

Gilad Cohen & Ronvé O’Daniel’s Recomposing America collaboration, Here We Stand, is inspired by the life of 20th-century actor and activist Paul Robeson. Honoring the 50th anniversary of Robeson’s death.

Christine Gangelhoff's chamber ensemble C Force’s residency will explore classical music of the Caribbean and its connections to the broader Americas through performance, education, and community collaboration in Minnesota.

ACF has commissioned a new composition for hip-hop orchestra by Jeffrey "The Phantom" McNeill titled Maniac Maestro for his ensemble, Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra, exploring a tug of war between the maestro and the MC.

For his Recomposing America project, Daniel Bernard Roumain will present a new work titled Black Joy Verses for Castle of our Skins

ACF has commissioned a new cross-cultural album titled Black Lilies that features global artists across the African diaspora from artist Taylor Ngiri Seaberg.

Composed by Annie Blythe and Brendon Randall-Myers for solo cello and orchestra, Only in the Dark grew from the composer...
10/13/2026

Composed by Annie Blythe and Brendon Randall-Myers for solo cello and orchestra, Only in the Dark grew from the composers’ experiences as neurodiverse individuals, and their parallel journeys toward understanding their own histories, neurologies, and relationships to their bodies and emotions. Through the colors of solo cello and orchestra, musical gestures emerge, accumulate, fracture, and dissolve in moments of intensity, distortion, fragility, silence, and spaciousness. For tickets and information, visit https://www.contemporaneous.org/events

Photo by Manuel Cini

Artists and culture bearers from 15 McKnight Fellowship programs recently gathered to celebrate creativity and community...
10/05/2026

Artists and culture bearers from 15 McKnight Fellowship programs recently gathered to celebrate creativity and community in Minnesota. Apply to ACF's Composer Fellowship program by October 12 for the chance to be part of next year's cohort of music-creators and change-makers!

https://composersforum.org/programs/mcknight-composer-fellowships

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