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About Santa Fe New Music
Mission: Through concerts, commissions, and educational events, Santa Fe New Music promotes understanding of, enthusiasm for, and participation in the music of our time, serving as an advocate for new classical music and its future.
History
SFNM serves as a community pillar institution for Santa Fe and the region, advancing new classical music as a living art form. Founded in 2000, SFNM presents rarely performed classics by 20th and 21st century composers, along with new and recent music by living composers spanning a broad and diverse stylistic range. Presented at the highest artistic level, SFNM’s concerts are multifaceted, compelling and highly engaging, with a thoughtful, curatorial approach to programming, contextual guideposts, and multidisciplinary collaborations that help audiences experience the new in exciting and accessible ways.
The visionary leadership and international stature of founding Artistic Director John Kennedy is a key component of SFNM’s significance within the national and international new music community. One of today’s leading advocates of new music, Mr. Kennedy, former President of the board of the American Music Center, has over 20 years of international experience leading premieres and performances by many of today’s leading composers. He is Artistic Associate for the Spoleto Festival, USA, founder of New York’s Essential Music, and has been commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, and many others.
Programs
In addition to its self-produced concerts for ensembles as large as chamber orchestra, SFNM presents leading performers of new music, often not heard outside the two coasts. These have included Meredith Monk, So Percussion, Terry Riley, the Bowed Piano Ensemble, and Imani Winds, among many others—with several artists and a great many works experiencing their regional or New Mexico premiere through SFNM concerts. (Over the first seven seasons, SFNM has presented over 220 different works by 114 composers. Nearly thirty of these have been World Premieres, a dozen have been American premieres, 15% have been by women composers, and a third by international composers.)
To assert the role of post-classical music with excitement and relevance for all, SFNM often works across disciplines and with other arts organizations. Ongoing collaborations include an annual "Living Composer Portrait" presented with the Santa Fe Opera, frequent summer collaborations with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and musical and educational events presented in collaboration with SITE Santa Fe, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and others.
Education and Outreach
Fostering familiarity and appreciation of the music of our time is an important component of SFNM’s work with adults and youth alike. SFNM’s New Mexico Young Composers' Project, a statewide educational program and competition for composers 18 and under, has, over eight years, presented over 30 awards, and conducted public performances of youth compositions in a concert setting.
An adult education program launching in Fall, 2008, in conjunction with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and a robust Web 2.0 education platform with community blog, podcasts, and social networking initiatives, ensure that the discovery and enjoyment of new music can extend beyond the concert hall.
In 2005, SFNM launched the SFNM CoMISSION Club, a low-entry-cost, community-based initiative that annually commissions a leading American composer. SFNM Commission recipients have included Eve Beglarian, Ingram Marshall, and Missy Mazzoli. SFNM is also developing new music-based outreach programs that will provide service-providing nonprofit agencies (and their child, youth and adult constituents) with hands-on, direct arts outreach/education programs that are innovative, authentic, and co-participatory.
SFNM released two critically acclaimed, limited-edition CDs with an independent label in 2000 and 2002 (One Body, and Shock of the Old), the latter being selected by WQXR/Chamber Music America as a "CD of the Year" for 2002.
In 2008-2009 SFNM expands its youth education programs to include a biannual Youth Opera Project. The first production will be of The Language of Birds, originally commissioned by the Sarasota Opera in 2004, and showcased at the 2004 Opera America convention. The opera will feature a cast of 100 children ages 8-18, working with a professional artistic team and a professional chamber orchestra. The opera will enjoy three performances at the Lensic and one at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, in March, 2009.
Future
A 501(c)3 organization, SFNM enjoys a diverse and expanding portfolio of philanthropic support from government and private local and national foundations. In 2007, its Board of Directors devised a strategic plan calling for aggressive fiscal and programmatic expansion. Mid-range projections include expansion of year-round programming, the debut of a two-week summer intensive residency/festival, additional CD-quality studio recordings (for Internet download), and mounting productions of significant works of recent repertoire that will tour to other areas of the state, region, and beyond.
