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The Vermont Composers Initiative

The Green Mountain Suzuki Instiitute is very pleased to announce the beginning of a new and innovative program this year, the Vermont Composers Initiative. This initiative is a five-year program which will bring together young musicians with living composers, and will develop a body of ensemble music written by both professional Vermont composers and Vermont student composers who are mentored by the professional composers. New works will be premiered at GMSI and RCMS concert venues, culminating in an anthology of published music. It is with great appreciation that the Institute announces that this project has received generous support from the Vermont Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts Meet the Composers Fund, and several private donors.

The Vermont Composers Initiative has 3 components:

  • The commissioning of a new work for student trio written by a professional composer. The composer will attend the GMSI as Composer-in-Residence, and, in addition to teaching two electives classes, will coach a trio of student musicians in preparing the new work for performance during the Green Mountain Suzuki Institute's week in Rochester. The work is then premiered at the final concert of the Institute.
  • RCMS/GMSI partners with the Vermont MIDI Project to mentor a student composer to write a piece for student trio. The young composer will attend the GMSI, and, coached by the Composer-in-Residence, will work with a student trio. This work would also be performed at the Suzuki Institute's final concert.
  • The culmination of the 5 year program will be an anthology of original compositions by Vermont composers and student composers that will be published and distributed by Pen Stroke Press, a non-profit press located in Rochester that was developed by a School-to-Work initiative, and dedicated to publishing new and student voices. The release of the collection will be celebrated by performances around the state, with book signing events that feature the professional and student composers.

This year, GMSI is please to welcome Dr. Peter Hamlin as our Composer-in-Residence.

This year'sGMSI Composer-in-Residence is Peter Hamlin, a member of the music faculty at Middlebury College since 2004. Dr. Hamlin earned his Ph.D. at the Eastman School of Music where he studied composition with Joseph Schwantner and Samuel Adler. His masters studies were with Peter Michaelides at the University of Northern Iowa, and his undergraduate composition teacher at Middlebury College was George Todd. He was previously on the faculty at St. Olaf College in Minnesota (1992-2004).

Dr. Hamlin's music includes works for orchestra, band and wind ensemble, and choir. He has music for a children's musical and an electronic opera based on Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. Recent commissions have come from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble and recent recordings of his work have been made by the male choir Cantus. Hamlin also has a strong interest in electronic music and has written numerous pieces for that medium as well as performing and recording with the live electronic improv band Data Stream.

Awards for his work have included a Parents' Choice National Gold Award for children's media, the McCurdy Prize, Louis Lane Prize, the Kenneth Davenport National Orchestral Prize, and an Amadeus Choir of Toronto Christmas Carol Award.

Before teaching, Dr. Hamlin was a radio documentary and feature producer in San Diego (1974-1980) and hosted his own classical music program in Iowa (1980-1990). He has also hosted numerous programs on Iowa Public Television since 1981, and continues to work for them occasionally, including appearances as a field reporter for IPTV's annual coverage of the Iowa State Fair.

A student from the Vermont MIDI Project will also be joining us this summer with a new piece developed under the mentorship of Erik Nielsen and Dr. Hamlin. Details will be posted here when available.

. Information about the 2007 VCI experience

. Information about the 2005 and 2006 VCI experiences.

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