Sametz heading panels at American Choral Directors Association national conference in Minneapolis, March 8-12, 2017

In his role as advisor on composition to the American Choral Directors Association, Sametz has designed a series of panels devoted to composition of choral music, including masterclasses for composers participating in the Brock Student Composition Competition, Canadian and American choral music, the Composing Conductor, and Business Models for Composers in the Age of the Internet. Guest speakers include Dale Warland, Libby Larsen and Barlow Bradford.

Sametz leads The Princeton Singers in concerts in China

In September, 2016, The Princeton Singers headlined the Fourth International Choral Festival in Shenzhen, China. At the invitation of the Chinese government, Sametz led masterclasses for over 100 Chinese choral directors and conducted The Princeton Singers in a concert of American works at the state-of-the-art Shenzhen concert hall.

While in China, The Princeton Singers also took part in a flash mob, which included a rousing rendition of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth, sung in Chinese and accompanied by fifty Chinese dulcimers. Memories were made!

The Premiere of “A Child’s Requiem”

“A Child’s Requiem” was premiered Thursday, March 5th at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs with The University of Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and University of Connecticut Concert Choir, Chorus Angelicus Children’s Choir of Torrington and soloists Jillian Cowles, treble; Janani Sridhar, soprano; and Gregory Zavracky, tenor, under the direction of Dr Jamie Spillane.  It will be presented again Saturday at the Palace Theater in Stamford.

 

In the news

WTNH – Westport-born composer dedicates piece to Sandy Hook, Newtown

WNPR – “A Child’s Requiem” Offers Consolation After Sandy Hook

The Newtown Bee – ‘A Child’s Requiem’ At UConn And Stamford Center for the Arts

Sametz to be in residence at Yaddo, Feb-March 2014

Sametz has been invited as a Fellow at the Yaddo Artist Colony in the Spring of 2014, where he will be concentrating on his new A Child’s Requiem during sabbatical leave from Lehigh University.  

Founded in 1900, Yaddo is an artists’ community  dedicated to nurturing the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.  Yaddo offers residencies to professional creative artists from all nations and backgrounds working in one or more of the following media: choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video.

For more information about Yaddo, see http://yaddo.org

Lehigh University Composers Forum

The Lehigh University Composers Forum (June 22-29, 2014) announces guest mentor-composer, Grammy-Award nominee Tania León. The Lehigh Choral Composers Forum, in association with the ACDA, offers a unique opportunity to composers of all levels to explore and develop their compositional voices in a weeklong intensive seminar held at Lehigh University’s beautiful Zoellner Arts Center, during which Tania León and Steven Sametz will offer their support and mentorship.

Tania León, a Cuban-born composer and conductor, is recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. She has been profiled on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision, Telemundo, and independent films.

León’s opera, Scourge of Hyacinths, which is based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received over 20 performances throughout Europe and Mexico. Commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and the city of Munich for the Fourth Munich Biennale, it took home the coveted BMW Prize. The aria “Oh Yemanja” (“Mother’s Prayer”) was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD, “The World So Wide.”

taniaCommissions include works for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Koussevitzky Foundation, Fest der Kontinente (Hamburg, Germany), Cincinnati Symphony, National Endowment for the Arts, NDR Sinfonie Orchester, American Composers Orchestra, The Library of Congress, Ensemble Modern, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, and The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among others.

Her works have been performed by such orchestras as the Gewaundhausorchester, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the China National Symphony, and the NDR Orchestra. She has collaborated with authors and directors including John Ashbury, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Lamos, Julie Taymor, and Derek Walcott.