Jeffrey Milarsky
American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky has drawn worldwide acclaim for his impeccable musicianship, exhilarating presence, and innovative programming. He last conducted American Composers Orchestra in 2008, leading the orchestra in its season-opening concert and again in its cutting-edge laboratory, Playing it UNsafe. His wide-ranging repertoire—from Bach to Xenakis—has brought him to lead such ensembles and musicians as The MET Chamber Ensemble, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, the Fromm Players at Harvard University, and members of the New York Philharmonic.
Mr. Milarsky is Professor of Music at Columbia University, where he is Music Director and Conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra. He is also on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble. In addition, he is Music Director of AXIOM, the critically acclaimed contemporary music ensemble of The Juilliard School, where he joined the conducting faculty in 2008.
Mr. Milarsky made his debut at New York City Opera during the 2008–2009 season. In the summer of 2008, he was called to Tanglewood to substitute for James Levine in an all–Elliott Carter program that celebrated the composer’s 100th birthday. In 2006, he substituted for James Levine at Carnegie Hall, conducting an all–Milton Babbitt concert of chamber music. The following year, he led the acclaimed New York premiere of Elliott Carter’s only opera What Next? to sold-out performances.
Mr. Milarsky holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding leadership and achievement in the arts. He regularly conducts The Juilliard Orchestra, with whom he has premiered more than 150 works by student composers over the past 15 years.
American Composers Orchestra
Now in its 33rd year, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers. ACO makes the creation of new opportunities for American composers and new American orchestral music its central purpose. Through its concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, radio broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO identifies today’s brightest emerging composers; champions prominent established composers and those lesser-known; and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music.
To date, ACO has performed music by 600 American composers, including 200 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Among the orchestra’s innovative programs have been Sonidos de las Américas, six annual festivals devoted to Latin American composers and their music; Coming to America, a program immersing audiences in the ongoing evolution of American music through the work of immigrant composers; Orchestra Tech, a festival and long-term initiative to integrate new digital technologies in the symphony orchestra; Improvise!, a festival devoted to the exploration of improvisation and the orchestra; Playing it UNsafe, a new laboratory for the research and development of experimental new works for orchestra; and, of course, Orchestra Underground, ACO’s entrepreneurial cutting-edge orchestral ensemble that embraces new technology, eclectic instruments, influences, and spatial orientation of the orchestra, new experiments in the concert format, and multimedia and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Among the honors ACO has received are special awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI in recognition of the orchestra’s outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded its annual prize for adventurous programming to ACO 32 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States,” and most recently awarding ACO the 2008 ASCAP Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming. ACO received the inaugural METLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. ACO recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, and online at InstantEncore.com. Visit americancomposers.org for more information, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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