The Mizzou International Composers Festival -- taking place each July in Columbia, Missouri -- features three public concerts, presentations, workshops, and more. Featuring ensemble-in-residence Alarm Will Sound as well as two distinguished guest composers, the festival selects eight resident composers each year through an application process to compose new works that will be premiered by Alarm Will Sound at the festival. During the week, resident composers will rehearse closely with the ensemble, give public presentations on their work, and receive private lessons with the guest composers (Amy Beth Kirsten and Donnacha Dennehy). 

Chelsea has been selected for fellowship at the Susan and Ford Schumann Center for Composition Studies at the 2019 Aspen Music Festival. Students work intimately with AMFS composition faculty (Christopher Theofanidis and Stephen Hartke), composers-in-residence, and guest composers, as well as Aspen’s own Music Director Robert Spano and President and CEO Alan Fletcher, both active composers. Student works will be performed by students of the AMFS in a variety of mixed ensemble configurations including the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra. 

An all-scholarship, intensive creative workshop and mentoring program for highly-gifted composers at the start of their professional careers, CULTIVATE will take place this year between June 3 and 9 in northern Westchester County, NY, at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home in Cortlandt Manor and at the Merestead estate in nearby Mount Kisco. Launched in 2012, CULTIVATE quickly became a coveted destination for these young creative artists. The six Fellows will each create a new composition that serves as the focus of an intensive week of collective and individual daily rehearsals and workshops with Bermel and Principal and Guest Artists from the Music from Copland House ensemble, hailed by Louisville Weekly as “one of the leading champions of contemporary music.” Evening discussion sessions focus on practical and professional career matters, and feature prominent, forward-looking arts leaders. CULTIVATE concludes with a public concert by the ensemble on Sunday afternoon, June 9 on Copland House's mainstage performance series at Merestead, featuring the World Premieres of all the new works. All costs of composer participation, working sessions and rehearsals, travel, accommodations, and meals are covered by Copland House. CULTIVATE composers receive pre-Fellowship creative counsel and advice from Bermel and the ensemble, and become eligible for ongoing career advancement support and prospective recording, performance, and commission opportunities.

I had a wonderful time as composer in residence with the Key City Winds in Abilene, TX! The weekend included a great concert of woodwind quintets by women throughout history and a guest lecture at Abilene Christian University.