An evening with McKnight Composer Fellows Ashley DuBose, Ritika Ganguly, George Maurer and Mary Prescott

Sun, Feb 6, 7 pm (5 pm doors)
$5 advance ($10 at the door)
Copresented with American Composers Forum
Icehouse

Please note: Proof of a full course of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test taken in the prior 72 hours is required at the door. Masks are required while not eating or drinking.

Capping off The Great Northern 2022 is a showcase of ACF’s most recent cohort of McKnight Composer Fellows: Ashley DuBose, Ritika Ganguly, George Maurer, and Mary Prescott. Each artist will present 20 minutes of their music (to be announced).

Ashley DuBose is a Minneapolis-based singer, songwriter and actress. She was a Top 32 contestant on NBC’s “The Voice” and voted Best Female R&B Singer by City Pages in their 2015 “Best of the Twin Cities” issue. With two albums, one EP, and a myriad of singles and collaborations available to the listening public, Ashley continues to build a catalogue of music enjoyed by fans in over 137 countries. Ashley has traveled the country performing at special occasions, local community events, corporate galas and concerts all while balancing the responsibilities of motherhood and entrepreneurship. Ms. DuBose holds a degree in Mathematics from St. Catherine University and was a first generation college graduate. She is on track to be the first person in her family to own a home and trying to show her daughter that dreams do come true with faith, perseverance, and integrity.

Ritika Ganguly, Ph.D. is a Minneapolis-based composer and anthropologist born and raised in New Delhi, India. She has trained in multiple genres within Bengali music and contemporary Indian musical theater. She is committed to vocabulary-building of South Asian folk music in the Twin Cities and her work often comments on western stereotypes of South Asian musical genres and practices. When not composing or consulting, she can be found coaching her students in voice culture, ear-training, deep listening, and expressive vocalizing. Her vocal, compositional, and coaching work pushes us to rely less on music notation and theory, and more on audiative practices that deepen our aptitude to hear and express.

Ritika has been awarded several grants for her research and new musical work in Baul (Bengali Sufi music/poetry). She was recently commissioned by the Minnesota Opera to compose a mini opera in Bangla. She is a loose, long-leaf tea enthusiast and has an impulse to connect with people over cha (tea). Learn more about her work here.

George Maurer’s journey as a composer has, in recent years, been propelled on a bicycle, raising funds for cancer research, and capturing sounds and stories inspired by a vulnerability to the elements. Across Iceland’s Highland interior, taking in residency experiences; to Vietnam where he struggled with traditional language but learned about the lingering effects of war; to Newfoundland, where artists talked about their role as change agents in coastal communities. A recent bike-packing journey across Patagonia included interactions with jazz musicians, and research in Buenos Aires focused on a tango-tinged song-cycle of theater and dance, based on poetry written by Argentina’s famed Latina poet, Alfonsina Storni.

George’s expeditions have helped him launch his first podcast, “Tales from a Bicycle Seat”, which explores artists and issues he’s encountered on the road. They’ve also helped him evolve new understandings of what it means to be a composer: the open air and slow transport aspects of biking inspires new relationships, and music can be found in the stories that people share.

His next project: “Unfrozen”, with librettist Anne Bertram, exemplifies this approach; utilizing the writings of the great explorers of polar regions, and using their words to create music-theater that sparks discussion about climate change in communities of all sizes. “Unfrozen” is inspired in part by a recent bike adventure to the Chilean Antarctic region.

Being on both a bicycle seat and at a piano bench has afforded George access to many people who have influenced his life and work as a composer.

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. She aims to foster understanding and create pathways for change by voicing emotional and human truths through artistic investigation and dissemination.

Prescott’s output includes several large-scale interdisciplinary works, opera, improvised music, sound journaling, film music, solo and chamber concert works. Featured in “21 for ‘21: Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow,” The Washington Post describes her work as “a bright light cast forward… uncompromising,” and “masterfully envisioned.”

Prescott is an awardee of the National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts; a National Performance Network Documentation and Storytelling Grant; a New Music USA Project Grant; an American Composers Forum Create Commission supported by the Jerome Foundation; The American Opera Project Composers and the Voice Fellowship; an Opera America New Works Forum Grant; and several state and regional awards. She has been commissioned by Roulette Intermedium, Living Arts of Tulsa, White Snake Projects, Public Functionary, Piano Teachers Congress of NY, Shepherdess Duo and Duo Harmonia. She has held artist residencies with Roulette Intermedium, Lanesboro Arts, Hudson Hall, Areté Venue and Gallery, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, The League of Independent Theater, and Arts Letters and Numbers.

About the McKnight Artist Fellowships Program:
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 14 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.

About the American Composers Forum:
ACF supports and advocates for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We connect artists with collaborators, organizations, audiences, and resources. Through storytelling, publications, recordings, hosted gatherings, and industry leadership, we activate equitable opportunities for artists. We provide direct funding and mentorship to a broad and diverse field of music creators, highlighting those who have been historically excluded from participation.

Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on racial equity and includes within that scope, but does not limit to: diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of being “American.” Visit www.composersforum.org for more information.