ACF’s McKnight Composer Fellows: Mitchell Bercier, Mary Ellen Childs, Queen Drea, and Reinaldo Moya
In partnership with American Composers Forum
Fri, Feb 3, 8 pm
Icehouse
Join us for a showcase of American Composers Forum’s most recent cohort of McKnight Composer Fellows: Mitchell Bercier, Mary Ellen Childs, Queen Drea, and Reinaldo Moya. Each artist will present 20 minutes of their music (to be announced).
About the composers
Mitchell Bercier, M. Mus. is a composer, illustrator, and producer. He studied design and art history at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he was awarded a B.F.A. in graphic design (2013). He studied music at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Professor Paul Mealor, where he was awarded a Master’s in Music (2018). His work has been supported by the MN State Arts Board (2012) and The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (2014, 2021). He has presented his research in music and sonic arts at international conferences including the 6th International Conference on New Music Concepts (Treviso, Italy) and Convergence 2019 (De Montfort University, Leicester). He produces electronic and algorithmic dance music under the artist name Ghostchamb3r.
Mary Ellen Childs is a composer interested in all the senses: she is known for works that speak not only to the ears, but to the eyes, and even the nose. She creates distinctive sound worlds and often writes for specific architecture or environments; Stone Steel Wood Glass Light, commissioned for the Chicago Architectural Biennial, drew inspiration from the Farnsworth House, a glass house designed by Mies van der Rohe. Her Aromusica installation with sound and scent recently opened at Proyecto ‘ace in Buenos Aires, and she is currently at work on two other installations. DrumRoll will be exhibited at the University Gallery in Kirksville, MO in Fall 2022, and NORTH for Zeitgeist based on her residency aboard a Tall Ship in the Arctic, will premiere at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN in 2023.
Childs has held artist residencies at the Bellagio Center (Italy), Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), Yaddo, Djerassi, Millay Colony, and Emily Harvey Foundation (Venice, Italy). She has received grants and commissions from Opera America, Kronos Quartet, The Kitchen, Walker Art Center, Other Minds, MAP Fund, and Creative Capital, and she has been named a United States Artist Fellow.
A sound alchemist mixing up potions laced with looped natural and affected vocals, jagged rhythms, and found sounds, Queen Drea’s compositions are often conceived under the auspices of improvisational settings, which is where she thrives most. Drea has been commissioned to compose soundscapes for dance companies Ananya Dance Theatre, Black Label Movement, and Brother(h)ood Dance, and composed and designed sound for Penumbra Theatre’s production of “For Colored Girls.” Drea was a Pillsbury House Theater 2020 Naked Stages Fellow and has become a staple at the venue, which she calls her artistic home, designing sound and composing original music for “The Great Divide: She Persists,” “The Great Divide: Flip the Script,” and “What to Send Up, When it Goes Down” by Aleshea Harris.
Reinaldo Moya is a graduate of Venezuela’s El Sistema music education system. He is the recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the McKnight Composer Fellowship, the Van Lier Fellowship, and the Aaron Copland Award. He was the winner of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award, leading to the commissioning of his Piano Concerto for Joyce Yang and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Moya’s works have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, the San Diego Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and the New Jersey Symphony. Other performers include the Jasper and Attacca String Quartets, the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and the Lysander Piano Trio, among others. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School with Masters and Doctoral degrees, studying with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. Mr. Moya has taught at St. Olaf College, the Interlochen Arts Camp, and is currently Associate Professor of Composition at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
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 www.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.