Ever dreamed of playing Carnegie Hall? Holy smokes do we have the Help Desk special guest for you!

Tapped as Carnegie Hall’s Director of Artistic Planning in 2020, one of our favorite things about Ab Sengupta – besides the fact that he is a violist (WOOT!) – is that he inhabits a performer’s perspective in his role as a top-level music administrator. Join us for this can’t-miss Help Desk exclusive!

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We are chuffed to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang to the Help Desk this November! He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can and his work has been recorded on the Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, BMG, Point, Chandos, Argo/Decca, and Cantaloupe labels, among others. And it would probably be more efficient to list the major performers and ensembles that haven’t played his work, rather than the staggering number of those that have.

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We are very fortunate to welcome Northwestern University associate professor of composition and music technology Alex Mincek to the Help Desk this October! A co-founder of – and performer with – the eminent Wet Ink Ensemble, Alex is uniquely positioned to answer questions from composers and players alike. A brief hangout – a chance to vent, encourage, and check in – will immediately follow the presentation.

This event is FREE with an RSVP

For this Help Desk, we welcome one of our dearest friends and collaborators, Samuel Adams, who Chicagoans will know from his tenure as Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony. Not only did Sam write us a stunner of a quartet recently, he is also one of those artists who immediately brightens a room a few lumens with his disarming personality and thoughtful dialogue. He has much to share about The Business, but even more to give when it comes to talking about The Music. It is basically impossible to have anything other than an outstanding time when hanging with Sam, so do yourself a favor and get to this Help Desk!

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Our cavalcade of collegiate New Music Help Desks continues with a program very close to our collective heart. Ensemble 20+ is an adventurous new music endeavor headed up by our friend, and DePaul University faculty member and Dal Niente conductor, Michael Lewanski.

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What if there was a new-music customer service hotline, available to answer your extended technique, notation, score preparation, or where-in-the-world-does-this-harmonic-live questions? We created the New Music Help Desk during quarantine to answer that need for young performers and composers and the popular online series lands at the DePauw campus for an exclusive event on April 21st.

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Sponsored by the Kansas University Cello Club and the KU School of Music composition department, our next New Music Help Desk is positioned to address topics far beyond notation and technique. We are honored to be part of KU’s mini-festival titled "Behind the Music: an Exploration of Social Issues in Music,” so we’ve invited one of our dearest friends and longest-running collaborators, composer Eliza Brown, to join us on the panel.

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The New Music Help Desk is a unique opportunity for composers and performers to get face time with Spektral – to ask pointed questions about notation, feasibility, tuning systems, harmonics, or simply how to stay motivated in the midst of a quarantine.

For this event we will answer questions from BGSU musicians exclusively and will be joined by BGSU alumn and Quince Ensemble co-founder, soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett! Career advice, score preparation, harmonics, notation, movie recommendations…it’s all fair game. We can’t wait to hear what’s on your mind!

For this event we are bringing you Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/performer Caroline Shaw, an artist who wears her considerable fame lightly and seems to approach creativity from a place of continuous discovery. Performers and composers alike will have in Caroline an incredible resource in the realms of creation, programming, and career and if there’s one thing we know about her it’s that Caroline is unsparing in sharing her experience and expertise.

For this event we are bringing you Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun, an absolute force of nature in the contemporary music world and a lovely human being, to boot. We’ve had her album Dinosaur Scar on rotation since it dropped, and to call her a “diva,” as many do, when in the performer role doesn’t even remotely do her justice.

We are stoked to have Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Jerry Hou for this Help Desk. We had the opportunity to work with him in the Grossman Ensemble last season and were inspired by his balance of rigor and humor. On faculty at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Jerry is a top-level pedagogue, and he is equally skilled in traditional and new musics. He is also one of the friendliest, wicked-smart artists we know. You are in for a real treat here, friends.

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For this Help Desk, we welcome the brilliant flutist/composer/producer – and our friend – Allison Loggins-Hull. In addition to co-founding the distinctive flute duo Flutronix and her faculty positions at The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University and The Juilliard School’s Global Ventures, Allison was also a producer on our GRAMMY-nominated album with Nathalie Joachim, Fanm d’Ayiti.

Considering Allison’s multi-faceted career, we expect a wide-ranging discussion and look forward to your pre-submitted questions!

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One of our oldest friends and collaborators, Chris Fisher-Lochhead is a generous artist with an approach to music-making that is both exacting and intuitive. He joins us at the New Music Help Desk to answer your most burning questions about the creative process, notation, career…whatever YOU want to know.

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The New Music Help Desk is here to answer your questions this Dec. 4th! For this episode, one of the most compelling (and topical) voices in contemporary music – composer/singer/bandleader/recording artist/USC composition faculty member Ted Hearne – joins the quartet panel to answer your most burning questions about composing and performing contemporary music. Sign up now to submit your question or just to watch!

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New Music Help Desk returns on October 30th! For this one, our friend and world-renowned composer and pedagogue Augusta Read Thomas joins the quartet panel to answer your most burning questions about composing and performing contemporary music. Sign up now to submit your question or just to watch!

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Spektral Quartet & pianist/composer Anthony Cheung answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & composer Marcos Balter answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & pianist/composer Conrad Tao answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & composer Alex Temple answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & journalist Barbara Brotman answer your most pressing new-music questions, live, in this Audience Edition of the Help Desk

***Please note 4pm start time***

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Spektral Quartet & violin/viola new-music specialist Miranda Cuckson answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & composer/performer Nico Muhly answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & composer/performer Katherine Young answer your most pressing new-music questions, live

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Spektral Quartet & composer Sam Pluta answer your most pressing new-music questions, live