The Alvarez Chamber Orchestra is a

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-based organisation dedicated to the promotion and performance of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

. Its Honorary President is

Sir Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...

. It holds an annual composition competition, "Plucked from Nowhere", for new music for

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

and

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

. American composer Molly Kien is the author of ''The Song of

Britomartis Britomartis (;) was a Greek goddess of mountains, nets, and hunting who was primarily worshipped on the island of Crete. She was sometimes described as a nymph, but she was more commonly conflated or syncretized with the goddesses Artemis, Athena ...

'', the winning entry of the 2009 competition. Artists who have worked with the orchestra include

Nicholas Daniel Nicholas Daniel (born 9 January 1962) is a British oboist and conductor. In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Leicester International Music Festival. Education He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and the Purcell School. ...

, its Honorary Vice President

Zygmunt Krauze Zygmunt Krauze (born September 19, 1938) is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music, educator, and pianist. Biography Zygmunt Krauze is an important artist of his generation: a respected composer, valued pianist, educator, organiser of m ...

, and guitarist Timothy Walker. In 2008, the orchestra was invited to introduce its Autumn season ''Northern Ayres: An Anglo Polish Celebration'' at St John's Smith Square in the Polish Embassy in London.

History

The ACO was active from 1979 to 1985 as a student and semi-professional orchestra that consisted of musicians from the NYO,

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, and the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

. It performed a wide range of classical and contemporary chamber works, until it was disbanded when its founder,

Geoffrey Álvarez Geoffrey Álvarez is a British/Nicaraguan composer and conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematic ...

, left London in 1985. In 2007 the ACO was re-formed as a professional orchestra and charitable trust, with the goal of performing music by contemporary international composers, who are little known in Britain, alongside that of their better known British colleagues.

Repertoire

The ACO specialises in international music, commissioning and performing new works by artists who are little known outside of their homelands. In its first professional season (2008) the focus was upon the music of England and Poland, and this included various pieces by Aleksander Tansman. The orchestra performed the London premières of the Tansman ''Clarinet Concerto'' with clarinettist Alison Turriff, his ''Second Sinfonietta'', and ''Diptyque''.Alvarez, Geoffrey. "Aleksander Tansman" ''Jewish Renaissance'' Vol. 8 Issue 1 October 2008 The ACO has also commissioned works by Boguslaw Schaeffer,

Diana Burrell Diana Elizabeth Jane Burrell (born 25 October 1948) is an English composer and viola player. Life and career Burrell was born on 25 October 1948 in Norwich, England. Her parents were Bernard Burrell, a schoolteacher by profession who served as ...

and Paul Patterson, and has also performed works by its founder and conductor

References

{{authority control London orchestras Chamber orchestras Musical groups established in 1979 Musical groups established in 2007