Composer Lab
Bring your sound to life.
The SOLI Composer Lab brings three groups of composers into the same room each January:
- San Antonio high-school Apprentices, who spend nine months writing, premiering, revising, and re-performing a single work,
- early-career Fellows from across the country whose piece is drafted in the fall and workshopped and premiered in January at the four-day Composer Lab, and
- three world-class professionals who serve as program faculty.
Add to those three groups — SOLI Chamber Ensemble — who work with all participants, guiding, performing, and recording!
Different timelines, one purpose. The same four professional musicians, the same three composers on faculty, the same stage.
Faculty and Ensemble
Scott Ordway
Season 33 Feature Focus Artist
Ethan Wickman
Composer Faculty
Edna Longoria
Composer Faculty
SOLI
Ensemble
Two Paths
Click on either button for more information
Click on either button for more information
What Makes This Different
January has the space for opportunity. (Fellow track) Summers are packed with music festivals and composers vying for limited program spaces. January is an open month — it’s during most winter breaks, when you’re free! (Plus who wouldn’t want to spend January in sunny San Antonio?) AND it puts a premiere and a studio recording in your hands months ahead of spring grant deadlines and fall applications.
The ensemble isn’t a guest. It’s the faculty. (Both tracks) SOLI, four musicians who play together year round, are who read your drafts, workshop your score, and premiere the finished work. It’s the same people throughout — not players seeing your piece for the first time in a dress rehearsal.
Three generations of composers in one room. (Both tracks) Fellows mentor Apprentices in shared pods. Apprentices see where their road can lead; Fellows get teaching experience that reads as a credential. Both groups are mentored by a faculty of professional composers. The ladder is real on day one.
Apprentices hear their piece twice. (Apprentice track) Premiere in January — Sit with the recording — Talk it through with mentors — Revise it — and hear the new version performed in May. The length of this program allows for revision, the step in the process where composers learn most.