Meet the First Apprentices of the SOLI Composer Lab
On Sunday, September 27, nine young composers from across the San Antonio area met online for the first session of the SOLI Composer Lab’s Apprentice track. Over the next nine months, each will write a new two- to four-minute work for SOLI’s clarinet, violin, cello and piano, hear its world premiere in January, and hear it again in May. The track is free to participants thanks in part to the Tobin Endowment, the San Antonio Symphony Leage, and the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, and runs alongside the Lab’s national Fellows track.
The 2026–27 SOLI Composer Lab Apprentices.
Who they are
The Apprentices range from high school freshmen to seniors, including two homeschooled students, from San Antonio and the Hill Country. Between them they play cello, violin, viola, flute, clarinet, piano, classical guitar and percussion. Some have composed since middle school; others wrote their first finished pieces this past year. Their playlists run from Bach and Holst’s The Planets to wind band music by John Mackey and David Maslanka.
"What if?"
Feature Focus Composer Scott Ordway, who entered conservatory unable to read music, urged the Apprentices to compose with their ears and bodies rather than their eyes, and to give each piece one clear emotional world. He handed them two words to spark ideas: what if? What if a quartet with no brass could sound brassy? What if the cello doubled as a drum? Carolyn True, SOLI’s pianist and Education Director, introduced the ensemble’s four instruments and what each does best.
The year ahead
After working with Scott through the fall, the Apprentices join the full Composer Lab at Trinity University in January, alongside faculty composers Scott Ordway, Edna Longoria and Ethan Wickman, the musicians of SOLI, and the Lab’s Fellows. Their works receive world premieres on Sunday, January 24, 2027, at The Malú and Carlos Alvarez Theater at Texas Public Radio, on TPR’s Classical Connections Live hosted by KPAC’s Barry Brake. In the spring the Fellows mentor the Apprentices, and in May the works are heard again in locations throughout the greater San Antonio area.
The 2026–27 Apprentices
The January 24 premiere is free and open to all, with no tickets required. Follow their year at #SOLIComposerLab.
Keep an eye out for more Composer Lab at these upcoming events:
