Jacob Gotlib Welcomes & Reflects
2025-26 officially marks the fourth year of the Creators Corps program at the LO! It's been incredible to see its growth from a bold experiment (can an orchestra and composers really collaborate this way?) to a core part of the Louisville Orchestra's identity and mission. We're privileged to have Anthony R. Green and Chelsea Komschlies with us this year—our first year with two (instead of three) composers—who complement each other remarkably in their artistic visions, musical styles, and approaches to community engagement.
This month, as we welcome our new creators, I want to reflect on the wonderful conclusion of our 2024-25 season: May's Creators Fest featured world premieres of major works by our three LOCC composers last year, Baldwin Giang, Brittany Green, and Oswald Huỳnh. Oswald's piece Tiếng was a devastating meditation on the tensions of language and translation based on the Vietnamese language's six tones.
Baldwin's gift of tongues was a concerto written for our Assistant Principal Third Horn, Scott Leger. It featured dazzling virtuosity and unorthodox sounds, as well as brass musicians playing from the balcony. The piece drew inspiration from Chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, and Giang envisioned the horn soloist as the translator and unifier of the orchestra's varied "tongues."
Finally, Brittany's The Lands of Hypnagogia was a collaboration between the Waldorf School of Louisville and animators from the University of Louisville. With guidance from Brittany and instructors from the Louisville Folk School, the Waldorf School students created a detailed story, with a set of characters and musical motifs. U of L students AJ Ruffra and Isabel Ahnemiller animated the tale, and Brittany composed the score. It was terrific seeing the students at the concert, watching in awe as the orchestra and animators brought their story to life. You can see a 5-minute excerpt of the piece here.
On June 20, we wrapped up our season with a special collaboration with the Louisville Pride Foundation. For several months, Baldwin had led a songwriting workshop for members of Louisville's LGBTQ+ community. Eight songwriters - grouped into four pairs - wrote original songs and lyrics under Baldwin's guidance, and musicians from the LO performed them at the Louisville Pride Center as part of Kentuckiana Pride. The songs were deeply personal and fiercely political, with styles ranging from intimate duets to strident hip-hop.
Looking ahead, we're currently in the process of selecting for our 2026-27 season. Applications closed on August 22, and our judges are busy listening to all the work samples and reviewing project proposals. We plan to select our composers — two again — for next year by mid-November! It's always a bit strange to think about next year when this year's participants are just getting started, but that's simply the rhythm of the program.
Next month, we're excited to premiere the first new works by Anthony and Chelsea on our In Harmony tour. Chelsea has written a gorgeous set of variations on Shaker hymns for her Shaker Hymn Medley, which we'll debut at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill on September 11. Meanwhile, Anthony has composed a captivating site-specific installation for Cumberland Falls called 13 PARTS for the Falls, which we'll perform on September 19 and 20. It's unusual for us that the first performances of our creators' music this year are outside Louisville, but we love sharing their work across the state, and this is a great way to kick off their season.
Stay tuned next month for updates from In Harmony, as well as more details about the LOCC pieces featured on our "Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony" concerts!
-Jacob Gotlieb, Senior Creators Corps Program Manager