The Alvarez Chamber Orchestra is a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based organisation dedicated to the promotion and performance of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. Its Honorary President is Sir Colin Davis. It holds an annual composition competition, "Plucked from Nowhere", for new music for

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of 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 orche ...

and

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

. American composer Molly Kien is the author of ''The Song of Britomartis'', the winning entry of the 2009 competition. Artists who have worked with the orchestra include Nicholas Daniel, 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 ...

, 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, RAM, and the City of London School. It performed a wide range of classical and contemporary chamber works, until it was disbanded when its founder, Geoffrey Álvarez, 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 Alison Turriff (born 10 August 1984 in Lanark, Scotland) is a Scottish people, Scottish folk fusion clarinettist, composer, recording artist, researcher, producer and artist for world leading clarinet makers Buffet Crampon. Early life Turriff s ...

, 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 Geoffrey Álvarez.

References

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