We're back with the second iteration of the Friction Commissioning Initiative!
This year's six composers are young artists from across the United States between the ages of 16 and 21. We have asked them to write a new five to ten-minute work for our quartet, and have left the source of inspiration up to their imaginations. We have been blown away by their brilliance and talent, and we are so appreciative of their unique perspectives and creativity. We cannot wait to see what they write for us!
Each composer will receive a $750 commissioning fee, a professional quality audio and video recording of their work, a world premiere in the Bay Area, and a one-on-one workshopping session with the former Initiative composer, Mario Godoy, on how to create a professional score and parts.
We're asking for your help again to bring this project to life and to say thanks, we've created some seriously fun perks for you. Donate today and help us make this round of the Friction Commissioning Initiative a resounding success!
commissioning initiative II
$14,500 of $14,000 raised
These commissions are 100% funded!
Stretch goal $18,000
The additional money raised from this stretch goal will be used to pay for airfare and housing for all six composers so they are able to attend the world premiere performance of their new work in 2020.
If this goal is met, all donors will receive a copy of Friction's super secret, currently untitled, and unreleased second album featuring the music of Alex Van Gils, Max Stoffregen, and Gabriella Smith.
To show our gratitiude for your contribution we are offering the following rewards:
$10 - $24
A Friction Quartet Holographic New Music Champion sticker
$25 - $49
A Friction Quartet enamel pin! It's a cat in a viola case!!!
$50 - $99
The COOLEST I <3 New Music acrylic window sign made by Moonish Goods in one of 5 beautiful colors.
$100 - $499
A hand printed Friction t-shirt! Woohooo! + all the above prizes
$500 - $1224
All the stuff on the left + two tickets to all Friction Commissioning Initiative Premieres concerts
$1225 - $1999
^^^ all that + commissioning credit on a piece from your favorite initiative composer with a signed score
$2000+
All + Friction will perform an educational school appearance free of charge in your name!
Checks can be made out to InterMusic SF with Friction Quartet in the memo. Mail to:
Friction Quartet
250 Whitmore st. #316
Oakland, CA 94611
meet the composers
Caroline Bragg (Carolina) has studied composition with Alla Cohen since 2010. As the Patrina Foundation fellow in the 2017-2018 Luna Composition Lab, she wrote her string quartet “Paradise Lost: This Pendant World” under the mentorship of Reena Esmail; in Luna Lab’s concert week, her piece was premiered at Roulette and National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York. In the 2018-19 Young Composers Competition of Webster University, she was awarded Second Place in Level I. Carolina was a first place winner in the 2017 high school division of the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and the Foundation for Modern Music performed her winning work Melting Glaciers at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is a three-time Finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Competition, and Tribeca New Music has named her an Emerging Composer three times. Carolina studies cello with Eugene Kim through New England Conservatory and plays in the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, through which she and her clarinet quintet perform at various fundraising and community outreach events.
Kari Watson has a passion for narrative, and works to create music that is energetic, tactile and emotionally driven. Her work has been premiered in the United States, Europe, and Japan by ensembles such as the Rosetta Contemporary ensemble, Ensemble MISE-EN, and Soli Chamber Ensemble. She is currently serving as composer-in-residence with the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra for their 2018-2019 concert season with an upcoming premiere of her piece “Morning Music for Fish”. Most recently, Kari received the Flint Initiative Grant from Oberlin Conservatory and the Ruth Crawford Seeger award for composition. Kari is a third-year composition student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studies under a dean’s scholarship.
Composer Rogelio Cardoza (he/him/they/them, b.1999) is a Los Angeles native pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Music (Composition Track) at University of California, Riverside (UCR). Cardoza's works have been heard at Walt Disney Concert Hall's Choral Hall, USC Brain and Creativity Institute’s Joyce J. Cammilleri Hall, and The Performance Lab at UCR. He was a Fellow in the Associate Composer Program at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has also taken part in Sunset ChamberFest’s Young Composers’ Workshop, Los Angeles Master Chorale’s High School Choir Festival Honor Choir, UCR Concert Band and Orchestra, and the Ramon C. Cortines School for the Visual and Performing Arts Symphonic Band and Concert Choir. He currently studies composition under Ian Dicke, and has had additional studies with Andrew Norman, Sarah Gibson, Thomas Kotcheff, Dana Kaufman, Donald Crockett, Veronica Krausas, Adam Borecki, and others. At UCR, he also studies flute on a Marius de Brabant Scholarship and is Vice-President of the UCR Composers’ Collective.
Benjamin Champion is a freshman at The Juilliard School, where he studies composition with Melinda Wagner. Benjamin graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy (IAA), where he studied composition with Mark Carlson (UCLA), and piano performance with Dr. Jeanette Louise Yaryan (IAA). Ben spent three years in the Young Composer Fellowship program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic lead by Andrew Norman and Sarah Gibson. Ben’s compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the L.A. Percussion Quartet, the Calder Quartet, and Rebekah Heller of I.C.E.. Other highlights in Ben’s career include Boston University Tanglewood Institute (summer 2016), Finalist in the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2016, ’17, ’18), Yellow Barn International Chamber Music Festival Young Artist/Composer (summer 2017 and 2018) and Winner/Finalist (2018).
Theodore Haber, is a San Francisco Bay Area based composer and violinist. He is a student at the USC Thornton School of Music studying composition with Ted Hearne and Sean Friar. Previous teachers include John Adams, Matthew Cmiel, Samuel Carl Adams, and Robert Yamasato. Haber has participated in the John Adams Young Composers Program summer workshop, The Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, and the soundSCAPE Composition and Performance Exchange. He enjoys collaboration and aims to learn about other art forms through collaborative projects. He has worked with filmmakers, actors, and dancers. He has performed with the Kronos Quartet, in the Other Minds Music Festival, and in the Switchboard Music Festival, and was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. His compositions have been premiered by the Baumer String Quartet, The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, SF Sound, the Friction Quartet, the Now Ensemble, and the USC Thornton Symphony.
18-year-old Sofia Belimova was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is a first-year student at Amherst College. At seven years old, she started studying piano and violin, and a year later she began composition lessons at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Sofya Levkovskaya. Sofia's family immigrated to the United States in 2009, and in 2010 she was accepted to the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center where she studied piano with Natela Mchedlishvili and composition with Robinson McClellan. In high school, she went on to attend the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Program where she studied with Wang Jie and Kevin James of the American Composers Orchestra Compose Yourself! Program. She has participated in the Face the Music ensemble and the Luna Composition Lab where she worked with Missy Mazzoli. Her pieces have been performed at The Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Mannes School of Music, Doge Hall at Columbia University, Firehouse Space, The Jazz Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art balcony, Merkin Concert Hall, and others.