NYCC Executive Director JOHN DE CLEF PIÑEIRO received an email from Craig Carnahan of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, which we pass along to you. “With the deadline three weeks away, there’s still enough time to put the final touches on your orchestral score to submit for October’s Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. Working closely with acclaimed composer Aaron Jay Kernis and Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä – praised by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times for his “blazing, incisive and risk-taking” performances  – has been life-changing for many Institute alumni. Please contact Vice President of Programs Craig Carnahan at ccarnahan@composersforum.org or by phone at 651.251.2833 if you have any questions. Best of luck to you!”

The deadline is April 12; details, addresses, instrumentation, etc. can be found at: http://www.composersforum.org/programs_detail.cfm?oid=1811

_____________________

NATALIYA MEDVEDOVSKAYA writes that she recently won the Honor Award in the Great American Song Contest for her popular song, “Inside Out.” For details about this competition, go to http://www.greatamericansong.com/honorary.html (Natliya’s song is in the Pop/Adult contemporary category.) You can also listen to the song itself by visiting http://www.myspace.com/NataliyaMedvedovskaya

_____________________

GENE MCBRIDE writes in with a reminder (and a few more details) that that this Sunday, March 25, Downtown Music Productions is presenting a program called The Poet of Bleeker Street IV. All compositions on the program are settings of the poetry of Ilsa Gilbert. Gene’s piece is a setting of the poem, The Young Sleep, for baritone, violin, cello, and piano. The Downtown Chamber Trio and baritone Anthony Turner will be performing the premiere; Mimi Stern-Wolfe is the pianist in the piano trio, she is Downtown Music Productions director. The program starts at 3pm and the venue is St. Marks In The Bowery (10th Street & Second Ave.) Suggested donation is $10. More info at (212) 477 1594; dmpmimi@msn.com and at downtownmusicproductions.org

_____________________

MADELEINE SHAPIRO, director & cellist of ModernWorks, along with the Duo Alterno of Torino, Italy, present Continental Drift: Works by Italian and American Composers. Composers are John Cage, Earle Brown, Salvatore Sciarrino, with a world premiere by Riccardo Piacentini and a NY premiere Ada Gentile. Performers are Madeleine Shapiro, cello, Riccardo Piacentini, piano, Tiziana Scandaletti, soprano, Mara Plotkin, clarinet, and Michael Dobson, percussion. Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 8:00 PM, Christ and St. Stephen’s Church, 120 W. 69th Street (east of Broadway). Suggested donation: $10, students $5. More info at www.ModernWorks.com

_____________________

SEAN HICKEY will have a premiere presented by the Metro Chamber Orchestra (led by maestro Phil Nuzzo) on April 27 at the Thalia at Symphony Space. Sean is composer-in-residence of the MCO, and they will premiere his Clarinet Concerto, written for soloist David Gould. Also on the program are pieces by Jennifer Higdon and a premiere by Hector Berlioz. (Yep — you read that correctly. Well, it’s an orchestration of Les Nuits d’ete, by David Matthews..) Details: April 27th at 7:30 PM (please note time), Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th St.For tickets, visit www.symphonyspace.org or call 212-864-5400. Tickets: $30; Symphony Space members and seniors: $25; Students: $20; Children: $15 (Order before April 12 for $20 discount tickets.)