Martin Kennedy – Verses for Piano Quintet

Martin Kennedy is SCMS’ 2025 Commissioned composer. Martin’s piece will be performed at the 2025 Summer Festival on July 20.

MARTIN KENNEDY’s music has been performed the world over, having been featured by such ensembles as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro Comunale di Bologna, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Symphony in C, Omaha Symphony, and the Alabama Symphony, where he served as Composer-In-Residence.

He is the recipient of several prestigious prizes, including the ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize for Best Orchestral Work, the ‘2 Agosto’ International Composition Prize, five ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the BMI Student Composer Award, the Suzanne and Lee Ettleson prize, fellowships at the MacDowell and Yaddo Artist Colonies, and twice awarded the Indiana University Dean’s Prize in Composition.

Learn more about Martin here

John Novacek – Music for 8

John Novacek is one of SCMS’ 2025 Co-Commissioned composer. John’s piece will be performed at the 2025 Summer Festival on July 17.

Versatile, Grammy-nominated pianist JOHN NOVACEK regularly tours the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over thirty concerti with dozens of orchestras.

John Novacek’s major American performances have been heard in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ David Geffen and Alice Tully halls, 92nd Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Symphony Space, Washington’s The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl,  while international venues include Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau and Musée du Louvre, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre and Tokyo’s Suntory, Opera City and Bunkamura halls. He is also a frequent guest artist at festivals, here and abroad, including New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival, California’s Festival Mozaic and those of Aspen, Cape Cod, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Colorado College, Great Lakes, Mendocino, Mimir, Music in the Vineyards, Ravinia, Seattle, SummerFest La Jolla, Wolf Trap, Canada’s Festival of the Sound, Ottawa, Chamberfest, Scotia, SweetWater and Toronto Summer Music, BBC Proms (England), Braunschweig (Germany), Lucerne, Menuhin Gstaad and Verbier (Switzerland), Serenates d’Estiu (Spain), Sorrento (Italy), Stavanger (Norway), Toulouse (France) and Sapporo (Japan). He has also made his debuts with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, as well as with the Dayton and Vista philharmonic orchestras, the Anderson, Austin, Duluth Superior, Springfield (MA) and Traverse symphony orchestras, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, National Academy Orchestra of Canada and Symphony Nova Scotia.

Learn more about John here

Ethan Soledad – Poems from Angel Island

The second of SCMS’ 2025 co-commissions is composer Ethan Soledad. Ethan’s piece will be performed at the 2025 Summer Festival on July 27.

Bold, dramatic, with an exquisite attention to detail, Ethan Soledad (b. 1999) is a Filipino-American composer whose work aims to express emotions in their most raw form. An experienced singer, he incorporates drama in his work, emphasizing the importance of silence and one’s perception of time. Ethan’s music draws from a wide palette of compositional styles and colors ranging from impressionism and neoclassicism to post-minimalism and the avant-garde. His musical style is marked by unapologetic expression, dynamic extremes, and the ability to do more with less but never shying away from doing more with more.

His music has been performed and recognized by ensembles such as Musiqa, DACAMERA Houston, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, New York Youth Symphony (First Music Commission Honorable Mention), the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, Choral Arts Initiative,  Fifth House Ensemble, Bent Frequency, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble (ECCE), Fear No Music, Crossing Borders Music, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus, The Choral Project, the Beo String Quartet, and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York.

Learn more about Ethan here