The Cortona Sessions for New Music goes online

The Cortona Sessions for New Music, founded and directed by Michael Kirkendoll, Associate Professor of Piano, was forced to move its 11th season from Cortona, Italy to an online format which took place in August.

The Online Sessions welcomed 61 students from around the world including composers, conductors, and performers across all disciplines for a week of online lectures, masterclasses, and concerts. The culminating evening featured two incredible concerts: an online version of the Cortona Sessions Iron Composer Concert in which 20 composers had 24 hours to write a short piece, which was learned and recorded 24 hours later by our student performers, and then broadcast via YouTube and Facebook; and a nearly 3-hour marathon concert of world premieres written specifically for the Sessions by our Composition Fellows and performed by the acclaimed artists that make up the Cortona Collective — a faculty of contemporary specialists from around the world.

Represented at the Sessions as Fellows this year were KU graduate students in composition Allison McIntosh and John Kosch, and KU piano alum Jack Yarbrough. In addition to Michael Kirkendoll, faculty included KU Composition Professor Forrest Pierce, and KU alumna pianist Brianna Matzke along with some of the most respected performers, composers, and conductors of contemporary music in the world. Learn more: cortonasessions.org