Steven Mackey, Orchestra and Chamber Music chair
               Rufus Reid, Jazz Band Classic chair

"During the last two decades, no youth orchestra in the country has been more relentlessly committed to generating new music than the NYYS."

-Symphony Magazine

"The most impressive record for championing new music of any ensemble in the United States."

-The New York Times

“When it comes to making new music a natural part of the concert going experience, few orchestras in the United States can match the record of the New York Youth Symphony.”

“ . . . commissioned works rehearsed and performed by some of the most talented young instrumentalists and conductors around.”


First Music is the New York Youth Symphony’s project for commissioning America’s best emerging composers under age 30. It has been acknowledged widely as one of the leading forces in the United States for bringing the work of gifted young composers to the public’s attention.
First Music was initiated in 1984 by then-music director David Alan Miller (now the music director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra) and executive director Barry Goldberg. The object was to “wake up” our audiences, the critics, and our own musicians to the currents of music swelling among the emerging composers of the same generation.

First Music began with the commissioning of three young composers to write works for première in Carnegie Hall and has since expanded to our programs in chamber music and jazz, as each of these programs was developed. The Making Score composition program is also the embodiment of this concept of ‘looking to the new.’

The musicians are principal beneficiaries of First Music. They become partners in the exploration of these new works, growing musically as they rehearse them and giving them life onstage. Audiences, too, learn to appreciate what emerging generations of composers seek to express in their creations.

Our musicians are generating new excitement as they present these works -- every bit as daring, just as risky, and equally adventurous as what “the downtown scene” is exploring in its own variation of promoting “the new.”

First Music continues as an enterprise worthy of the musicians who animate it.

The annual deadline is December 31 for submission of materials to be considered for a First Music commission for the following season.

First Music, the New York Youth Symphony's highly acclaimed commissioning program, has awarded commissions to 102 of America’s best young composers since 1984. The winner of numerous awards and accolades, this ongoing project introduces traditional audiences, as well as the musicians themselves, to new trends in music. Three awards are given seasonally for orchestral compositions and one each for chamber music and jazz. Steven Mackey, Professor of Music at Princeton University, succeeds John Corigliano as chair of the First Music Advisory Committee for orchestra and chamber music. Rufus Reid, a leading string bass player with over 250 recordings in his discography, chairs the advisory committee for jazz.

Orchestra

Selected composers will be awarded a commission of $1,000 each and premières in Carnegie Hall. The commission includes a stipend for travel to New York City. The commissioned works must be previously unpublished and unperformed.

Chamber Music

The selected composer will be awarded a commission of $1,000. The Director of the Chamber Music Program in conjunction with the awardee will determine the instrumentation of the commissioned piece. The commissioned work must be previously unpublished and unperformed, and it will be given its première in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

Jazz Band Classic

The selected composer will be awarded a commission of $1,000. The work must be previously unpublished and unperformed, and it will be given its première in the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center.