The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Presents The 11th ANNUAL READING SESSION, 3/21

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra continues its commitment to nurture new work and young composers with its 11th Annual Reading Session on Saturday, March 21 at 11 a.m. in Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts.

This year's chosen composers - Xinyang Wang of the University of Pittsburgh, Anthony Manfredonia of Temple University, Richard Thomas of Gettysburg College and David Hertzberg of The Curtis School of Music - bring a wide range of vision, experience and culture to the program.

The four pieces to be performed during the reading session are "Dialogues II" by Wang, "Through the Tunnels and Back" by Manfredonia, "Door on the Floor" by Thomas and "Spectre of the Spheres" by Hertzberg. All submissions were evaluated by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Composer of the Year Mason Bates and adviser Patrick Burke of Duquesne University.

The reading session provides the composers with invaluable critiques and feedback at a professional level. In addition to hearing their pieces performed by a world-class orchestra in front of an audience, they gain insights into orchestration, compositional techniques and providing parts for an ensemble. The reading session will be led by Resident Conductors Fawzi Haimor and Lawrence Loh.

Since the 2004-2005 season, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has offered an annual reading of new works by young composers from area universities as part of its Composer of the Year program. In recent years, the annual reading program expanded its call for submissions from specific Pittsburgh-area universities to all residents of Pennsylvania.

A reception and panel discussion with Maestros Haimor and Loh, Bates, Burke and the four composers will follow the reading session backstage at Heinz Hall. Admission to the annual reading session and the post-session reception are free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900.

Born in Guangyuan (ancient Lizhou), Sichuan, China, in 1989, Xinyang Wang studied composition at Sichuan Conservatory of Music (2007-2012), where he earned his bachelor's degree studying with Yingzhong Chang. He completed his Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music in the studio of Reiko Füting. Wang's prodigious musical output as an undergraduate included 24 preludes and fugues and 60 etudes for piano, 12 string quartets, 13 symphonic works and many other chamber pieces. He was the recipient of the National Scholarship of China for two consecutive years and was voted the Excellent Graduate of Sichuan Province in 2012; in the same year his work Lizhou II for piano solo and string orchestra was one of the winning pieces in the Gold Medal Awards of China. He also won first prize in the Third Rivers Awards Competition in Shanghai in both composition and performance in 2011. In summer 2012, as one of 20 young composers and musicologists from all over the world, Wang was invited by the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna to participate in a seminar on composition and Schoenberg. During this time, he worked with a number of distinguished composers, conductors and musicologists, including Rene Staar, Severine Neff, Zubin Mehta, Helmut Lachenmann, Müller Siemens and Christian Meyer. Works commissioned from Xinyang Wang include Fantasia for percussion sextet; Lizhou I for piano duo; Variation for percussion quintet; Three Songs for soprano and orchestra; Chamber Prelude for septet; Capriccio in One Movement II for Chinese zither (Zheng) and percussion duet; and Yao for Chinese zither and piano. Wang is currently at doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh.

Anthony Manfredonia began composing during his time at Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where he participated in all sorts of musical activities, including chorus and theater. Following high school, Manfredonia began studying music composition on a university level at Montclair State University, under the direction of Dr. Robert Aldridge in 2011 and 2012. There, he began writing pieces upon pieces, all for various ensembles and styles. In summer 2012, he began working for Ackk Studios - an independent video game company - as a hired composer for their video game production.

Transferring to Temple University in fall 2012, he studied composition under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Folio, Dr. Richard Brodhead, Jan Krzywicki and Erik Lundborg over the course of two years. Currently, he is working with Dr. Alexander deVaron. In December 2013, Ackk Studios' first video game, Two Brothers, was released, and has received critical acclaim for the soundtrack. In September 2014, he premiered his first musical comedy, Oedipus: The Musical, as part of Philadelphia's Fringe Festival. Additionally, he is on the team of composers for ScoreAScore.com. Now, Manfredonia is composing his second symphony and co-writing the soundtrack for Ackk Studios' next video game, Y II K, as well as chamber and orchestral pieces for various ensembles

Richard Thomas is a junior vocal performance major with a concentration in composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. As an artist and composer, he values practicality and directness in his work. The musical influences of Tchaikovsky and Mozart, as well as contemporary electronic and rock artists such as the Gorillaz and the Beatles have inspired Thomas to create a sound that is innovative, fresh and, most importantly, clear. He has had previous compositions read by the Shuffle Ensemble and the Amernet String Quartet. Thomas' studies in vocal performance have secured his participation in the Sunderman Conservatory's most select vocal ensembles and productions. He currently studies composition under Dr. Avner Dorman and voice with Dr. Jeffrey Fahnestock.

Hailed for its "extraordinarily beautiful sound world with a unique and distinguishing vocabulary" the music of David Hertzberg (b. 1990, Los Angeles) is swiftly garnering recognition, with recent seasons seeing performances at the festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, and Santa Fe, and on the stages of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall (The New York Times). Highlights of his 2014-2015 season include premieres of new works for Young Concert Artist, Inc., the PRISM Quartet, Network for New Music and the Curtis Orchestra, with performances at Merkin Hall and Symphony Space, as well as two performances at the Kennedy Center and a feature on NPR's Performance Today. Other upcoming projects include a large-scale concert work for Gotham Chamber Opera, to be premiered IN their 2015-2016 season in New York. Ensembles that have performed his work include the Juilliard Orchestra, the Curtis Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Flux Quartet, the Dover Quartet, the Stenhammar Quartet (Sweden) and the New Fromm Players (Tanglewood). Among his recent distinctions are the Catherine Doctorow Prize from Gotham Chamber Opera, a Charles Ives Scholarship for the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Aaron Copland Award from Copland House, the William Schuman Prize from BMI, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a Jerome Fund Commission from the American Composers Forum, the Arthur Friedman Prize from the Juilliard School, fellowships from Yaddo and the Tanglewood Music Center, and the appointment of Composer-In-Residence for Young Concert Artist, Inc., a post that he will hold through the 2014-2015 season. Hertzberg began his musical studies in violin, piano and composition at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees with scholastic distinction from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Samuel Adler. At his commencement, he was awarded the John Erskine Prize for outstanding artistic achievement throughout the course of his studies. He is currently pursuing an artist diploma at The Curtis Institute of Music. He lives in Philadelphia.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 119 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series Previn and the Pittsburgh. The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900-including 36 international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America-the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

Photo Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Symphony