University of York Music Press

Six other composers received commissions this year. They are: Katherine Balch and Longleash; Helen Grime and the Boston Symphony Orchestra together with the London Symphony Orchestra; Tonia Ko and Contemporaneous; Eric Nathan and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Matthew Rickets and Duo Axis; and finally, Sebastian Currier with loadbang ensemble, who received a new award granted in memory of composer Andrew W. Imbrie .

Serge Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. He established the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1942 and passed operations to the Library of Congress in 1949, to continue his lifelong commitment to composers and new music. Over the course of his career, Koussevitsky was influential in obtaining commissions for a number of great composers: Béla Bartók, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky to name a few. New works created with the foundations' support include: Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes, Douglas Moore's opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, Henri Dutilleux's string quartet Ainsi la nuit and Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie. It is fair to say that this new commission places Hilda Paredes in esteemed company!

The latter half of 2021 has been a very successful period for Hilda; we look forward to hearing her new work, along with these other commissions over the course of the next year!