With an extensive catalogue of strikingly original music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, voice, and electronics, James Aikman’s (b. 1959, Indianapolis) music has been consistently awarded and honored during the past two decades and has been heard at prestigious festivals and venues including Amsterdam's Gaudeamus International, France’s Festivals International de Musique, London's Wigmore Hall, MTV, the Aspen Music Festival, the OJAI Festival, Tanglewood, The U.S. National Figure Skating Championships (closing ceremonies), the American Symphony Orchestra League American Repertoire Concerts 22and Carnegie Hall. He has heard his music performed by many extraordinary musicians, including Joshua Bell and Dawn Upshaw.
Notable honors and awards for his music include those from The American Music Center, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, ASCAP, The American Symphony Orchestra League, Indiana University’s Cole Porter Fellowship, IU Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Orchestral and Chamber Music Composition and The Carmichael Award for Classical Music; Groupe de Musique Experimentale de Bourges, France; The International Society for Contemporary Music (New York 2000); The University of Michigan; G. Schirmer’s American Art Song Competition Winner, The United States Fulbright Fellowship Program, among others.
Upcoming premieres include a new work for Chorus and String Orchestra based upon poetry by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, entitled, Some Things I Love, to be premiered at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, by the Lamont Symphony and Chorus, Lawrence Golan, Conducting. Additionally, a new work for Chorus and Orchestra has been commissioned by the noted conductor John Nelson who will conduct the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Choir, giving its premiere during 2010. James Aikman is also excited about soon beginning a work for cellist Sharon Robinson, the cellist of the famed Kalichstein Laredo Robinson Trio.
2 singers, chorus, and string orchestra on poems by the Thirty-Ninth President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, from his collection, Always A Reckoning
2 singers, chorus, and string orchestra on poems by the Thirty-Ninth President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, from his collection, Always A Reckoning
audio available