Divergent Studio

Augusta Read Thomas

Thomas’ music is nuanced, majestic, elegant, capricious, and colorful – “it is boldly considered music that celebrates the sound of instruments and reaffirms the vitality of orchestral music.” (Philadelphia Inquirer) Her works were featured on a Grammy winning CD, her impressive works embody unbridled passion & fierce poetry.  The New Yorker called her “a true virtuoso composer.” Critic Edward Reichel wrote, “Thomas has secured for herself a permanent place in the pantheon of American composers of the 20th & 21st centuries. She is without question one of the best and most important composers that this country has today. Her music has substance, depth, and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and knows how to say it —and in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated.” Thomas, one of two Pulitzer Finalists in 2007, won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, among many other coveted awards. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Named the 2016 Chicagoan of the Year, Thomas has an extensive and deeply committed history as a model citizen of the profession. A brief summary of her citizenship energies can be found in the COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS section on the ABOUT page on her website. She invents, responds, collaborates, explores, shares and demonstrates by her unwavering actions that she cares deeply about other artists. Learn more…

Eve Beglarian 

According to the Los Angeles Times, composer and performer Eve Beglarian is a “humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” A 2023 winner of the Arts and Letters Award for “a spectacular body of work that innovates and takes enormous risks,” she is also a 2017 winner of the Alpert Award in the Arts for her “prolific, engaging and surprising body of work,” and has been awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation.” Her piece None More Than You was featured on Roomful of Teeth’s album Rough Magic, which won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. 

Her current projects include a solo piano piece about Emily Dickinson responding to Ives’ Concord Sonata for the pianist Donald Berman, a piece about Alaskan light for the 2025 Wild Shore Festival, a queer exploration of 14th century composer Guillaume de Machaut’s multimedia love story, Le Voir Dit, with singer/performer leiken, and a piece for 24 basses in a grove of trees, composed for Robert Black and friends, a recording of which is forthcoming on Canteloupe Records. Since 2001, she has been creating A Book of Days, “a grand and gradually manifesting work in progress…an eclectic and wide-open series of enticements.” (Los Angeles Times) 

Recordings of Eve’s music are available on ECM, Koch, New World, Canteloupe, Innova, Naxos, Kill Rock Stars, CDBaby, and Bandcamp. Learn more…

loadbang

New York City-based new music chamber group loadbang is building a new kind of music for mixed ensemble of trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice. Since their founding in 2008, they have been praised as ‘cultivated’ by The New Yorker, ‘an extra-cool new music group’ and ‘exhilarating’ by the Baltimore Sun, ‘inventive’ by the New York Times and called a ‘formidable new-music force’ by TimeOutNY. Creating ‘a sonic world unlike any other’ (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), their unique lung-powered instrumentation has provoked diverse responses from composers, resulting in a repertoire comprising an inclusive picture of composition today. loadbang has premiered more than 500 works, written by members of the ensemble, emerging artists, and today’s leading composers. Their repertoire includes works by Pulitzer Prize winners Raven Chacon, David Lang, and Charles Wuorinen; Rome Prize winners Andy Akiho and Paula Matthusen; and Guggenheim Fellows Chaya Czernowin, George Lewis, and Alex Mincek.  Learn more…

Divergent Trio

Divergent Trio is comprised of three leaders in the international contemporary music community who offer extensive experience bringing new works to life.  Soprano Corrine Byrne is a member of Lorelie Ensemble, violinist Sarah Whitney is a speaker, teacher, and Career & Leadership Coach for High-Achieving Musicians, and pianist Donald Berman is a soloist and President of the Charles Ives Society.

Led by members of one of the country’s most active new music ensembles, loadbang, and the virtuosic pianist Donald Berman, you will plunge into an intensive 12 days of studying and performing works by some of the most exciting composers of our time!  With daily coaching by the members of loadbang and pianist Donald Berman, performers at Divergent Studio will be featured in composer portrait concerts for Augusta Read Thomas and Eve Beglarian, be partnered with Divergent Studio composers to bring brand new works into the world and perform in a final marathon concert, featuring pieces by many of the most influential composers of our time. Join us and make connections, make discoveries, and make new music together! 

With guest composers Augusta Read Thomas and Eve Beglarian alongside Longy’s own composition faculty Alexandra du Bois, Jeremy Van Buskirk, Pablo Santiago Chin, and John Morrison, Divergent Studio’s composition program provides the freedom to develop your own individual voice in a collaborative and community-driven setting. Divergent Studio Composers will have the opportunity to write for one of out two ensembles of new music specialists. This includes loadbang, and Divergent Trio (Donald Berman (soloist), Corrine Byrne (Lorelei Ensemble), and Sarah Whitney).