We seek ways to assure the continuation of the imperiled Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP)

To Andrea Kalyn, President, NEC:

We – the undersigned – have recently heard about the New England Conservatory’s decision to withdraw support from the essential Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP).

This decision strikes us as most unfortunate for this moment in time, for your esteemed institution, for Boston and its environs. Indeed, it would bring about a devastating loss for the global and inclusive community of new music makers of all kinds. 

SICPP has been the place where young people of all persuasions, both inside and outside academia, come together to explore and to make new music. This extraordinary course, planned and guided by Stephen Drury, invariably generates great enthusiasm and energy for participants from all over this world, especially in the larger Boston music community. 

The inclusive and open atmosphere of the SICPP course, together with its inventiveness and artistic breadth, creates a truly extraordinary spirit — it is among the most important occasions of its kind in the world — a creative intensity and a spirit of inquiry and adventure that is precious for the long-term health of our art, of our profession.

We urge you to find ways to continue this widely honored and deeply meaningful program. 

Sincerely, Hopefully,

1) Roger Reynolds, University Professor Emeritus, University of California San Diego, Pulitzer Prize-winner

2) Chaya Czernowin, Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music, Harvard University

… with …

3) George Lewis, Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Columbia University

4) Du Yun, Professor of Composition, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University,

Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Pulitzer Prize-winner

5) Kevin Puts, Director of the Minnesota Composer’s Institute, Pulitzer Prize-winner

6) Alexander Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, Harvard University

7) John Luther Adams, Freelance composer, Pulitzer Prize-winner

8) Claire Chase, Professor of the Practice of Music, Department of Music, Harvard University

9) John Harbison, Institute Professor, Music and Theatre Arts, MIT, Pulitzer Prize-winner

10) Richard Carrick, Chair, Composition, Berklee College of Music

11) Julian Anderson, Professor, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK

12) Fred Lerdahl, Fritz Reiner Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition, Columbia University

13) Lewis Spratlan, Emeritus Professor, Amherst College, Pulitzer Prize-winner

14) Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Professor, Head of Composition. Stanford University

15) Marianthi Papalexandri Alexandri, Assistant Professor, Cornell University

16) Evis Sammoutis, Professor of Music, Ithaca college.

17) Joshua Fineberg, Professor of Music, Boston University 

18) Edmund Campion, Professor of Music Composition Director, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies UC Berkeley; Visiting Slee Professor, State University of New York Buffalo

19) Hans Thomalla, Professor of Music Composition Director, Institute for New Music Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music  Northwestern University

20) Lei Liang, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, Music Department, University of California, San Diego

21) Pamela Madsen Professor, Head of Composition, California State University, Fullerton

22) Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Artistic director and conductor Riot ensemble, London, UK

23) Scott Deal, Professor, Music and Arts Technology Director, Donald Louis Tavel Arts and Technology Research, Indiana University-Purdue

24) Patricia Alessandrini, Assistant Professor Department of Music/CCRMA, Stanford University

25) Felipe Lara, Assistant Professor in Composition, Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University

26) Aaron Larget-Caplan, Associate Lecturer, University of Massachusetts Boston

27) Robert Kirzinger, Director of Program Publications, Boston Symphony Orchestra

28) Michael Daugherty, Professor of Composition, University of Michigan

29) Rand Steiger, Conrad Prebys Presidential Chair, Department of Music, University of California San Diego

30) Michael Theodore, Associate Professor of Music Composition and Technology, College of Music University of Colorado, Boulder

31) Ben Carson, Professor, Chair, Department of Music, University of California Santa Cruz

32) Elisabet Curbelo González, Assistant Professor, Electroacoustic Music Composition; Director of  Electroacoustic Ensemble, University of Utah 

33) Joseph Waters, Professor of Music, San Diego State University

34 ) Chinary Ung, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California San Diego

35) Anahita Abbasi, University of California San Diego of California San Diego

36) Mark Applebaum, Leland & Edith Smith Professor of Composition, Stanford University

37) Thomas DeLio, Professor of Music, University of Maryland, College Park

38) Linda Dusman, Professor of Music, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

39) David Gompper, Professor of Music, University of Iowa

40) Marcos Balter, Professor of Music, University of California San Diego

41) Judith Weir, CBE and Master of the Queen’s Music, London, UK

42) Karola Obermueller, Associate Professor of Composition and Theory, University of New Mexico 

43) Ashley Fure, Associate Professor of Music, Dartmouth College

44) Evan Johnson, Freelance Composer, Boston 

45) Gloria Cheng, University of California Los Angeles

46) John Pickford Richards, Violist, JACK Quartet 

47) Vimbayi Kaziboni ,Assistant Professor, Boston Conservatory at Berklee School; Music

Director, Composers Conference at Brandeis University 

48) Ian Power, Assistant Professor Klein Family School of Communications Design. 

49) Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Associate, Music Department, Harvard University

50) Katty Nez, Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory, Boston University

51) Michael Finnissy, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Southampton, UK

52) Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Assistant Professor, School of Music, Arizona State University

53)  Sivan Cohen Elias, Visiting Assistant Professor, Electronic Music Studio, Director School of Music, University of Iowa

54) Xavier Beteta, Professor of Music, Wheaton College 

55) Rebecca Saunders, Professor of Composition Hannover Hochschule, Germany
56) Stephen McAdams, Schulich School of Music, McGill University

57)  Christian Karlsen, Conductor, Stockholm, Amsterdam director of Gränslandet – Symfonisk Fest in Stockholm  a festival with classical music for young adults

58) Oscar Battison Professor and Chair, Composition Department Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

59) Olga Neuwirth, Professor of Music Composition, Vienna university of music and performing arts MDW, Austria 

60) Jessica Bodner, Grammy Award winner with the Parker quartet, Blodgett quartet-in-residence,

Harvard University
61) Eric Chasalow,  Irving G. Fine Professor of Music, Brandeis

62) Zosha Di Castari ,Francis Goelet Assistant Professor of Composition,  Columbia University

63) Erin Gee, Associate Professor of Music Composition and Theory Brandeis University,

Waltham, MA

64) Thomas Schaefer, Director Darmstadt Summer courses, Darmstadt Germany. 

65) Tiffany M. Skidmore  University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

66)  Sky Macklay, Adjunct Lecturer in Composition, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

67) Frank Epstein, (formerly) BSO and NEC faculty

68) Mary Kouyoumdjian, Assistant Professor of Composition, Boston Conservatory

69) Ann Cleare, Assistant Professor of Music and Media Technologies, Trinity College, Dublin

70) Miya Masaoka, Associate Professor of Visual Art (Sound Art) Director, Sound Art Program MFA Columbia University, School of the Arts

72) Trevor Bača, Lecturer  Department of Music,  Yale University

73) Timothy McCormack, Assistant Professor in Composition, Boston Conservatory at Berklee

74) Judy Lochhead , Professor of Music History and Theory, Department of Music, Stony Brook University

75) Mauricio Pauly, Assistant Professor, SFU School for the Contemporary Arts, Vancouver,Canada

76) Correy Hamm, Professor of Piano, Chamber Music and Piano Literature School of Music University of British Columbia

77) Robert Hasegawa, Associate Professor of Music Theory, McGill University

78) Michael Hersch Composition Professor, Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University 

79) Alley Stoughton, Host/Producer "Not Brahms and List" on WMBR Cambridge

Roger Reynolds and Chaya Czernowin    Contact the author of the petition