New Jersey Symphony Edward T. Cone Composition Institute

Claire Cope is an award-winning British composer, pianist, and bandleader whose work spans both contemporary classical and jazz and improvised music. Concerned primarily with emotional connectivity and story-telling, Claire’s music is often inspired by literature, with a strong sense of narrative and “journeying.” Her music has been performed in Europe and the United States, and she has performed at the Manchester Jazz Festival, the London Jazz Festival, and as part of the BBC Proms Plus Series, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

In 2022, Claire won a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award, and in 2023 she won a UK Arts Council DYCP grant to compose new music for her 11-piece contemporary jazz ensemble, Ensemble C. Their latest album, Every Journey, was recently released on the New York-based Adhyâropa label to widespread critical acclaim, with Ron Schepper of Textura describing it as “a tremendous realization of her vision.”

Claire has collaborated with a variety of ensembles and musicians, including saxophonist Rob Buckland and trumpeter Lucy Humphris. In 2021, she was commissioned by the ground-breaking Apollo Saxophone Quartet to compose a new work, and this piece was selected in the LunArt Festival Call for Scores 2024, receiving its US premiere in Madison, Wisconsin by the Ancia Sax Quartet.

In 2023, Claire was selected to participate in the LunArt Composer Hub with composer Dorothy Chang, and was also a fellow on the Let’s Bespoken Mentorship program. In 2024, she participated in the Three Choirs Festival New Voices Composer Academy, where The Carice Singers premiered her first choral work, In Its Light, to be performed again later this year at Spitalfields Music Festival in London.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, Claire continued her compositional studies with Gary Carpenter and Emily Howard at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, with generous support from SJM Concerts Bursary and the RNCM. She has participated in workshops with the Hallé Orchestra, and the Fairey Band premiered her first piece for brass band, Through the Spiral. In August 2025, Iva Ugrčić and Satoko Hayami will premiere Claire’s first piece for flute and piano at the National Flute Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Max Eidinoff is a composer, improvisor, and educator whose music is marked by creative audacity and dramatic flair. His love of many popular and avant-garde styles creates a blend of influences resulting in soundscapes characterized as both absurd and surreal. Max writes in a variety of genres including art song, opera, concert music, computer music, film scores, and studio mixes. It is through a body of work which prioritizes storytelling and engages with ironic subtext that he aims to convey the complex adversities of the world we live in.

As an improvisor, Max plays piano and guitar. He was a member of the Peabody Improvisors Collective, performing in various Baltimore venues including An Die Musik LIVE and The Red Room at Normals Books and Records. He sees free improvisation as a space for the exploration of sonorities, both informed by and informing his compositional practice: a continuous feedback loop between his creator and creator-performer identities.

Max obtained his bachelor of music degree in classical composition from SUNY Purchase, studying with Laura Kaminsky, Gregory Spears, and Kamala Sankaram. He then attended the Peabody Institute for his master of music degree, studying composition with Du Yun and Felipe Lara. He has also been a composition student at Seal Bay Festival, Fresh Inc. Festival, zFestival, the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute, Atlantic Music Festival, The N.E.O. Voice Festival, and Brevard Summer Festival.

This year Max is participating in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Mentoring Program for Composers, New Jersey Symphony Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, Barcelona Modern International Composition Course, and Royaumont Voix Nouvelles Academy.

Hannah Ishizaki is a composer and sound artist based in Princeton, New Jersey. Her music seeks to foster connections between musicians and the audience through the explorations of the physicality of music performance. Ishizaki finds inspiration in the process of composition, leading her to experiment with a wide range of instruments and sound-generating methods—from acoustic instruments in an orchestra to digital sensors to rocks and zippers. Immersed in the world of collaboration, Ishizaki has worked with dancers, actors, filmmakers, and visual artists, to connect the seemingly unconnected and create innovative and multidisciplinary projects.

Ishizaki is the current Composer-in-Residence with Young Concert Artists. Her work has been recognized throughout the United States and Internationally and has been performed by renowned musicians and ensembles such as Midori Goto, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Sō Percussion, the Attacca Quartet, the National Sawdust Ensemble, and the Dresden Musikfestspiele. Recently, Ishizaki was named one of five 2023 Hildegard commission winners, which is presented by National Sawdust and generously supported by The Onassis Foundation and the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. In 2017, she became the youngest woman ever to have a world premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO).

Ishizaki is currently a PhD student and Mark Nelson Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University. She studied with Andrew Norman for composition and Areta Zhulla and Ronald Copes for violin at the Juilliard School, where she was the first composer to receive a Kovner Fellowship.

Nicole Knorr (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, improviser, and interdisciplinary artist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work investigates transformation, change, and growth—often through the lens of the natural world. Her music has been described as having “remarkable command of melody” and is characterized by gleaming lyricism, sharp counterpoint, and a fundamental, underlying sense of whimsy. Frequently, Nicole’s scores draw upon her background in visual art, incorporating intricate, hand-rendered graphic notation.

Nicole has received commissions and awards from esteemed organizations like Music Teachers National Association (MNTA) and NATS, and she is currently in composer-in-residence with NeuroArts Productions. Nicole has had the honor of collaborating with renowned ensembles such as Sinta Quartet, FLYDLPHN, Haven Trio, Estrella Consort, Brain Pocket, and VIRID duo among other groups and personal commissions.

She is passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and frequently performs as a pianist and soprano. Recent performance-based projects include the contemporary chamber ensemble Aurora Collective’s inaugural concert (piano), and work with indie-rock band my salamander (vocals, piano). During her time at the University of Michigan, Nicole also developed Between the Lines, a concert series that brought composers, poets, and singers together for multiple evenings of art song premieres.

Nicole earned her M.M. in Music Composition from the University of Michigan, and her B.M. in Voice Performance and Piano Performance from the University of North Florida. Her mentors include Evan Chambers, Michael Daugherty, Erin K. Bennett, John Daugherty, Mathew Fuerst, and Joshua Tomlinson.

As a teenager growing up in Northern California obsessed with blues-rock guitar, Steven Mackey was in search of the “right wrong notes,” as he often likes to say, referencing Thelonius Monk. Today, Mackey is a GRAMMY Award-winning composer of works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, winner of several awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award.

Mackey began composition studies at the University of California at Davis and received his Ph.D. at Brandeis University. Upon graduating and becoming a professor at Princeton, Mackey merged his academic training with rock guitar music. Signature pieces incorporating rock vernacular into traditional classical ensembles emerged: Troubadour Songs (1991), Physical Property (1992) and Banana/Dump Truck (1995).

Mackey repertoire includes: Dreamhouse (2003) for solo tenor, vocal quartet, electric guitar quartet and orchestra, nominated for four GRAMMY awards; A Beautiful Passing (2008) for violin and orchestra, an emotional reflection upon the death of his mother that Leila Josefowicz premiered with the BBC Philharmonic; and Slide (2011), an experimental music theater piece that won a GRAMMY Award for a recording featuring Mackey on electric guitar alongside vocalist Rinde Eckert and eighth blackbird. In 2021, the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel, and trumpet soloist Thomas Hooten gave the world premiere of Shivaree, a fantasy for trumpet and orchestra. Mackey further expanded his theatrical catalog with his short chamber opera Moon Tea about the 1969 meeting between the Apollo 11 astronauts and the Royal Family, premiered by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2021, as well as with his 2022 music theater work Memoir, based on the pages of his late mother’s memoirs and Concerto for Curved Space, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. Red Wood, a new environmentally concerned work, was premiered as part of The Soraya’s Treelogy Project and Mackey’s RIOT was premiered by mezzo-soprano Alicia Olatuja, Mackey on electric guitar, New Jersey Symphony, Princeton University Glee Club and conductor Xian Zhang.

Mackey’s music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Today, he lives in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, and their children Jasper and Dylan. Mackey teaches at Princeton University, where he mentors young composers as director of the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute.

Conductor and composer Christopher Rountree stands at the intersection of classical music, new music, performance art and pop. Following his 2020-21 debut with Long Beach Opera conducting Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles, Rountree was named Music Director from the 2021–22 season. He maintains a long-term relationship with Martha Graham Dance Company resurrecting, recording and performing works by Copland, Kodaly, Rountree (MGDC commission), and others, with his ensemble Wild Up. In 2019, Rountree began recording a four-volume set of the music of Julius Eastman. In conjunction with this recording project, he toured the country with Wild Up, culminating in an Eastman portrait at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Rountree is currently working on two operas about love and technology with librettists Royce Vavrek and Roxie Perkins.

Rountree’s inimitable style has led to collaborations with: Björk, John Adams, Yoko Ono, David Lang, Scott Walker, La Monte Young, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mica Levi, Alison Knowles, Yuval Sharon, Sigourney Weaver, Tyshawn Sorey, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ashley Fure, Julia Holter, Claire Chase, Missy Mazzoli, Ryoji Ikeda, Du Yun, Thaddeus Strassberger, Ellen Reid, Ted Hearne and James Darrah. Rountree also has worked with many orchestras and ensembles including the San Francisco, Chicago, National, Houston and Cincinnati Symphonies; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; International Contemporary Ensemble; Roomful of Teeth; Opéra national de Paris; and the Los Angeles, Washington National and Atlanta Operas. He has presented compositions and concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Palais Garnier, Mile High Stadium, the Coliseum, Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, ACE Hotel, National Sawdust, MCA Denver, The Hammer, The Getty, a basketball court in Santa Cruz and at Lincoln Center on the New York Philharmonic’s Biennale.

Rountree is the artistic director and conductor of Wild Up, the ensemble he founded in 2010, and artistic director of an interdisciplinary ambient series in an oak grove in LA called SILENCE. Rountree is a seventh-generation Californian descended from the first sheriffs of Santa Cruz County, he lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The New Jersey Symphony and Princeton University Department of Music are well positioned to provide emerging composers with a comprehensive Institute experience that will enhance their careers. Over years of reading sessions in which the New Jersey Symphony has played through orchestral works written by Princeton University Ph.D. composition candidates, the Orchestra and its musicians are experienced in mentoring and advising student composers. Through the New Jersey Symphony’s commitment to presenting new music, the Orchestra has performed works not only by the late Princeton University professor and composer Edward T. Cone, but also by composers who felt the impact of Cone’s legacy as a teacher.

Mackey—a lauded composer and William Schubael Conant Professor of Music at Princeton University—says: “The New Jersey Symphony has had a strong relationship with Princeton University composers for years, and we are excited to again partner with the Orchestra for this immersive composition institute. This program fosters emerging composing talent by preparing composers for both the creative and practical elements of composing works for orchestra.”

By the end of the Institute, participants will have gained invaluable musical and practical feedback about writing for orchestra through real-time interactions with Mackey, the guest conductor and New Jersey Symphony musicians, as well as advice from decision makers in the industry about how to get their music published and performed.

Princeton University Department of Music

Princeton’s Department of Music is at the epicenter of a musical culture that is broad and deep, reaching from edge to edge of the campus, from the classroom to the concert hall, into the community and from faculty-led groups to those run exclusively by students.

New Jersey Symphony

Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.

Music Director Xian Zhang—a “dynamic podium presence” The New York Times has praised for her “technical abilities, musicianship and maturity”—continues her acclaimed leadership of the New Jersey Symphony. The Orchestra presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton and Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.

In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the New Jersey Symphony presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People, and New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles, led by Diego García. New Jersey Symphony musicians annually perform original chamber music programs at community events in a variety of settings statewide through the New Jersey Symphony Community Partners program.

For more information about the New Jersey Symphony, visit njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra’s website.

The New Jersey Symphony’s programs are made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.

Does the Cone Composition Institute have any age restrictions?

• Applicants must be at least 18 years old by July 1, 2025.

Does the Cone Composition Institute accept international applicants? 

• Yes, we do accept international applicants. In order to participate, applicants must have the appropriate US visa or residency status to be present at Princeton University during the Cone Composition Institute dates.

How does the Cone Composition Institute define “emerging” composer?

• We define “emerging composer” quite broadly; eligible applicants can include adults of any age beginning their career as an orchestral composer, including late-in-life career switchers, recent graduates, and those several years out from graduation, as well as composers who have not yet had opportunities to have their work performed by a major orchestra.

My score is 14 minutes long. May I submit it to the Cone Institute?

• During the Institute week, the New Jersey Symphony will rehearse and perform four new works. To ensure we are able to devote sufficient time to each composer’s work, we are unfortunately unable to accept works over 13 minutes in length.
• If your piece is 14 minutes in duration or longer, we recommend submitting a different orchestral composition that meets this guideline. Alternatively, if there is a way to slightly alter your work so it meets the 13-minute maximum or to submit only specific movements for consideration, then it would be eligible.

May I submit a work with a soloist to the Cone Institute?

• No, we do not accept works with concerto soloists, vocalists or narrators to the Cone Composition Institute.

What woodwind doublings are allowed?

• The following standard woodwind doublings are allowed: piccolo and/or alto flute, English horn, E-flat clarinet and/or bass clarinet, and contrabassoon.

My orchestral work was performed by [XYZ] ensemble. Is it still eligible for submission to the Cone Composition Institute?

• For a composition to be eligible, it must have no prior professional performance or publication history. Any work that has already received a public, professional performance or will receive a public, professional performance by July 1, 2025, nationally or internationally, no longer qualifies for the Cone Composition Institute.
• Compositions that have had university, conservatory or other non-professional ensemble performances, including by volunteer or student orchestras, or compositions that have had readings by professional ensembles, are eligible for submission.

May I submit a reorchestration of my work, which was previously performed by a professional chamber / wind ensemble / string ensemble?

• We do accept orchestral versions of works that have already been performed in other settings, provided the orchestration and instrumentation have changed substantially. For specific questions related to eligibility, please email coneinstitute@njsymphony.org. In your email, we ask that you share details of the piece, including its original instrumentation, new instrumentation and its prior performance history.

May I submit a live recording as the audio representation of my work?

• Yes! Acceptable live recordings may come from a performance by a university, conservatory or other non-professional ensemble, or a reading from a professional ensemble. If the audio file is larger than the application allows, please send the recording to coneinstitute@njsymphony.org to have it included with the rest of your application materials.

The 2024 Cone Institute composers were Leigha Amick with her work Cascade; Jessie Leov with her work Speculations on a Rainbow; Paul Cosme with his work A Stranger in a Festival of Spirits and Santiago Beis with her work Spletna. View concert and composer information.

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The 2023 Cone Institute composers were Tom Morrison with his work Messages in the Ground; Kory Reeder with his work Walls of Brocade Fields; Sam Wu with his work Hydrosphere and Yangfan Xu with her work Bya. View concert and composer information.

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The 2022 Cone Institute composers were Dai Wei with her work Samsāric Dance; Baldwin Giang with his work to remember is always forgetting; Jack Frerer with his work Steep and Sophia Jani with her work What do flowers do at night?. View concert and composer information.

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The 2021 Cone Institute composers were Elise Aranco with her work Wake, Kevin Day with his work Tango Oscuro, Erin Graham with her work Increase and Jared Miller with his work Under Sea, Above Sky. View concert and composer information.

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The 2019 Institute composers included Dan Caputo with his work Liminal, Patrick O’Malley with his work Rest and Restless, Iván Enrique Rodríguez with his work A Metaphor for Power and Bora Yoon with her work The Encyclopedia of Winds. View concert and composer information.

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The 2018 Cone Institute composers were Jonathan Cziner with his work Resonant Bells, Natalie Dietterich with her work Aeolian Dust, Aaron Hendrix with his work Night Train and Brian Shank with his work Into the Rose Garden. View concert and composer information.

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