Praised for “stunning performances” by The New York Times, Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music is the only youth ensemble in the country devoted solely to the music of living composers: an ensemble and collective music-making program where young and committed musicians use the music of today as a vehicle to explore collaborative decision making and develop leadership skills.

Drawing more than 200 students from the New York region, Face the Music encourages and empowers young musicians to contribute to the vibrant texture of the contemporary music scene. Now in its twelfth season, Face the Music has played at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Roulette, BAM Café, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Bang On A Can Marathon, and has worked with musicians such as the JACK Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, David Robertson, and Vijay Iyer.

Founded in 2014 as the educational arm of MATA, MATA Jr. pairs pre-college composers selected from a free, global, call for submissions with emerging composers in a six-month mentorship program to create new works for performance by a teen new-music ensemble. While there are many programs that aim to assist young composers, MATA Jr. is unique in that all parties benefit from a collaborative learning process in which all participants are both teacher and student.

Hailed as the “leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers” (The New Yorker), Music at the Anthology’s (MATA) mission is to present, support, and commission the music of young and emerging composers, regardless of their stylistic views or aesthetic inclinations. Founded by Philip Glass and others in 1996, MATA has since developed into the world’s most sought-after opportunity for young composers.

MATA’s festivals and events are critically acclaimed and broadly respected: The New York Times has called it “nondogmatic, even antidogmatic;” The Wall Street Journal said that it “tells us a lot about how composers are thinking now.” Composers that have been presented by MATA early in their careers include future Rome, Alpert, Takemitsu, Siemens, and Pulitzer Prize-winners, Guggenheim Fellows, and Macarthur “Geniuses.” In 2010 MATA was awarded ASCAP’s prestigious Aaron Copland award in recognition of its work.