The Making Score course includes eleven workshops, held from October through May. The sessions explore the musical thought of a wide variety of composers, with a focus on instrumentation and orchestration. Examples are drawn from the vast classical repertoire and a range of musical traditions from throughout the world. Using tools such as study scores and orchestration books, the course aims to cultivate the students' own voices through class discussion, written exercises, and free composition.

In addition to workshops, students have opportunities to work directly with musicians. Orchestrations+ is a unique reading project undertaken with a professional group of musicians. Five student composers from the Making Score program are selected to re-arrange established works for a reading 12 professional musicians alongside New York Youth Symphony musicians. At the annual Composition Date event, original student compositions are performed by members of the Orchestra, Chamber Music, Jazz, and Apprentice Conducting Programs.

Guest lectures for the 2009-10 season feature:

Dorothy Lawson, cellist
Amanda Baker, flutist
Joe Magnarelli, trumpeter
Jody Elff, sound artist
David Cossin, percussionist
ETHEL, string quartet
Phyllis Chen, toy pianist
Space Lab, quintet
Jefferson Friedman, composer
Christina Courtin, composer/performer
Magos Herrera, vocalist/improviser/collaborator
Ryan McAdams, conductor

Kyle Blaha, Director

Kyle Blaha is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at The Juilliard School.  He holds a Master’s degree in composition from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music with high distinction in composition, clarinet, and German language.  He has received multiple ASCAP Young Composer Awards and grants for study in Germany, including a Fulbright Grant and a DAAD Grant from the German government.  Premières include works for the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall and the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute as well as commissions from the New York Youth Symphony for a Carnegie Hall performance, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the New Juilliard Ensemble for a concert in Budapest.  His teaching positions include faculty positions at Juilliard and at the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.

Michael Ippolito, Assistant Director

Michael Ippolito is a versatile composer and performer who has collaborated with classical, folk and jazz musicians in performances ranging from experimental improvisation to traditional Klezmer music. He has been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as the Cincinnati Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Florida Orchestra and his works have been performed in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, having studied composition with Joel Hoffman and Michael Fiday and improvisation with Alan Bern. Currently, he is a student of the Juilliard School, studying with John Corigliano.

Gordon Beeferman, Teaching Associate

Gordon Beeferman is a composer, pianist and improviser whose works -- orchestral, solo, chamber, and opera -- have been been commissioned and/or performed by the New York City Opera orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, eighth blackbird, California EAR Unit, American Brass Quintet, New York Youth Symphony chamber music program, and others. The New York Times described his chamber opera “The Rat Land” as "complex and daringly modern...gritty, fidgety and intriguing." Beeferman has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, three BMI Student Composer Awards, a Tanglewood fellowship, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and the Copland House. His recordings are available on Generate, Genuin, and (in 2010) Summit Records. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music.