The Young American Composer-in-Residence (YACR) Program is a feature totally unique to the California Symphony. It has garnered international attention for its one-of-a-kind "orchestra-as-laboratory" residency approach, and helped to catapult all previous participants to international success.

The highly sought-after program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the BMI Foundation, and others.

Launched in 1991, the program offers emerging composers the coveted opportunity to develop, refine and premiere a new work during each year of an in-depth three-year residency. No other symphony orchestra gives its composers in residence an opportunity to hone their craft in this unique way.

The California Symphony facilitates the composition process by providing several recordings from the in-depth reading rehearsals of the commissioned work, along with feedback from the musicians and conductor. This process is a tremendous benefit, since composers rarely have the opportunity to hear their new works in progress, and far enough in advance to make meaningful revisions prior to a public premiere.

As a result of the Symphony's approach, young composers are able to refine their pieces and create fully realized scores many months before their works are introduced to the public and critical scrutiny.

"My involvement with the California Symphony was literally the defining opportunity in my career," said Chris Theofanidis, the Symphony's second YACR (1994-96). Theofanidis won the 2003 International Masterprize Competition. "This (the YACR Program) is a program with very long-range goals, and will cultivate a generation of composers."

Mason Bates is the sixth American composer to participate in the Symphony's YACR program (2007-2010); this is the second year of his residency. In addition to Bates, other young American composers that have held residencies include Kevin Beavers, Kamran Ince; Kevin Puts; and Pierre Jalbert, who during his residency won the coveted Masterprize in 2001 with In Aeternam, a piece of music commissioned and premiered by the California Symphony. Most of the YACR alumni have received the prestigious Rome Prize in Composition either during their residency or shortly thereafter.

To date, the Symphony has commissioned and premiered thirty original pieces of music.