Composer-in-Residence | California Symphony

Applications for the 2026-2029 Composer-in-Residence are now open.

Renowned among composers and conductors across the US, this intensely competitive residency provides an early-career composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with Music Director, Donato Cabrera, and the California Symphony over three consecutive years to compose, workshop, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Part of the California Symphony since 1991, every three years a new composer is selected, and every alum has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field.

Current Resident Composer

After a competitive selection process, Saad Haddad was selected as the 2023-2026 Composer-in-Residence. Saad explores the intersections of cultural identity through his music, employing a distinctive blend of Western art music and Middle Eastern musical traditions. Recent projects and accolades include:

Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Barlow Endowment General Commission, and the S&R Foundation Washington Award Grand Prize.
He has also participated in residencies the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Bogliasco Foundation.
Dr. Haddad serves on the faculties of Columbia University and New Jersey City University
California Symphony Commissions:
- 2024 – Mishwar
- 2025 – Fantasia for Strings
- 2026 – To be announced

Meet the current composer

The California Symphony has one of the most outstanding composer-in-residence programs in the country. They have this orchestra-as-laboratory idea, and they let the composer work in ways that almost never happen anywhere else.”
—Mason Bates, Composer-in-Residence 2007-2010

Program Alumni

Since the residency was established in 1991 by founding music director, Barry Jekowsky, ten talented composers have completed the program:

Viet Cuong	2020-2023 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Next Week’s Trees, 2021 Stargazer, 2022 Chance of Rain, 2023 Commission with the New York Philharmonic, 2020 Inaugural “Sandbox” Residency with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence with the Pacific Symphony, 2022-23 Winner of the Barlow Prize, William D. Revelli Prize, Frederick Fennell Prize, Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, Barlow Endowment Commission, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, and Boston GuitarFest Composition Prize.
Katherine Balch	2017-2020 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Like a broken clock, 2018 Artifacts, 2019 Illuminate, 2021 2025 Winner–Guggenheim Fellowship 2020 Winner–Rome Prize Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Career Advancement Award Past Winner American Modern Ensemble 8th Annual Composition Competition’s first prize Past winner American Conservatory at Fontainebleau’s prix du composition Past winner Albany Symphony Orchestra’s “Composer to Center Stage” competition Past winner Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Scholarship
Dan Visconti	2014–2017 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Breakdown, 2015 Living Language – Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, 2016 Tangle Eye – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, 2017 2015 Winner–Koussevitsky Commission Award Past Winner–Rome Prize (2013/2014) Past Winner–Barlow Prize (2008/2009) Past Winner–Naumburg Award (2010) Past Winner–Berlin Prize (2008/2009) Past Winner–Cleveland Arts Prize Awards–BMI, ASCAP, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Society of Composers, and the Naumburg Foundation
D. J. Sparr	2011–2014 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Optima Vota: Overture – Fantasia, 2012 Violet Bond: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, 2013 Dreams of the Old Believers, 2014 BMI—Foundation/Boudleaux Bryant Fund commission (for Eighth Blackbird) 2000 BMI—Student Composer Awards 1995, 2000 BMG/Williams College—National Young Composers Competition, Grand Prize 1997 Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize (Eastman School of Music) 1997 Howard Hanson Orchestra Prize (Eastman School of Music) 1996 League of Composers/ISCM Composers’ Competition Winner 2009 Richmond Symphony—Composer-in-Residence 2009-2011
Mason Bates	2007–2010 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Music from underground Spaces, 2008 White Lies for Lomax, 2009 Silicon Blues, 2010 Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition Chicago Symphony—Composer in Residence 2010–2015 Kennedy Center—Composer in Residence 2015–2016 Grammy Award Winner—Best Opera 2019
Kevin Beavers	2002–2005 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Essay for Orchestra, 2003 Songs from the Discovery World, 2004 Symphony, 2005 Tipsy, 2007 2001 First Prize– Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Composition Competition 2000 First Prize–ASCAP Nissim Prize
Pierre Jalbert	1999–2002 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence In Aeternam, 2000 Symphonia Sacra, 2001 Kinetic Voices, 2002 Music of Air and Fire, 2007 2001 winner—International Masterprize in Composition 2002–2005 Composer in Residence—Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition 2007 winner—Stoeger Prize from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 2010 winner American Academy of Arts and Letter in Composition
Kevin Puts	1996–1999 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence NETWORK, 1997, Rev. 2008 Exalted Virelai, 1998 Symphony No. 1, 1999 Two Mountain Scenes, Movement II “Furioso”, 2007 2012 winner—Pulitzer Prize for Music Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition
Christopher Theofanidis	1994–1996 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence This Dream, Strange & Moving, 1995 Metaphysica, 1996 As Architecture is to Dancing, 1996 Peace Love Light YOUMEONE for String Orchestra, 2001 A Hymn to Music, 2007 2003 winner—International Masterprize in Composition Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition
Kamran Ince	1991–1992 California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Hot, Red, Gold, Vibrant, 1992 Domes, 1993 Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition