Composer-in-Residence

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

APPLY ONLINE

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, ten talented Americans 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