Errollyn Wallen, Pascale Criton, Peter S. Shin, Reinaldo Moya, Utku Asuroglu and Malika Kishino will create new compositions to be premiered by leading performing organisations in the United States.
The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress has announced the recipients of its 2026 commissions, supporting six composers whose new works will receive world premieres through partnerships with major American performing organisations.
The annual commissions are awarded jointly by the Foundation and the ensembles that will introduce each new work, continuing a long-standing programme dedicated to expanding the contemporary classical repertoire.
Among this year’s recipients is Errollyn Wallen, the Belize-born British composer who became Master of the King’s Music in 2024. She has been commissioned to write a concerto for orchestra for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
French composer Pascale Criton will compose a new work for chamber ensemble for Ghost Ensemble, while Korean-American composer Peter S. Shin will write a new string quartet for the Del Sol String Quartet.
Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya has been commissioned by the Chiarina Chamber Players, and Turkish composer Utku Asuroglu will create a new work for large mixed ensemble for Ensemble Dal Niente.
Japanese composer Malika Kishino will write a cello concerto for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Titled What the Thunder Said, the concerto will expand on her earlier work of the same name.
Established by conductor Serge Koussevitzky and his wife Natalie, the Foundation has played a significant role in the creation of new music for more than eight decades, commissioning works by many of the leading composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
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