"Co-missioning" composers. (Forum focus: composer commissioning).

Hello and welcome to a new phase of the MTNA Composer Commissioning Program! Until recently, we've been the Composer Commissioning Advisory Committee and have been ably and diligently served by chairs Thomas Ediger, NCTM, Patricia Plude, Charles Smith, NCTM, and a handful of dedicated committee members. Before then, we were an ad hoc committee, and I was one of its original members. I've been on the advisory committee every year since, and now I'm the chair of the program, which is no longer officially served by the committee. Fortunately, many of those gracious people continue to offer support to a cause they believe in.

I have deep personal and professional reasons to believe in the "cause" of the MTNA Composer Commissioning Program--my very first commission was through MTNA in the state of New Mexico. I've since been commissioned twice by Oklahoma and once by Tennessee. Needless to say, I have a vested interest in the continued growth of this program. It's meant more to me than I can say to have my friends and colleagues invest in my music and in my future as a composer. Every time I was commissioned, I knew the people of each state's MTA trusted me to bring something meaningful and worthwhile to their state convention. It was a tremendous honor, and it always furthered my growth as a composer and musician.

These commissions also furthered my career because they were the impetus for creating works that would then go out into the world, which is in large part the program's purpose. The second work I wrote for the Oklahoma MTA, Family Plot in Four Scenes, went far out into the world when it received its latest performance at the CMS International Conference in Costa Rica in June. I do not believe the work would have come into being if I hadn't received that commission at that particular time in my life, and I can only hope that the work will continue to have an existence "out there."

Paraphrased, our program's mission is to encourage the creation of new works. This is a noble and vital endeavor, and your state's participation is essential to its success. When I look at the word commission, I see "comission" hidden there. On one hand, we have an association of music teachers who represent one of the few ...