TUCSON, AZ (September 23, 2026) For the third time in four years, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra will partner with the New York-based American Composers Orchestra (ACO), in collaboration for the first time with the University of Arizona School of Music, to host ACO’s signature EarShot Readings.

 

Conducted by the TSO’s Music Director, José Luis Gómez, the event will be FREE and open to the public, taking place Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, 7pm at the University of Arizona’s Crowder Hall.

 

The program will feature new works selected after a nationwide application process, representing early-career composers who are helping to shape the future of music. The four featured composers – Aidan Vass, Marie Gabrielle Blix, Adam Harrington, and David Vess – will work with three mentor composers throughout the process, Vincent Calianno (adjunct instructor at the University of Arizona), Peruvian-American Jimmy Lopez, and TSO’s Composer-in-Residence Dan Coleman. A Q&A with the four featured composers will begin at 5:45 p.m., followed by the readings at 7 p.m.

 

“The TSO is proud to take part in ACO’s EarShot Readings, its first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on a national level,” said Paul Meecham, TSO president and CEO.

 

“For our students, faculty, and community, this is a rare opportunity to participate in a program of national importance without leaving Tucson,” said Lia Uribe, School of Music director. “We are proud to provide a home for this concert, and excited to celebrate the creativity and innovation that will shape the next generation of American orchestral music.”

 

TSO’s first collaboration with ACO in May 2022 reinforced a longstanding commitment to developing the next generation of classical music composers. That work includes the acclaimed Young Composers Project (YCP), whose students will have the opportunity to observe the events. Now in its 35th year, YCP has produced over 500 works by composers ages 8–18.

 

In 2022, the TSO commissioned works by two selected composers featured in the EarShot project, Xavier Muzik and Chelsea Komschlies. In September 2024, ACO’s CoLABoratory project featured the TSO and Gómez performing readings of four Native American composers, including Raven Chacon, whose work was co-commissioned (with the ACO and Dallas Symphony) during TSO’s 2024–25 season. This latest Earshot is part of ACO’s two-year 50th anniversary celebration, beginning this season and running through 2027-28.

 

Later in the 2026-27 season, José Luis Gómez will conduct the ACO at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Thursday, March 18, 2027, 7:30 p.m, in a program of five new works, New Virtuoso: Low End Theory, featuring violinist Jordan Bak and cellist Tommy Mesa.

 

Together, these initiatives underscore Maestro Gómez and the TSO’s nationally-recognized commitment to developing the next generation of American composers.

 

o  Admission is free, but a ticket is required. Get Tickets Here.

 

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

EarShot Readings: Tucson Symphony Orchestra

Q&A Session: 5:45 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

Readings: 7 p.m.

Crowder Hall,

University of Arizona School of Music

1017 N. Olive Road

Tucson, AZ 85721

 

Event Page:  https://www.tucsonsymphony.org/event/earshot-2026/ 

 

Program:

 

Aidan Vass: Spilling

Marie Gabrielle Blix Terra Fungorum

Adam Harrington Fireworks

David Vess Perpetual Dream Machine

 

José Luis Gómez, Conductor

Dan Coleman, Mentor Composer, TSO Composer-in-Residence

Vincent Calianno, Mentor Composer

Jimmy Lopez, Mentor Composer

 

 

Aidan Vass

Born in 2003 and raised in Thousand Oaks, California, Aidan Vass is an American composer of contemporary classical and choral music. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing and Hal Leonard, his work has been performed by soloists and ensembles worldwide, including at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Vatican. In 2019, he began incorporating multimedia into his practice, releasing Abounding Ideas that year and later his debut album,8 Sketches for Piano, a 30-minute solo piano work paired with five interpretive music videos. Vass founded the non-AI generative music company Cleome and is a graduate from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He currently resides in San Francisco, California.

 




 

Marie Gabrielle Blix
Marie Gabrielle Blix is a Mexican composer with a deep passion for musical storytelling. A cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, her work spans film, dance, and the concert stage, blending diverse genres with contemporary and unconventional forms of expression. She made her symphonic debut in March 2024 withTerra Fungorum, performed by the Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata (OJUEM) under Mark Kadin. Since then, her music has been featured by prominent Mexican orchestras and ensembles, further establishing it within the contemporary symphonic repertoire.

 

In film, Blix has scored more than a dozen independent short films shown at international festivals, including the award-winning La Novia de Oro and Mango City. She teaches orchestration at the Mexican Film Scoring School (EMMC), helping to develop emerging film composers, and has contributed to high-profile Disney and Netflix productions. She recently founded SUL, a music services company through which she develops these collaborations. Blix is based in her hometown of Mexico City.

 

Adam Harrington

 Adam Harrington (b. 2000) is an American composer from Houston, Texas where he earned his BM in Horn Performance at the University of Houston in 2022. His compositions feature narrative music that is often described as colorful and expressive, with visual and literary art playing a key role. Praised for his imaginative orchestration, his approaches each work like that of a film score, where the style and structure are determined by characters and motivations often stemming from the aesthetic properties of instruments themselves. In 2025, “Fireworks” earned top prize at the Mostly Modern Festival’s orchestral competition, with its premiere at the festival in June. The piece went on to win the NYC Orchestra Project’s first call for scores in February of 2026. He credits his love of film and video games in his youth as having a great influence on his compositions, along with love of Maurice Ravel, John Williams, and Gustav Mahler. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, where he continued his studies at NYU’s Steinhardt School and remains an active horn player in the city.  

 

David Vess

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Dr. David Vess (b. 1991) is a composer fascinated with subjects that question the boundary between what is real and what is imagined. His work often uses music as a vehicle for exploring themes such as endless liminal spaces, the bizarre and ever-shifting world of dreams, and even extraterrestrial encounters. Dave has earned degrees from the University of Miami Frost School of Music (DMA), the Boston Conservatory (MM/PSC) and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (BM Tuba). He now serves as the Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. Outside of writing music, he runs the growing YouTube Channel: Music with Dave, where he helps composers achieve their goals in music with videos on composition, music theory, career skills and score study. His piece, “Perpetual Dream Machine” was written in 2024, and recently enjoyed its world premiere with the New Conductors Orchestra in New York City in February of 2026.

 

 

 

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