The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is a two-week immersive experience for the modern string player, composer, and choreographer. It provides a comprehensive approach to entrepreneurial career-building, contemporary music performance, and intensive, personalized artistic development.
Founded in 2013 and led by composer, conductor, and bassist Peter Askim, the Next Festival has featured some of the most prominent figures in new music today.
Bringing together an intimate ensemble of 20 string players aged 20-30, the festival begins with a week on the grounds of Music Mountain in Falls Village, Connecticut where the musicians create their own schedules of intense study, beginning with one-on-one lessons and chamber music coaching with Peter Askim in the musicians’ chosen repertoire. A public performance at historic Music Mountain concludes the first week. To tell us all about it, we welcome Peter Askim.
Composer, conductor and bassist, Peter Askim is the Artistic Director of the Next Festival of Emerging Artists and the conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University. He was previously Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught theory and composition.
