Sound Investment

Sound Investment is a unique opportunity to commission a new piece of music and see how new compositions come together. Members enjoy a front-row seat into the creative process that leads to new music, from the inspiration to the final product.

As the ASO enters its 100^th Anniversary Season, our Sound Investment Composer will collaborate with ASO musicians to bring a fresh composition to the state of Alabama and the world. Through the ASO’s Sound Investment program, patrons have the unique opportunity to witness the creation of a classical score from the beginning of the creative process to the final product. From musical salons, rehearsal, and a special luncheon, members of Sound Investment have exclusive behind the scenes opportunities not offered to the general public.

Sound investment members enjoy these unique perks:

• Co-commission new work, which will premiere during the 20-21 Masterworks series.
• Intimately get to know the Sound Investment composer at three exclusive events
• Go "behind-the-scenes" to learn the creative process
• Receive two concert tickets to the world premiere
• Receive a copy of the score, signed by the composer, with your name listed as a commissioner

Membership is $500 per person, or $1,000 per couple.

The ASO is proud to welcome back ASO Music Director Carlos Izcaray as our 2019-2020 Sound Investment Composer. His piece will be featured on Symphonie Fantastique, January 17 and 18, as a part of the ASO’s Masterworks and Coffee Concert series.

Izcaray is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, New World School of the Arts, and Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and won top prizes at the 2007 Aspen Music Festival and later at the 2008 Toscanini International Conducting Competition. He is a dual citizen of Spain and Venezuela, and divides his time between in Birmingham (AL) and Los Angeles.

Increasingly active as a composer, Izcaray’s orchestral work Cota Mil was premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal de Caracas. April 2018 saw the premiere of his Strike Fugaz by the American Youth Symphony, commissioned in association with the Human Rights Watch to commemorate, and celebrate, the campaign for worldwide social justice, equality and freedom - a cause for which Izcaray is a proud and committed advocate. 

For his residency, Carlos will compose a cello concerto that the ASO will premiere with soloist Santiago Cañón Valencia. Carlos has called this commission a “big statement” piece, and, since cello is his primary instrument, he is excited to compose for a cello soloist. After composing several relatively short concert openers and interludes, this will be his first long form, multi-movement orchestral work.