Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra Announces Winners for the Kaleidoscope Initiative Call for Scores

After careful review of many fantastic works, we are thrilled to introduce the composers that have been selected for the Kaleidoscope Initiative Call for Scores! We look forward to presenting and recording their works in Philadelphia in May 2024. Read more about the selected composers:

Kevin Arthur Jr.
As They Dance in the Wind

Kevin Arthur Jr. (b. 2004) is an African American composer and instrumentalist born in Philadelphia. With a deep foundation and appreciation for both jazz and classical music, Kevin is currently pursuing a degree in Music Composition at the prestigious Mannes School of Music, housed within The New School. He was a member of the Philadelphia All-City Fellowship and attended The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. His musical style is uniquely contemporary in approach with powerful infusions of Jazz, yet deeply romantic at heart. He enjoys the creative freedom that composing gives him, along with the beautiful collaboration it fosters.

Courtney Evans
Cloud Sprawl

Born in Los Angeles, California, Courtney Evans began studying both music and computer graphics at an early age. In high school and at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, he composed concert works, incidental music for plays, and a ballet in collaboration with Donald Byrd. He went on to study composition at Juilliard with Stephen Albert and Robert Beaser, where his works included Menagerie, a large-scale song cycle for soprano and orchestra. In the field of computer graphics, he has contributed design, art, and technology to several award-winning games, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. He has recently focused on honing an emotionally direct, lyrical, and colorful composing style with underlying thematic and structural depth. His recent orchestral and chamber works reflect a wide variety of influences, including minimalism, medieval music, film soundtracks, Sondheim, and sludge metal.

Joshua Foy
Couplet for String Orchestra

Joshua is a Los Angeles based composer and pianist. As a pianist he has worked with composers such as Derek Bermel and Mark Trayle and performed at various venues such as REDCAT located at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Joshua composed and directed the music to the theater production Piedra del Sol by director and playwright Maria Morett, which was put up at the Getty Villa. He has also music directed the original musical In Bermuda! by playwright David Largman Murray and composer Bobby Halvorson which featured such actors as Bryce Dallas Howard and Josh Gad. He has written music in a variety of genres including film scores to films like Mamitas, Jewsus, The Newest Pledge, and (Romance) in the Digital Age. Joshua has recently conducted the west coast premiere of Leslie Burrs’ “I Can’t Breathe” with POP! Opera in Los Angeles. He is also an orchestrator, arranger, transcriber and copyist. Joshua is currently a professor of music theory and history at the Young Americans College of the Performing Arts.