Luna Lab with Oregon Symphony

Elaina Stuppler is our first Oregon Symphony–Luna Composition Lab fellowship recipient 

We are pleased to announce the recipient of this year's Luna Composition Lab with the Oregon Symphony: Elaina Stuppler. Elaina is a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose original works have been performed by schools and orchestras up and down the West Coast. Please join us in congratulating her on being selected for this competitive program!

The Luna Composition Lab provides musical opportunities to young composers who are female, non-binary, or gender nonconforming. Through this innovative program, Elaina will spend the 21/22 concert season in mentorship with composer, musician, and Oregon Symphony Creative Alliance member Nathalie Joachim. She will also be attending online master classes with other composers, culminating in a premiere performance and recording of her own work.

"I am honored and thrilled to see the Oregon Symphony entering into a partnership with Luna Composition Lab, the brainchild of Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid, two artists for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration. The work they've been doing over the last half dozen years to create more opportunities for young composers who've long been excluded from concert music institutions is important not only nationally, but for our community here in Portland. I'm grateful to them for giving us this opportunity, and thrilled for the very gifted Elaina Stuppler to work with Nathalie Joachim, who is one of the new music visionaries of our time." – Gabriel Kahane

ABOUT ELAINA RAE STUPPLER:

Elaina Rae Stuppler is a composer and multi-instrumentalist new to the Portland area. She performed in dozens of musical theater shows in Los Angeles. Most notably, she was in the cast of Tony-nominated, Michael Arden's production of Annie at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic. Recently, she was featured on NBC television, singing the National Anthem at the Grand Prix. 
In elementary school, Elaina broke her leg and was confined to a wheelchair and crutches for over a year. During this challenging time, Elaina’s teachers at Crossroads School for the Arts & Sciences encouraged her to compose. Creating music became an integral outlet for her recovery, where she wrote her school’s graduation song and arranged piano pieces for assemblies.

Elaina studied violin through the Royal Conservatory of Music and was first violin in her school orchestra. She was selected to participate in the California All-State Honors Symphonic Band for trombone and played trombone in the Colburn School of Music’s Jazz Ensemble and Brass Band.

Currently, Elaina is part of the Young Composers Project for Fear No Music, where members of the Oregon Symphony debuted her orchestral composition “Rae of Light.” This fall, the Metropolitan Youth Symphony will be playing the world premiere of her collaborative piece “Subwoofer Lullaby” at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Elaina is grateful for her wonderful teachers and honored to be the first young composer to be involved in the Oregon Symphony Luna Composition Lab partnership.

ABOUT OUR MENTOR:

Nathalie Joachim is a Grammy-nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist. She joins the Oregon Symphony this season as an Artistic Partner in the Oregon Symphony’s “Creative Alliance,” made up of six extraordinary artists. This wide-ranging coalition of cultural thought-leaders and musical innovators will bring their unique perspective to the stage and our community throughout this season. Nathalie will share her own music that explores her Haitian heritage.