Mission & History

Celebrating living composers and modern classical music

Our projects include festivals, concerts, recordings, ensembles, and cultural institutes

Mostly Modern Projects is dedicated to shining a spotlight on music by (mostly) living composers. Founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Robert Paterson and Victoria Paterson, they first launched Lumiere Records, a classical label featuring string quartet music with wide market appeal, followed by the award-winning American Modern Recordings (AMR) in 2011.

Live music events soon followed with the critically acclaimed American Modern Ensemble (AME) and a concert mission to “turn contemporary classical music programming on its head”. To this day, AME showcases and celebrates living composers with seasons full of world premieres and engaging, thematic concerts.

In 2018, the Mostly Modern Festival (MMF) was founded in Saratoga Springs, New York, on the campus of Skidmore College at the Arthur Zankel Music Center. Quickly becoming the “Aspen of the East”, MMF hosts the MMF Institute, an educational experience for 200 instrumentalists, singers, composers, and conductors. Each year, more than 3,000 people descend on Saratoga Springs for the unique MMF experience. MMF’s international reputation began in 2021 when MMF The Netherlands was launched. MMF NL is held every April in historic Holland in Middelburg, Zeeland.

Mostly Modern Concerts, which began during the pandemic, is now active year-round. Its kick-off concert featured a 20-piece string orchestra concert outdoors at Manhattan Plaza, bringing live music back to the city after months of silence and bringing attention to the thousands of world-class musicians who stayed in the city but were unable to work. Today, Mostly Modern Concerts — nearly all of which are free — can be found in public spaces throughout NYC and Saratoga Springs, ranging from care facilities and public parks to outdoor markets and architecturally renowned train stations.