Vermont is a state in the United States. Some of the state's bands include Secrecy, Block Party, RAQ, Blowtorch, Death, Phish, Twiddle, Madaila, Drowningman, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Noah Kahan, Mellow Yellow, 8084, Steady Betty, Rough Francis, Gang of Thieves, Waylon Speed, The Wards, The Cancer Conspiracy and Prydein. Burlington also has a thriving local music scene with artists like Eric George, Cricket Blue, Francesca Blanchard, the DuPont Brothers, Hannah Fair, Isabel Pless, and Addie Herbert. The city also hosts jam bands, including the Jellies, Preserve, and Chutney Alice. The state is also home to many iconoclastic composers, from Revolutionary-era Justin Morgan through electronic/avant-gardist Otto Luening. Vermont's contemporary composers includes Jon Appleton, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, Henry Brant, Louis Calabro, Vivian Fine, David Gunn, Brian Johnson, Leroy Preston, Laura Koplewitz, John Levin, Peggy Madden, Erik Nielsen, Lionel Nowak, Thomas L. Read, Alan Shawn, Ernie Stires, GD, Su Lian Tan, Dennis Murphy, and Gwyneth Walker. Derrik Jordan is a composer and singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who plays 5 string electric violin, guitar, keyboard, kalimba and percussion. He is a recording artist on Worldsoul Records based in Putney, Vermont. Vermont is also a source of folk and traditional music, with such musicians as Celia Woodsmith (and her band Avi & Celia,) Pete Sutherland, Anaïs Mitchell, Deb Flanders, Jon Gailmor, The Von Trapp Family, Angus Chaney, Patti Casey, Colin McCaffrey, Woods Tea Company, Hungrytown and many others. Music education and institutions The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1934, was the first state-funded orchestra in the nation. The orchestra's first artistic director was Alan Carter, followed by Efrain Guigui, Peter Brown, and Kate Tamarkin. The Artistic Director and conductor today is Jaime Laredo. Laredo is a world-renowned violinist who played for many years with Isaac Stern and performs worldwide as a soloist and frequently in duo concerts with Sharon Robinson, cellist. The VSO's "Made in Vermont" series annually commissions a Vermont composer to create a large-scale work that tours the State. Previous recipients have included G. Walker, L. Koplewitz, et al. Current composer-in-residence with the VSO is David Ludwig. The Vermont Youth Orchestra has come to prominence since the mid-1990s under the direction of composer/conductor Troy Peters. The Consortium of Vermont Composers was formed in 1988 to promote composers of classical music from the state; the Consortium calls Vermont the "most composer-friendly state" in the country. Vermont has a program entitled the Vermont MIDI Project,