Thanks to a commission from the New York Philharmonic, a Northwestern professor of music composition will be composing a 20-minute piano concerto.

The new piece by Jay Alan Yim, associate professor of composition at the Northwestern University Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, will be premiered Dec. 17 and 18 in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. Alan Gilbert, the Philharmonic’s music director, will conduct. Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world.

“My recent pieces have incorporated social relations as a core element,” said Yim. “Given today’s challenges, I want to create a work that is a collaboration, not a confrontation. The piano and orchestra will be partners rather than adversaries as in the 19th century, solitary hero fashion.”

Yim is co-coordinator of the Bienen School’s composition program. His past honors have included a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, three BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) and two ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) awards, Tanglewood and Aspen fellowships, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and three Illinois Arts Council fellowships. He held an appointment as a composer/fellow (1995-96) for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Yim has received commissions from other institutions, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Chicago and San Francisco symphony orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Sinfonietta.

His music has been performed widely, including at concerts at the Tanglewood, ISCM World Music Days, Darmstadt, Wien Modern, Ars Musica and Gaudeamus festivals.

Yim is co-founder, with artist Marlena Novak, of localStyle, a digital media collaborative. The group incorporates bio-art, interactive electronics, and outdoor video projection with museum installations in the United States and Europe.