Opens: September 1, 2018
Deadline: October 31, 2018
The Boston New Music Initiative is pleased to announce its Seventh Annual Commissioning Competition. This year’s competition will be in collaboration with the Cambridge Chamber Singers. The purpose of this competition is to further the mission of The Boston New Music Initiative to maintain an international network of composers, performers, conductors, directors, and champions of music in order to generate new music concerts, compositions, collaborations, and commissions. Incorporated in 2010, the organization aims to advance the careers of its members in the field of new music by serving as a resource for networking, professional development, commissioning, collaboration, and programming. The Cambridge Chamber Singers (CCS, formerly known as Cambridge Madrigal Singers), now in its 37th season, offers exciting and eclectic concert programs to connect audiences in Greater Boston with the best in choral music, from traditional masters to talented new composers. Under Musical Director Dr. Raymond Fahrner, CCS seeks out innovative programming and creative collaborations. Recent repertoire has included works by Josquin des Prez, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Eric Whitacre, Bob Chilcott, G.P. da Palestrina, Orlando Gibbons, Claudio Monteverdi, Johannes Brahms, Maurice Duruflé, arrangements of traditional hymns and spirituals, and much more.
The 7th Annual Competition will be open to any representative work that demonstrates the ability to write for both voice(s) and instrument(s). The work(s) submitted may utilize electronics, but the commissioned work will not. Composers may also enter two representative works: one for voices and one for instruments. Composers are encouraged if at all possible to show their ability to write for the BNMI core ensemble (fl, cl, vn, vc, pf, perc) or a similar instrumentation and for amateur singers. The ensemble of the commissioned work will be the Cambridge Chamber Singers and the BNMI sextet.
Composers currently or formerly on the staff of The Boston New Music Initiative and past commission winners are ineligible to apply. The competition will be adjudicated in a two-round process, with the winner(s) being selected by an external panel of composers and music professionals using a blind evaluation process. The winner of this competition will be awarded a grand prize of at least $1,350 USD, in addition to being engaged to compose one new acoustic work, approximately 8-12 minutes in length, for joint performance by The Boston New Music Initiative and the Cambridge Chamber Singers in a future concert season. At least one winner will be named for this competition, and the winner will be strongly encouraged to be in attendance for the premiere performance. The winner of the 2017 competition, Charles Peck, received a $1,000 prize and had his new work, Kindling, premiered on BNMI’s April 2018 concert, conducted by Yuga Cohler.
We strongly encourage all composers to download and review the BNMI Submission Guide ahead of submitting to this competition.
Details
- Number of Entries. There is no limit on the number of submissions per composer. Each submission should include one work for voice and instruments, or two works (one for voice and one for instruments). Any other submissions should be submitted as separate entries. Multi-movement works should be submitted as single entries, even if movements are in separate files. (The submission process allows for multiple files per entry.) If a composer would like to submit multiple instrumental works, but only has one vocal work for submission, (or vice versa) the second work may be submitted multiple times to accompany each instrumental work.
- Anonymity. All submissions must be anonymous. Scores or other materials with names or other identifying marks will not be considered. Please remove all identifying marks from all materials (except the composer information page, see submission process below) before submitting. Please make sure no meta-data including names or identifying marks remain in submitted files. Please do not use a pseudonym or code number, simply remove your name.
- Membership. Composers wishing to submit scores must become members of BNMI; Associate Membership is free and Full Membership is $20 per year. Information on membership benefits can be found here.
-
File Formats. The only acceptable file formats are:
- For the score: .pdf
- For (optional) audio recordings: .mp3 or .m4a
- For (optional) video: .mov or .m4v
- All other materials: .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, or .pdf
- Questions? Please address any questions to info@bostonnewmusic.org. Note: Please do NOT send submission materials to this email address as the materials cannot be submitted using this method. When submitting inquiries, please be as generic as possible, and do not include the title of your piece in the query in order to preserve anonymity.
Submission Process
Composers are asked to use our submission portal to upload the following materials (each as separate documents). If this is your first time submitting, please review our submission guide prior to starting the submission process.
- One (1) anonymous score of a representative work for voice and instruments or two (2) anonymous scores of representative works, one for voice and one for instruments, in PDF format only. If submitting two works, please include both titles as the title of your submission, e.g. “String Quartet No. 1 and Five English Songs.”
- A recording of the work(s) (not required but encouraged)
- Proposed text of the new work should the composer be selected (optional)
- An entry fee for each submission, which will consist of: one work for voice and instruments, or two works, one for voice and one for instruments. The entry fee for each submission to this competition is $20 for Associate Members, and $10 for Full Members. Membership information can be found here.
- An information sheet containing the following:
- Composer’s contact information (name, phone number, physical mailing address, email address, and website URL, if any)
- Composer biography (maximum 300 words) to be used in publicity if the composer is selected.
To Apply:
Please click the submit button at the bottom of the page.
We strongly encourage all composers to download and review the BNMI Submission Guide ahead of submitting to this competition.
Helpful Hints:
- Please note that new memberships may take up to 24 hours to be approved (although usually much less). Composers signing up as new members who wish to submit to this competition should be sure to allot enough time for the approval process to complete in order to meet the June deadline.
- The submission portal is not available without login credentials. Composers who are not existing BNMI members should not attempt to go to the submission portal without submitting a membership application first: http://www.bostonnewmusic.org/membership in order to create login credentials.
- Once your files have been added for each work, be sure to complete your payment in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Full members must have dues paid in full in order to receive full membership benefits, including discounts on Calls for Scores and commissioning competitions. For those composers submitting more than one entry, payment should be made only after ALL entries have been completed.
- More questions? Please see our submission guide.