2012 Young Composers Competition
Submissions due September 21, 2012
Notification of awards: October 19
Young Composers Weekend, with performances of winning compositions: December 1 & 2

Sponsored by Arden and Harry Fisher

Since 2004, the Young Composers Competition recognizes and encourages the efforts of those between the ages of 12 and 21 who are involved in the creative process of composing music.

This program, unique to the St. Louis region, is open to nationwide participation and has recognized young composers from St. Louis to both sides of the continent.

Awardees have their works performed by professional musicians in a public concert that is professionally recorded. Each awardee receives a CD of the performance and a written critique and personal conference with a guest composer of note. Guest composers have included Shulamit Ran, Chen Yi, Dino Constantinides, Claude Baker, John Cheetham, James Mobberly, Jared Spears, and Steven Dankner.

                            
2012 Guest Composer, Zack Browning

Zack Browning is a composer whose music has been described as “way-cool in attitude…speed-demon music” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and “propulsive, giddy, rocking… a rush of cyclic riffs and fractured meters” (The New York Times). The Irish Times has proclaimed he is “bringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular culture”.His solo CD Banjaxed on Capstone Records contains eight of his original compositions for voice, instruments and computer-generated sounds and has been called “dramatic, exciting, rhythmic, high-energy music”.  Browning’s recent composition awards include a 2011 Individual Artist Project Grant from the Illinois Arts Council for a new CD of his music titled Secret Pulse (Innova Recordings, released in January 2012),  and a 2010 University of Illinois FAA Creative Fellowship for research and performances in China, Taiwan, and South Korea.  In 2010 Innova Recordings released his solo CD Venus Notorious and the San Francisco Chronicle called it “ebullient, infectiously bright” and “bouncy and exuberant - some of the music sounds like dance tracks for androids with varying numbers of feet”.  Browning is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Illinois and the director of the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award. More information is available at www.zackbrowning.com

                                   2012 Competition Guidelines

Awards

1.  Public performance of composition by professional musicians on December 1, 2012 concert.
2.  Professional recording of the YCC concert
3. Written critique and individual or group conference on composition(s) with guest composer

Eligibility

Level I: students ages 12-16
Level II: students ages 17-21
All submissions must be post-marked or received by September 21, 2012.

Composition Guidelines

Format

Compositions should be: for 2-10 member music ensembles and 3-10 minutes in length.

Medium

Traditional manuscript and MIDI realization or CD recording required

Compositions will be evaluated on the following

Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Style, Form, Instrumentation, Labeling, Notation, Musicality

The Panel of Judges include

Published composer(s) and school/university theory & composition faculty.

Submission Deadlines

All submissions must be post-marked or received by September 21, 2012.  The winners will be announced no later than October 19, 2012.

Click HERE to download an entry form and submission guidelines.

Questions? Call 314-968-5939 or email myler@webster.edu.

Young Composers Competition Weekend Events
Workshops:  Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 1-2:30 p.m. and 3-5 p.m. 
Workshop topics to include:  copyrighting & self-publishing. 
Concert & Reception:  Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Conference with guest Composer:  Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 10 a.m.

*Weekend events are free for all entrants.