I've received an announcement of another composition contest, this time via snail mail. The sponsor is the Music Department at California State University, Northridge. The details can be found here, but based on the discussion of the previous contest, the important facts are as follows:
1) There is an entry fee of $20 for each work submitted (maximum of 2 per composer allowed).
2) There is a cash prize of $1000, and a performance with the CSUN Symphony.
3) If you want your score or recordings back, send a SASE.
4) The scores are submitted anonymously.
5) The judges are Dan Hosken, Daniel Kessner, Liviu Marinescu, John Roscigno, and Elizabeth Sellers.
6) The only other criteria are the length (7-15 minutes) and the instrumentation (orchestra or chamber orchestra, no soloists).
The fee is less and the prize is more, but is that enough? Now fifty entries are needed to cover the cost. What are appropriate criteria to publish for judging a composition contest?
2 comments:
This CSUN competition has been around for a long time. CSUN is actually very active with new music. Of all the composition competitions I have looked at and entered, and with my experience with CSUN (I was very impressed when I was there a few years ago having a piece--not the result of a competition--played by the wind ensemble), I think that this is probably one of the better ones as far as relative fairness is concerned. They give the names of the judges, have a decent prize, and a reasonably low entry fee.
That doesn't change the fact that, in this post-modern world of creative musical thought and action, only one person is declared the winner by a panel of four people with their own often complicated ideas about what they consider appropriate and interesting new music.
This CSUN competition has been around for a long time. CSUN is actually very active with new music. Of all the composition competitions I have looked at and entered, and with my experience with CSUN (I was very impressed when I was there a few years ago having a piece--not the result of a competition--played by the wind ensemble), I think that this is probably one of the better ones as far as relative fairness is concerned. They give the names of the judges, have a decent prize, and a reasonably low entry fee.
That doesn't change the fact that, in this post-modern world of creative musical thought and action, only one person is declared the winner by a panel of four people with their own often complicated ideas about what they consider appropriate and interesting new music.
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