Postmark Deadline: December 1, 2010

The Carlsbad Music Festival, in partnership with its Founding Ensemble-in-Residence, the Calder Quartet, announces its fifth annual composition competition with a prize of $3,000. The festival and quartet seek to commission a new string quartet from a highly original, creative, and compelling composer under the age of 35. The winning composition will be premiered at the 8th annual Carlsbad Music Festival on the weekend of September 23-25, 2011.

The $3,000 prize includes the commission fee and a travel stipend for the Carlsbad Music Festival concert, free room during residency (home-stay), and a professional recording of the premiere.

Please submit a score and recording (MIDI mock-ups are highly discouraged) of two recent pieces, at least one using violin, viola or cello in a chamber music setting. Please also include the following materials and information: your name, birthday, address, phone number, e-mail address, web site (if available), artistic biography or resume, list of works, a $20 check made payable to “Carlsbad Music Festival,” a SASE if you would like your materials returned (unreturned materials will be recycled), and an optional project proposal or cover letter. All competition materials must be postmarked by December 1, 2010. International applications must be received by December 10, 2010. The winner will be notified in January 2011. The winner’s completed score and parts must be delivered to the music festival by August 1, 2011 and the winner must attend the concerts on September 23-25, 2011.

The Carlsbad Music Festival is an annual alternative classical music festival featuring master artists and the next generation of cutting-edge, world-class musicians premiering new works and performing fresh and compelling music in concert and in the community. The festival won the 2010 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, has been praised as “marvelously enlightening” by the Los Angeles Times, and draws enthusiastic audiences to its concerts in the coastal California city of Carlsbad and its satellite concerts in Los Angeles. The Calder Quartet continues to expand the boundaries of chamber music by performing both traditional quartet repertoire as well as partnering with modern masters and performing works by emerging young composers. Reviewing their performance at the 2008 Carlsbad Music Festival, Mark Swed of LA Times declared "the Calder Quartet...in an astonishingly short time has become the American string quartet to watch." The Calder is the first quartet-in-residence and newest faculty members at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles.

The winner of the competition will be decided jointly by the festival’s founder/director, Matt McBane, and the Calder Quartet.

http://www.carlsbadmusicfestival.org
http://www.calderquartet.com

Mail materials to:
Carlsbad Music Festival
Composers Competition
PO Box 4067
Carlsbad, CA 92018

Questions to:
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