Call for Scores

Forecast Music: 2013 National Call for Scores

We are pleased as punch to announce the winners of our 2013 Call for Scores! We had an amazing assortment of submissions, and no easy task deciding. Thanks so much to all who submitted!

The winning piece for our 2013 call is George Heathco’s fantastic trio, Shifting Landscapes, which will be performed on 5/24 at the Community Arts Cafe in Winston-Salem, NC. George will be awarded a $500 stipend to attend the concert, and to introduce his work to the audience.

George Heathco composes music for a variety of ensembles in a wide range of styles. His music blends elements of contemporary concert music with rock, jazz, and various other pop genres. Ensembles and organizations he has written for include the Moores School of Music Jazz Orchestra, Da Camera of Houston, Scordatura Music Society, Divergence Vocal Theater, and the University of Houston’s AURA Contemporary Ensemble. George contributed string arrangements for singer/songwriter Chris Telfer’s MATTOO E.P. and composed the music for ReGifting Lions, an evening length dance collaboration with choreographers Toni Leago Valle, Catalina Molnari, and photographer/ choreographer Lynn Lane. George was a member of the 2010-2011 Da Camera of Houston Young Artist Program, and in 2011 was the graduate division winner of the Sarofim Composition Contest at the University of Houston. He is the guitarist for Liminal Space Contemporary Music Ensemble, a new Houston-based ensemble founded by George and percussionist Luke Hubley.

As a guitarist, Mr. Heathco has performed all over Texas with various musicians, ensembles, and bands, including: Opera Vista, Divergence Vocal Theater, AURA Contemporary Ensemble, the Free Radicals, and as the guitarist for progressive/math metal band, The Pant Factory. He has taught guitar and music theory privately in the Houston area, music theory at American Festival for the Arts, and has taught music fundamentals, music theory, and aural skills at the University of Houston. George received a B.M. in music business and an M.M. in composition from the University of Houston. Some of the musicians he has studied with include: Rob Smith, Robert Nelson, James Bishop, Jim Vassallo, Noe Marmolejo, Dennis Dotson, and Mike Wheeler.

We have also awarded two honorable mention winners this year, both of whom will have there works performed on the 2013-14 Forecast Music season:

Amelia S. Kaplan, for her wonderful duo Insolence

Amelia Kaplan is Associate Professor of Composition at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.
She completed her A.B. at Princeton University, and her A.M. and Ph.D. at the University of
Chicago as a Century Fellow, where her primary teachers were Shulamit Ran and Ralph Shapey.
She worked with Azio Corghi at the Milan Conservatory on a Whiting Fellowship, and also
received a Diploma of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana while studying with Franco
Donatoni, and a Diploma from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. Ms. Kaplan has had
residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has been performed at numerous contemporary
music festivals around the U.S. and in Europe, including the SCI national conference, SICPP,
Wellesley Composers Conference, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt, June in Buffalo, and others. She
previously taught at Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Iowa, and Roosevelt University.

And Patrick Castillo, for his excellent work for violin and interactive electronics, Music for the Third Place

Patrick Castillo leads a multifaceted career as a composer, performer, writer, and educator. His music has been featured at festivals and venues throughout the United States and internationally including Spoleto Festival USA, the Santa Fe New Music Festival, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Berklee College of Music, Tenri Cultural Institute, Bavarian Academy of Music (Munich), and Nuremberg Museum of Contemporary Art. Recent season highlights include the world premieres of Incident for cello and piano, The Quality of Mercy for soprano and ensemble, and Evocation for chorus and cello; the German premiere of Cirque for solo violin; and the second New York performance of This is the hour of lead, a chamber cantata for baritone/countertenor and ensemble.

Patrick Castillo is variously active as an explicator of music to a wide range of listeners. For Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley for which he serves as Artistic Administrator, he has designed and led a broad variety of educational initiatives for students and audiences of all ages. He hosts the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Late Night Rose series, and has also appeared as guest lecturer at String Theory at the Hunter (Chattanooga, TN), ChamberFest Cleveland, Fordham University, and elsewhere. In 2010, he was appointed Director of Artistic Planning of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

The 2013 call is now closed. Thanks so much for all the fantastic submissions. We hope to have winners notified and announced by the end of February.

PRIZE: The winners of the Forecast Music 2013 National Call for Scores will be performed in the Spring of 2013 on Forecast Music’s Carolina and Beyond concert program at The Community Arts Café (http://communityartscafe.com/) of Winston-Salem. From 1-4 winners will be chosen. A travel stipend of $500 will be awarded to the winning composers in order to attend the concert.

ELIGIBILITY: Composers of art music from all genres currently living in the US or its territories are invited to submit works to Forecast Music’s 2013 National Call for Scores. We have no aesthetic bias and welcome any and all submissions. No weight will be given to whether or not a work has been previously performed.

INSTRUMENTATION: Any work for three performers or less of any instrumental combination, vocal works, and works involving electronics are all welcome. Works submitted may be for acoustic and/or amplified instruments and voices. For a list of Forecast Music’s regular musicians please check http://forecastmusic.com/bios/ Pieces including voice or standard instruments not listed are also welcome, though performance logistics will figure into all final decisions. Works with durations of 12 minutes or less are preferable, although in some instances longer compositions may be considered.

DEADLINES: All works must be postmarked or submitted online by February 1, 2013 to be eligible for this year’s call.

PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

1. Score (PDF or hard copy) and recording. (MP3, WAV, M4a or CD; MIDIrealizations are acceptable). Please indicate pertinent track names and numbers on CDs. Label scores and/or recordings with the following information:

* composer’s name

* title of work

* instrumentation

* duration

* track number if relevant

2. Contact information (address, telephone number, and email address).

3. Composer’s biographical information.

4. A check (credit or Paypal is also accepted, please include a note with your submission if you have paid via credit/Paypal) for $10 for the first entry, and $5 for each additional entry made payable to Forecast Music. For credit/Paypal payment please click on the icon at http://forecastmusic.com/donations/

RETURN OF MATERIALS: Forecast Music often receives works that for various reasons do not win this particular call, but which we might like to program in the future. As such we would prefer to archive all submissions for future consideration. If a work must be returned, please include a SASE with your submission.

SEND TO:

Forecast Music

c/o Eric Schwartz- Artistic Director

431 Park Ridge Ln. Apt. C

Winston-Salem, NC 27104

forecastcallforscores@gmail.com (use this address for e-submission as well as any questions)

At long last, we are happy as can be to announce the last winner of our 2012 call, Aaron Gervais whose piece Jackhammer Lullaby has been awarded honorable mention, and will be performed on our upcoming 1/31/13 performance at the Community Arts Cafe in Winston-Salem, NC.

Aaron Gervais is composer of new classical/avant-garde music, born in Edmonton, Canada, and represented by Art Music Promotion. He received a Bachelor of Music with Honours from the University of Toronto, and a Master’s degree from the University of California at San Diego. He has also pursued studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, Netherlands. Aaron’s teachers have included Chan Ka Nin (CA), Chinary Ung (US), Philippe Manoury (FR), and Martijn Padding (NL), and he has also participated in masterclasses with renowned composers from around the world. Prior to studying composition, Aaron studied jazz drumming and Cuban folkloric percussion, including a summer of private study in Havana in 2002.

Aaron’s music has been performed by major ensembles in several countries, including the Nieuw Ensemble (NL), orkest de ereprijs (NL), the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal (CA), the Nouvel ensemble moderne (CA), Tapestry New Opera Works (CA), Toca Loca (CA), Continuum (CA), the Knights Orchestra (US), the London Sinfonietta (UK), and the Arditti Quartet (UK). His music has been broadcast on CBC Radio/Radio-Canada.

Long-term musical directions in Aaron’s composing include a focus on rhythm and time, a preoccupation with the social and cultural factors that influence listening and taste, an interest in found materials, an exploration of what in fact constitutes creativity, and a fascination with the ways that social technologies are changing listening habits, to name a few. His music incorporates a wide range of palettes, from rich microtonal textures and shimmering timbres to bright chipper counterpoint, upbeat rhythmic drive, blunt musical gestures, and light-hearted humour.

We are so very pleased to announce the two winners of our 2012 call for scores, Kyong Mee Choi and Brian Baxter.

Kyong Mee Choi, composer, organist, painter, and visual artist, received
several prestigious awards and grants including John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Robert Helps Prize, Aaron Copland Award,
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, First prize of ASCAP/SEAMUS Award,
Second prize at VI Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São
Paulo, Honorary Mentions from Musique et d’Art Sonore Electroacoustiques
de Bourges, Musica Nova, Society of Electroacoustic Music of Czech
Republic, Luigi Russolo International Competition, and Destellos Competition.
She was a Finalist of the Contest for the International Contemporary
Music Contest “Citta’ di Udine and Concurso Internacional de Composicai
eletroacoustica in Brazil among others. Her compositions have been performed
at the international venues including the Australasian Computer Music
Conference, Musica Contemporanea in Ecuador, International Computer
Music Conference, Electroacoustic Musical Festival in Santiago de
Chile, MUSICA NOVA, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States,
College Music Society among others. Her music was published at SCI, EMS,
ERM, SEAMUS, Détonants Voyages (Studio Forum, France) and CIMESP (São
Paulo, Brazil).

Choi received a D.M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
a M.M. from Georgia State University and a B.S. in chemistry and science
education from Ewha Womans University. She studied Korean literature
in a master’s program at Seoul National University in South Korea. She
teaches music composition and electro-acoustic music at Roosevelt
University in Chicago. Samples of her works are available at

http://www.kyongmeechoi.com.

Brian Baxter (b.1985) is a Chicago-based composer, drummer, and new music producer. He creates compelling musical narratives by finding inspiration in places, events, ideas, and texts. Colorful timbres and pulsing rhythmic textures are stylistically central to his musical expression featuring primarily orchestral and chamber music as well as a smattering of songs.

Recent performances of Brian’s music have taken place across the US. In a collaboration with Shara Worden, Brian co-wrote orchestral arrangements of My Brightest Diamond’s music for a concert with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion in Chicago in August of 2011. At South by Southwest in Austin, Texas the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles performed music by Brian as a part of their set on Gabriel Prokofiev’s NonClassical Showcase at the Velveeta Room in March of 2011. On its inaugural concert in August of 2010, the Chicago Composers Orchestra premiered Brian’s Symphony in Movement. Selected as a winner of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Fanfare Commission Competition, Brian’s Cahokia was premiered during the 2009-2010 CUSO 50th Anniversary season. Old Meeting-House Bell from song cycle, the great work Time, was performed on the 2008-2009 Phoenix Concerts Series in New York City by soprano, Erika Rauer and pianist, Jocelyn Dueck. Brian has been a recipient of the ASCAPLUS Award in 2011, 2010, and 2009.

Co-founder of the Chicago Composers Orchestra, a group dedicated to the performance and advocacy of orchestral music by living composers, Brian currently serves as its Chair of the Board of Directors. He is an active drummer and organizer with the new music collective, the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles. He also works in operations with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras where he founded and teaches a Composition Seminar for CYSO student composers.

Brian received his M.M. in composition from Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and his B.M. in composition from Illinois Wesleyan University. His principal teachers have included: Stacy Garrop, David Vayo, Daron Hagen, Mario Pelusi, and Garrett Byrnes.

Brian originally hails from the Midwestern town of Geneva situated on the banks of the Fox River just fifty-five miles west of downtown Chicago. When Brian is not composing, performing, or organizing music he spends his time listening, reading, travelling, watching baseball, and enjoying good company.

Brian is a member of ASCAP and publishes his music through ATIHADSO MUSIC.

While we have now chosen our two winners, please do stay tuned: We will be announcing a number of honorable mention works, and also will be contacting specific composers about possible performance of your work next season. We hope to notify everyone of these further results as soon as possible.