The 17th Annual Young Composers Competition and Festival
- March 05, 2013
Statewide Young Composers’ Competition and Festival
Performers at our 2012 Festival. |
The Bagaduce Music Lending Library’s annual Young Composers' Competition, which began in 1996, encourages all Maine students, high school age and below to create and perform original works and develop their musical notation skills. Most importantly, the competition puts promising music students in dialogue with professional composers who provide written and face-to-face feedback about the students’ original works. Also, for six lucky students, it’s a chance to win some extra spending money.
Each year 30-50 of Maine’s most promising young musicians participate in the Competition and travel to Blue Hill to perform at our Festival in April.Students from all parts of the state of Maine have participated in this competition. This small project fills an important niche in the musical education of Maine’s students. Interest in and talent for composition is rare. For this reason there are many communities that lack resources for training young composers.We provide a unique opportunity for young composers to meet one another, hear each other’s work, and receive critical feedback from professional musicians.
Young Maine musicians have until mid-February to submit their new works by mid-February for review by a jury of three professional composers. Past judges have included Grammy award winning jazz composer, Paul Sullivan; Noel Paul Stookey, popular contemporary composer and former member of Peter, Paul and Mary; Fred Goldrich, composer, arranger and conductor of The Bangor Band; John Cooper, Professor of Music and Composer in Residence at the College of the Atlantic, and Beth Wiemann, Professor of Music and Composition` at the University of Maine at Orono.
Cash awards and recognition are presented in two categories: Category I –Age 13 and younger; Category II – Age 14 through high school. All participants are recognized and invited to perform at the Young Composers’ Festival in Blue Hill in April. At the Festival student and parents meet one another; composers perform their original works, receive prizes and get an opportunity to discuss their composition with our judges.
All submissions become part of the Bagaduce Music Lending Library’s esteemed Maine Collection. This official state archive contains over 3,000 works, including pieces by R.B. Hall, Frank Churchill (Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf), Werner Torkanowsky, Walter Piston and Noel Paul Stookey.
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Contact Information
Martina Herries
P.O.Box 8295 Music Library Lane
Blue Hill ME 04614
207/374-5454
gro.cisumecudagab@anitram