Tenth Annual BNMI Commissioning Competition
Opens: October 1, 2022
Deadline: November 30, 2022
The Boston New Music Initiative is pleased to announce its Eleventh Annual Commissioning Competition. The purpose of this competition is to further the mission of The Boston New Music Initiative to maintain an international network of composers, performers, conductors, directors, and champions of music in order to generate new music concerts, compositions, collaborations, and commissions. Incorporated in 2010, the organization aims to advance the careers of its members in the field of new music by serving as a resource for networking, professional development, commissioning, collaboration, and programming.
The 11th Annual Competition will be open to any representative work, however, composers are encouraged if at all possible to show their ability to write for the BNMI core ensemble (fl, cl, vn, vc, pf, perc) or a similar instrumentation. This sextet will be the ensemble of the commissioned work.
Any composer is eligible except composers currently or formerly on the staff of The Boston New Music Initiative and past commission winners are ineligible to apply. The competition will be adjudicated in a two-round, blind evaluation process. The winner of this competition will be awarded a grand prize of at least $1,000 USD, in addition to being engaged to compose a new 8-12 minute work for performance by The Boston New Music Initiative in a future concert season.
Previous Commissions:
2014 Ghost Notes – Panayiotis Kokoras
2015 Labyrinth Song – Nicola Straffelini
2016 Altered States – Travis Alford
2017 After the Rain – Lonnie Hevia
2018 Kindling – Charles Peck
2019 Living in Color – Alex Berko
2020 On the Nature of Things – Andrew Davis (premiere 2022)
2021 Prisms and Mirrors – Paul Novak
2022 Strange Birds – Ania Vu
2023 TBD – Luis Quintana
We strongly encourage all composers to download and review the BNMI Submission Guide ahead of submitting to this competition.
To Apply:
http://www.bostonnewmusic.org/submit
Details:
Number of Entries. There is no limit on the number of works a composer may submit; however, each work should be submitted as a separate entry. Multi-movement works should be submitted as single entries, even if movements are in separate files. (The submission process allows for multiple files per entry.)
Anonymity. All submissions must be anonymous. Scores or other materials with names or other identifying marks will not be considered. Please remove all identifying marks from all materials (except the composer information page, see submission process below) before submitting. One of the best ways to do this is through redaction. Please make sure no metadata including names or identifying marks remain in submitted files. No pseudonyms or code numbers are necessary.
Membership. Composers wishing to submit scores must become members of BNMI; Whisper In Your Ear Membership is free and Shout It Out Membership is $25 a year. Information on membership benefits can be found here.
Questions? After checking for answers in the submission guide, please address any questions to info@bostonnewmusic.org. Note: Please do NOT send submission materials to this email address as the materials cannot be submitted using this method. When submitting inquiries, please be as generic as possible, and do not include the title of your piece in the query in order to preserve anonymity. Failing to do this will disqualify your entry.
File Formats. The only acceptable file formats are:
For the score: .pdf
For (optional) audio recordings: .mp3 or .m4a
For video: .mov or .m4v
All other materials: .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, or .pdf
Submission Process
Composers are asked to use our submission portal to upload the following materials (each as separate documents). If this is your first time submitting, please review our submission guide prior to starting the submission process. Please be sure to label your scores, recordings and information sheets with the correct file type during the submission process.
One (1) anonymous score, in PDF format only, of a representative work.
A recording of the work (not required but encouraged)
An entry fee for each submission. The entry fee for this competition is $20 for Whisper In Your Ear Members, and $10 for Shout It Out Members. Membership information can be found here.
An information sheet (make sure this is labeled with the correct file type!) containing the following:
Composer’s contact information (name, phone number, physical mailing address, email address, and website URL, if any)
Composer biography (maximum 300 words) to be used in publicity if the composer is selected.
FAQs and Helpful Hints:
1. Please note that new memberships may take up to 24 hours to be approved (although usually much less). Composers signing up as new members who wish to submit to this competition should be sure to allot enough time for the approval process to complete in order to meet the December 31 deadline.
2. The submission portal is not available without login credentials. Composers who are not existing BNMI members should not attempt to go to the submission portal without submitting a membership application first: http://www.bostonnewmusic.org/membership in order to create login credentials.
3. Once your files have been added for each work, be sure to complete your payment in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Shout It Out members must have dues paid in full in order to receive the full membership benefits, including discounts on Calls for Scores and commissioning competitions. For those composers submitting more than one entry, payment should be made only after ALL entries have been completed.
4. Make sure you have correctly labeled all files with the correct file type. This is how entries are sorted, and incorrect labeling can lead to your entry being voided because anonymity is compromised.
5. More questions? Please see our submission guide.
Deadline 30 November 2022
Website bostonnewmusic.org
