Call for scores: O/Modernt 2021 Composition Award

O/Modernt, in collaboration with the Manchester International Festival, Manchester Camerata, specialist music school Lilla Akademien and the Danish Youth Ensemble, is calling on music composers around the world to submit scores for its 2021 Composition Award.

The winning work will be premiered in Manchester in 2021 and in Sweden and Denmark during the 2021-22 season. The 2021 O/Modernt Composition Award will run under the theme, Nature and the City.

The jury will comprise Tobias Broström (Sweden), Jill Jarman (UK), Fabián Panisello (Argentina), Matthew Peterson (US), Caroline Pether (UK), Morten Ryelund (Denmark), Albert Schnelzer (Sweden), Dobrinka Tabakova (UK/Bulgaria) and Mark Tatlow (UK).

How to apply

Interested composers should submit their scores in PDF via email at [email protected] along with:

• Application details: Name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, email address, telephone number and short biography.
• Score details: Title, length and short description of the idea behind the work.

The submission deadline is 1 April.

Prizes

• €3 000 (about $4 200) in prize money, which can be split according to the jury’s discretion.
• Premiere performances in Manchester in 2021 and in Sweden and Denmark during the 2021-22 season.
• Travel and accommodation to attend premiere performances (up to a maximum amount of €500 per performance).

Guidelines

• Instrumentation: String orchestra with optional percussion.
• Length: 8 – 10 minutes.

“We are excited to hear how today’s composers open new musical pathways into a topic that is so central to contemporary human experience,” O/Modernt said. “Since the dawn of modernism, the city has provided music, art and literature with perhaps its most enduring motif. Building on that tradition, the theme for this year’s award is the tension between nature and the city, and the evolving relationship between technology and the natural world.”

View the original call here.