The Top Twelve Tips for Getting a Piece Selected on a Conference
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- Submit Complete and Neatly Notated Scores - This is always my first cut. If the composer does not appear to understand proper notational conventions, or their score is illegible, or missing key elements (like a tempo marking), it immediately goes into the reject pile.
- Submit Pieces that are Idiomatically Written for their Instruments - This is usually my second cut. If a piece seems to demonstrate a good competency at writing for the particular instrument, I'll keep it in the mix. Tubas that play feverishly quick passages in the low register, saxophones playing above their range, violas playing quadruple stops that seem impossible are all red flags to me and reasons to reject a piece.
- Provide your own performers wherever possible - While not guaranteed to get your work selected, providing your own performers ensures a good performance of your work and makes life easier for the host. If you've got the connections, use 'em.
- Submit Pieces for "Less Popular" Instruments or Ensembles - Everyone else will be submitting pieces for solo flute, choir, and soprano with piano. To increase your odds of getting selected, submit for performers where the competition might not be as steep - solo bassoon works, pieces for tuba and piano, saxophone quartet, etc.
- Up-tempo Pieces are a Near Lock - Believe it or not, most composers submit "slow and serious" works for consideration. Up-tempo pieces are needed to make any concert a success, and surprisingly, they are a rare commodity in the pile of submissions.
- Humorous Pieces Have an Edge - Other festival hosts may feel differently, but for my money, an overtly humorous work, or a work reminiscent of a scherzo has a 'leg-up'. Again, these types of works are needed in a concert, to break up the slow and serious onslaught!
- Smaller is Better - Unless there is a predefined chamber group or ensemble, solos or duets have a leg up on works for greater quantities of performers. Why? It's less work for the conference host to find performers for a work with fewer players - believe me, it's no fun putting together an ad hoc string quartet - way too many phone calls.
- Think under 10 Minutes - Many calls for festivals will indicate that works should be under 15 minutes, but most hosts will try to put on as many works as possible. An overly long piece can be a disadvantage.
- Simpler is Better - Performance time and budgets are limited. I have put on very complicated works in the past, but I've had to pay top players to do so, and each conference only has so much money to go around. Pieces that are easier to put together have a greater chance of being selected in my book.
- Include a Good Recording if you have one - A good recording always helps the chances of a piece getting selected. If a recording does not do a piece justice, you are better off not submitting one. I've had cheesy midi recordings undermine what might have been a good piece on more than one occasion (try as you might, you can't hit the reset button in your mind and hear the piece sans bad midi)
- Follow the Call for Scores - Include durations with pieces, include parts if they are required, include a contact information sheet, include program notes, biographies, etc.
- Present a Professional Presentation - If you are serious as a composer, then put forward your best foot by submitting high quality materials - a professional cover letter, a nicely bound score, neatly labeled CDs, these things all help assure the conference host that you will show up to their conference, submit quality parts, etc.
For those of you that have hosted festivals in the past, feel free to chime in with your thoughts. Have I missed anything?
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I have only selected music for one festival, however, I must say I was amazed at the lack of professional quality materials that some composers submit. I remember recordings without covers and CD cases, cover letters that barely explained the materials sent, and my favorite, scores held together with paper clips! How can any composer be serious without properly binding their music? The most incredible part of this experience was that many of the poor materials submitted were from composers old enough to know better.
I wished that it was not true that composers with performers get chosen over composers without, but it is indeed the case. This is very unfortunate. If you have performers, why bother traveling far from home to play the piece for 20-100 people? The whole point of entering music is to get new performances in new places by new musicians. If the host can't provide quality performances, don't host a festival.
I am very mixed on the MIDI recording situation. New pieces need to get played, and until the do, they exist as a MIDI recording. The piece was written without the aid of a live performance, I am sure it should be able to be evaluated without the aid of a live performance/recording. This of course is not true. Too bad for all those new pieces that haven't been premiered! I guess they probably won't win. I personally have had a few instances where professional musicians have told me that the MIDI was helpful. I am sure this is a rarity.
Up tempo? Yes. Up tempo and technically demanding? Probably not. Just my thoughts. I lose lots of competitions. I still submit though. Every piece has a performer that will love it. Finding that performer is sometimes painful.
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Thank you for this list! I passed it on to my own composition students (which I hope is OK with you) -- a lot of it re-iterates things that I've been telling them, so it's great to see corroboration from someone else "in the field".
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Like Eric, I will be passing this along to my students. Great information!
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