But, of course, there’s that seemingly contradictory saying that goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” Perhaps the one-hundred and first-job application is the one that pans out, or the eleventh try at the promotion is the one that lands you the job of your dreams.

Each year, the Iowa Choral Director’s Association awards a commission to a composer to create a new choral work that will be premiered at the organization’s summer symposium, in front of hundreds of choral directors. It’s a composer’s dream as it could take a lifetime to get a new piece of music in front of that many potential interested parties.

I’ve entered this competition at least six times, perhaps as many as eight. Which means, I’ve lost it more times than I’d care to admit. But this year, finally, I was declared the winner of the competition.

To be considered for the commission, a composer needs to submit some choral works for the committee to review. Interestingly enough, this year, I submitted the same choral works that I had entered on previous occasions and yet, this year, I won the competition.

What changed?

In the past year, I was fortunate enough to receive two wonderful performances of the choral works I submitted. For this year’s submission then, I was able to submit those high quality recordings along with the scores, for the committee to review. And that, I believe, was the difference.

In school, we spend an awful lot of time on the art of composing, on honing our craft, but we often don’t receive mentorship on the nuts and bolts items that we need to be professional composers. So if you haven’t received this advice yet composers, let me be the first to tell you, spare no cost and no effort towards getting high quality recordings of your music.



A few years back, I served as a judge in a composition contest. It seems to me there were about 14 entries. I played through the pieces, and, after weeding out a few of the entries, made a rough ordering of what I felt were the top 8 pieces. A few of the pieces included a recording, so I listened to them to help verify my initial thoughts on the pieces’ rankings. I was blown away by one of the performances, and suddenly, the piece I had ranked eighth was now in the running for winning the competition. Ultimately, I selected another piece, because I felt it was a bit more creative, but isn’t it interesting that the eighth ranked piece jumped to number two, based on a high quality recording?

Getting high quality recordings means that you’re either going to need to build some quality relationships with performers or spend some money, or both. Trust me though -- these investments are well worth it in the long run. Not only will your pieces be commemorated for history’s sake, you’ll stand a fighting chance pursuing opportunities against all of the other composers out there that have spent the time and money procuring high quality recordings.

When you were a kid, after you’d done something stupid, your mom probably asked you, “If everyone else was jumping off of a bridge, would you do it too?”

This is one of those rare cases, where you’ll need to ignore your mom’s sage advice….

You need to do this precisely because everyone else is doing it!