Concert Title: In Good Hands
Performance: Saturday, July 17, 2021
Venue: Online
Submission Deadline: 11:59 PM PST, Monday, February 22, 2021
Eligibility: All Cascadia members in good standing for 2021 (don’t forget to renew)
Instrumentation: Students will be available for piano pieces, including 4 hands; both newly written and previously composed pieces are welcome. Students may also be available for cello, flute, oboe, or voice (all solo); we suggest you submit previously composed pieces, or contact Jan, Liz, or Paul (see emails below) before writing new pieces for those students.
Please note: This year we are adding a student/teacher/composer collaboration sub-category for our IGH concert. This score call is not for that sub-category, but is for composers who wish to submit scores for other students (not those involved in a collaboration) to study and possibly play in the concert, as in past In Good Hands concerts.
Further information: Teachers would like more music for beginners and early intermediate students. Please remember that many of our talented students have small hands. Big chords and stretches don’t work. However, if you come up with an interesting pattern, you can repeat it all over the keyboard and even the younger students will enjoy playing it. A good plan is to write music that sounds harder than it is.
For examples, the Royal Conservatory (Frederick Harris Music Co.) has a series of graded books that contain excellent repertoire from all the periods of music history, called Celebration Series. The contemporary pieces are creative, appealing, and student friendly. The grades of these books correspond to the OMTA syllabus levels (for an above average student, typical for IGH). If you’d like more detail about the OMTA syllabus levels, to help you tailor your work to the abilities of the piano students available, please contact Jan (email below).
Consider writing a set or suite (e.g. 5 pieces, totaling about 6’ – five different students may perform the set).
Composers are expected to present a “published” (may be self-published) hardcopy to the student performer and one to her teacher.
Composers agree to work with “their” students before the concert. These sessions may take place through the computer (Skype/FaceTime), or teachers might send recordings to composers. The composers will discuss the performances with the teachers or send back comments (positive and suggestions). This collaboration must be completed 4 weeks prior to the IGH concert.
Submission procedure: Anonymous submission. Remove or blank out anything on the score or other submitted media which identifies the composer. Check authorship, copyright notices, logos, program notes, performance notes, and so forth. Please do not submit more than 6 piano works. You may submit any number of other works, but please see “Instrumentation” above.
Submit the following through the submission form on the NewMusicEngine website:
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Score in PDF format. Make sure nothing on the score identifies the composer. Include any performance notes. Program notes are entirely optional. Duration is no longer required on the score; enter it directly into the form in the format shown.
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Recording if available (MIDI is ok if none is) in MP3 format. A link may be submitted instead, if more convenient or if your MP3 does not upload for some reason. Make sure nothing in an MP3 player window or the link identifies the composer.
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Bio and program notes, 150 words each or less, in the text boxes provided. These won’t be accessible to the teachers selecting music. If there’s some aspect of the score or recording you feel needs an additional explanatory note, briefly and anonymously comment in the submission form’s annotation text box. Please do not submit complete program notes in the annotation box.
Selection process: Scores and soundfiles will be downloaded to a Dropbox, where teachers and their students will review them and make their selections. Teachers will be asked to notify composers when one of their students selects the composer’s piece.
Questions? Please contact Jan Mittelstaedt: janrmitt@gmail.com, Liz Nedela: liznedela2014@gmail.com or Paul Safar: info@cblossom.org
(For questions about the submission process or form, contact Jeff Winslow: jeffw@rdrop.com)
We uphold and embrace principles of inclusivity and equity in all our programming, for all our members and the community, in terms of gender, race, age, location, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status and artistic practice.