Concert Title: In Good Hands
Performances: Saturday, July 15, 2023 (live) and Saturday, July 22, 2023 (video only)
Venue: TBA
Submission deadlines: January 10th, 2023 for both categories below.
Eligibility: All Cascadia members in good standing for 2023. You must become a Cascadia member or renew your membership by the deadline, or your submission or participation will not be considered.
Instrumentation: Piano solo or 4 hands at minimum; see categories below for other possibilities.
In Good Hands concerts include performances of compositions in two categories. A member may
submit in either or both categories. Compositions in the range 45” to 6′ long are preferred:
1. COLLABORATION refers to those compositions written for a specific student. The student and composer are co-creators of the work. Students contribute ideas, titles etc. and composers write the actual music.
2. TEACHER’S CHOICE refers to those compositions selected by a teacher for a student from finished works submitted in response to this score call.
General 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 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). These sessions must be completed by May 15, 2023.
All participating composers agree to present a published or self-published hardcopy of the music to the student and teacher by July 1, 2023.
COLLABORATION category – for composers wanting to create a work together with a student
Deadline to form a collaboration (new date): 11:59 PM PST, Tuesday, January 10, 2023. The deadline for completed scores will be announced to composers sometime after this date.
Instrumentation: Any instrument, including piano 2 or 4 hands, or voice
Submission procedure: If you would like your name added to the list of possible collaborators, please email Jan Mittelstaedt, chair, IGH planning committee: janrmitt@gmail.com
Selection process: Composer information will be distributed to all participating teachers, who will then select composers with whom they wish to work and contact them via email.
Alternatively, you may independently set up a collaboration with a chamber group, or voice, or any solo instrument except piano. Email Jan Mittelstaedt when this is all arranged (by 1/10/23).
TEACHER’S CHOICE category – for composers wanting to submit finished works
Submission Deadline: 11:59 PM PST, Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Instrumentation: Students will be available only for piano works, including 4 hands; both newly written and previously composed pieces are welcome.
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 works to the Teacher’s Choice category.
Submit the following through the submission form on the New Music Engine website, along with required info such as instrumentation (piano or piano 4 hands only), duration, and contact info:
- Score in PDF format, including any performance notes. Make sure nothing on the score identifies the composer. (PDF files are limited to 5MB by NewMusicEngine.)
- Recording if available (MIDI is ok if none is), MP3 format preferred. A link may be submitted instead, if it’s more convenient or if your file does not upload for some reason. Make sure nothing in a media player window, the link, or its landing page identifies the composer.
- Bio and Program Notes, 100 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 your submission you feel needs an additional explanatory note, briefly and anonymously comment in the submission form’s “Additional comments” text box. Please do not submit your program notes in this box.
Selection process: Scores and sound files will be downloaded to a Dropbox, where teachers and their students will review them and make their selections. Teachers will be asked to notify a composer when one of their works is selected.
Questions? Please contact Jan Mittelstaedt: janrmitt@gmail.com (For questions about the NewMusicEngine submission 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.