Performance: Sunday, June 4th 2023 @ 7:30pm
Venue: Tentatively, The Old Madeleine Church, 3123 NE 24th Ave, Portland, OR
Submission Deadline for final scores: March 13th, 2023 at 11:59pm PST
Eligibility: All Cascadia members in good standing for 2023. You must become a Cascadia member or renew your membership before the score deadline, or your submission will not be considered.
Concert theme: Commemoration of the 100th anniversary of György Ligeti’s birth.
Works should be written to celebrate the life and works of Ligeti, possibly the most wide-ranging and forward-looking composer of the later 20th century. You are strongly encouraged to write a new work for the concert, but appropriate (as determined by the curators) previously written works are also acceptable. You should express yourself in your own voice; pastiche is acceptable, but far from expected.
Works are strongly encouraged to touch on themes that fascinated Ligeti at various times in his life, e.g. Balkan and Hungarian folk music, micropolyphony, fractals, lamentation, belonging and exile, (central) African music/drumming… this should not be considered a complete list! The curators will do their best to keep up. Plus he was a Holocaust survivor, spoke seven languages and (some thought) had a bizarre sense of humor.
The concert will include several works by Ligeti himself, but about half the music will be by Cascadia members.
Instrumentation: Cascadia will be hiring a wind quintet and pianists; composers of selected works drawing on these forces must pay their performers. Works may use the full wind quintet, or any combination of piano and standard wind quintet instruments from solos up to three performers, except if piano is included, bassoon must be excluded (rehearsal logistics). Solo piano, 4 hands as well as 2 will be available. Substitute forces, provided by the composer at the composer’s expense, may be allowable subject to staging constraints — let us know your planned performers, with their bios or online info, when you submit your score. Simple electronics may be included if the composer provides the equipment and pre-concert setup. (Only the most minimal setup will be allowed between works, e.g. flipping switches.) Wireless audio is strongly encouraged.
Composer Fees: Expect to pay $150 per performer if your work is selected and you’re not providing your own performers. Fees will be collected when your work is selected. If this is a serious financial hardship for you, please contact Jeff Winslow.
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.
Composers may submit up to two works, but at most one can be performed. Priority will be given to works 5 minutes or shorter. (Ligeti was not a long-winded composer.)
Submit the following through the submission form on the NewMusicEngine.org website, along with required info such as instrumentation, 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 (WAV format OK). 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, 200 words each or less, in the text boxes provided. These won’t be accessible to the curators. 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.
- If there are lyrics, you may submit them as part of the program notes, or as a text file without the author in PDF format. If they’re not in English, include a translation. Be sure to enter the author in the separate text box, even if the lyrics are in the public domain. Use “Traditional”, “Anonymous”, etc. if needed.
- Lyrics permission – If there are lyrics that are not in the public domain, include a text file in PDF format showing you have permission to use them.
Selection process: All proposals and works will be examined anonymously by curators Antonio Celaya, John Bilotta, Michael Johanson, Bob Priest, Groucho Marx, W.C. Fields, and Kalocsa Aranya, a scion of the family who brought smoked paprika to Hungary. Their decisions are final and surprisingly delicious. (Ref. bizarre sense of humor above)
Selections will be announced by March 20th, 2023. Final scores for selected works, and parts if required, as well as performer fees are due one week later. (If for some reason a work is canceled, its fees will be refunded.)
Questions? Please contact Jeff Winslow: jeffw@rdrop.com.
Thank you and good luck!
Jeff Winslow for Cascadia Composers (chapter of NACUSA)
Cascadia Composers 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.