Composition Festival
2024 Festival
Information
Festival Chairs
Submission &
Deadlines
Deadline:
October 15, 2024
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he VMEA Student Composition Festival is accepting submissions for the 2024 Edition, to be held as part of the VMEA Professional Development Conference on Thursday, November 21, 2024 from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia.
The Student Composition Festival is open to music students Kindergarten to collegiate with a VMEA-member sponsor.
The Composition Festival will feature open sessions showcasing:
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Select Student Performances
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Composition Displays
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Composers' Colloquium and Masterclass
Accepted student composers, families, and educators are responsible for their own transportation and/or lodging in order to participate in the Festival.
Student composers may apply to participate in the VMEA Student Composition Festival by filling in the online form below and uploading their composition's required submissions:
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Visual representation of their composition: a PDF or otherwise graphic rendering of their composition's score, if applicable. This may take many forms, depending on the type of composition (see below)
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Audio recording of their composition: may be computer-generated or live recording
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VMEA member sponsor: (typically their school's music educator)
Student composers also have the option to submit a brief video or audio recording explaining their composition, which may be submitted as an unlisted YouTube link. This is not required to participate in the Festival.
Student composers may also apply for the opportunity to perform their compositions live at the Composition Festival (see deadlines, below). Past student performances have ranged from solos, large ensembles, chamber music, jazz combos, chamber choirs, and percussion ensembles. Students and VMEA sponsors assume responsibility for transporting any musicians required for performance.
Students may submit multiple compositions and may use the same VMEA member music educator sponsor, but they must complete a separate application for each individual composition.
Accepted compositions may be determined by the number of submissions and individual student composers - submission does not guarantee acceptance.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 12:00am, October 15th, 2024
Questions may be submitted to VMEA Composition Festival Chairs:
Dr. Jim Criswell and Dr. Ryan Keebaugh, via vmeacomposition@gmail.com
Rules & Regulations
Compositions
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Submitted compositions will be evaluated based on compositional technique, musicality, and creativity.
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Submitted compositions may be for any combination of instruments or voices, or for pre-recorded electronic performance.
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Works should not exceed 8 minutes in duration; longer or multi-movement works may be shortened or have portions selected for potential performance.
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There is no cost to submit a composition for evaluation.
Applicants
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Any student (K-12 & Collegiate) of a VMEA-member music educator is eligible to submit compositions.
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Applicants may submit multiple compositions.
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Submissions are not guaranteed for performance or display at the VMEA Professional Development Conference.
Conference Performance
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If a composition is selected for performance, The Council on Creativity & Innovation will do its best to assist to recruit performers, but performances cannot be guaranteed.
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Students whose works are selected will be expected to attend the conference, either virtually or in-person, and will have the conference registration fee waived.
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Travel, housing, and other expenses for students who attend the conference are the responsibility of the student composer or sponsoring school.
POTENTIAL ENSEMBLE VOICING/INSTRUMENTATION & COMPOSITIONAL STYLE
Musical creativity knows no bounds, and Virginia students regularly compose a wide variety of works, including but by no means limited to improvisations, electronic creations, solos, chamber works for small groups of musicians, and large, complex scores featuring dozens of performers. The 2022 Composition Festival welcomes any and all examples of student compositional creativity from creative kindergarten through collegiate student musicians.
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Compositions may be for any of the following and are not specifically limited to:
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Typical school instrumental or choral ensembles, large or small
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Jazz big bands and/or small combos
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Creative combinations of instruments and/or voices
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Flexible instrumentation
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Rock bands
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Electronic compositions (not necessarily playable by physical instruments)
Students - show us your most creative musical selves! While not every potential composition may be able to be performed at the Conference, we hope to share as many of the selected student works as possible with the assembled musicians and music educators through displays, recorded performances, and other creative means.
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Student composers who would like to have their works considered for potential live performance should use appropriate notation software (such as Sibelius, Finale, Noteflight, MuseScore, etc.) or hand-write their score and submit .pdfs of their work along with any recording they may have of their works (see below). The Council on Creativity & Innovation hopes to pair student composers with musicians who will perform their works, either through live or recorded means. We even encourage student musicians to submit recordings (audio or video) of them performing their own works!
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Students submitting non-performance works (from software packages such as GarageBand, FL Studio, etc.) may be selected for “display” or recorded “performances” at the Conference.