Music Competition
The 2012 winner of our music competition was Charles Halka. We’ve loved his music so much that even after the concert that featured his music, we’ve decided to ask him to write a brand new piece for ERJCC Dance Month. (More details to come, it’s in January). We think he’s great. And busy. Here’s what Charles has been up to since our show CONTEXT which was in May.
He shares:
highSCORE Festival (Pavia, Italy): It’s a 2-week event where young composers from around the world present their music to each other, have brand new works premiered (my new work for string quartet titled “Rupture” was premiered) get critiques and composer-ly advice from more seasoned/famous composers (Christopher Theofanidis, Amy Kirsten, Dmitri Tymoczko, Mario Garuti), and most importantly, make a whole bunch of friends. I met over 40 composers from 9 countries!
Screening of my opera in Scranton, PA: The video of the premiere of my opera, “Julius,” was screened at the 5th Lithuanian Heritage Day and an aria was performed live. I also gave a radio interview about it via Skype while I was in Italy. The interview is here.
Round and Round (one of the works included in CONTEXT) was performed at the Lake George Music Festival in Lake George, NY.
Por la Fuerza las Tierras (the winning piece of the Frame Dance Music Competition in 2012): There have been a few performances of the over the last couple of months. All the performances were given by the group that commissioned the work, ONIX (www.onixensamble.com). The first was in August at the San Miguel de Allende International Chamber Music Festival, but a couple of weeks ago they took the piece on a mini-tour through the state of Michoacan. They performed it 5 times in 5 days! They will be performing it again in an open rehearsal/symposium format on October 17 at the Fonoteca Nacional in Mexico City.
A brief work for fixed media, “Live Bass Improv,” was performed at Da Camera of Houston’s hugely successful event, “Musicircus” (in honor of John Cage), at the Menil Collection last month.
At the end of this month, I’ll be heading to Belgium to see a choral work (an excerpt from my opera) performed at the ISCM World Music Days. It’s one of the oldest and most important international festivals of contemporary music, so I feel pretty honored/lucky to be a part of it. It’s hosted in a different country every year, and it happened to be in Lithuania the year I was living there. I went to almost every concert and was blown away!
That same choral work is being performed 3 times in December by Volti (www.voltisf.org), a really important chamber choir in San Francisco, so I’ll be there for that during the first week in December.
Best news of all is that I passed all my comprehensive exams for my doctoral program, so now I get to start slowly coming back to real life. (Congrats!!)
About the Competition:
2012-2013 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition
Note: The deadline is January 4, 2013.
Frame Dance Productions announces its competition to select a piece of music for its upcoming Spring season. Its two-fold purpose is to offer outstanding emerging composers a forum for their recognition as well as an opportunity to collaborate with the dance performance company, Frame Dance Productions. We are looking for completed pieces, or for samples in consideration for a future work.
Award and Performance
The winning composer’s music will be the basis of a new original work– film and/or live performance, and your music will be exposed to new audiences. The composer and music will be featured prominently as a collaborator with Frame Dance Productions. There are often press opportunities to increase the composer’s visibility as well as the possibility of future commissions.
Eligibility
All composers, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, are eligible.
Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duo, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.
All music must be unpublished.
Interested composers should submit:
• a recording of the piece on a CD
• a biography, with current address, e-mail address, and phone number, and
• a stamped, self-addressed envelope, if they wish their music returned.
Entry Fee and Deadline
The entry fee is $15.00 and composers may submit up to three selections. Make checks payable to Frame Dance Productions. Please email for mailing address.
All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 4, 2013.
Frame Dance Productions is not responsible for lost or damaged material.
The winning composition will be announced at FrameDance.org on Friday, January 31, 2013.
For submission details please email Lydia.Hance@FrameDance.org.
For more information on Frame Dance Productions, please visit FrameDance.org.