ELIGIBILITY
American composers age 18-40 (age as of July 31, 2022)
TIMELINE
The 2022-23 competition is now closed. Please check back soon for announcement of the winning composer.
PRIZE
$2,000 commission for a new work plus $500 travel stipend to attend the premiere.
DETAILS
To commemorate True Concord’s 20th season in 2023-24, our sixth annual Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition will award one selected composer with a commission to write a new work to be performed in the 2023-24 season.
To enter, submit an anonymous pdf score (no composer name or identifying info) of a 5-6 minute choral work with audio (high quality live recordings preferred, MIDI realizations acceptable, mp3 or other compressed audio format). Submitted works should be for chorus (SATB, up to double divisi) with or without piano and/or one obbligato orchestral instrument.
Please send all materials to composercompetition@trueconcord.org. Please include composer name in the body of your email and name documents as your composition title only – no composer name. (Ex.: PrayersandRemembrances.pdf)
COMMISSION
The selected composer will be commissioned to write a 5-6 minute work for True Concord to premiere during the 2023-24 season. The text will be selected via a concurrent poetry contest held in collaboration with the University of Arizona Poetry Center. The winning composer will have input in the poem’s selection process.
Congratulations to the winners of past competitions!
2021-22: Marybeth Kurnat
Kurnat’s composition, “I, Lover,” is planned to be performed by True Concord in January 2023 on the program “Here I Am.”
2020-21: Ethan Soledad
Soledad’s composition, “When I Rise Up,” was performed by True Concord in April 2021 in “The Trailblazers,” a program celebrating women creators and game changers.
2019-20: Tom Peterson
Peterson’s composition, “Being Many, Seeming One,” was performed by True Concord on October 2019 in four concerts of music based on Shakespearean texts. His piece sets the text from Sonnet VIII (“Music to hear”), which is the inspiration for True Concord’s name.
2018-19: Martin Sedek
Sedek’s winning work, “The Beauty of Cosmic Things,” was performed by True Concord in November 2018, in three concerts of American music that honored veterans and commemorated the centenary of Armistice Day.
2017-18: Matthew Lyon Hazzard
Hazzard’s winning work, “Look Back on Time,” was performed by True Concord in March, 2018, in four concerts of American music based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.