Monday, October 16, 2017

An Great Opportunity For A Talented Young Person!

Continuing the success of the Inaugural Young Composers Competition (YCC) of The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO), Maestro Louis Scaglione, the President and Music Director of PYO, is pleased to announce the second annual Young Composers Competition for the 2017-2018 season. This competition gives young, gifted composers, age 18 to 24, an opportunity to premiere his or her orchestral piece with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra.

Composers born between September 1, 1993 and September 1, 1999, are invited to apply. The deadline for submission of scores is November 15, 2017. All scores submitted are not to have been professionally recorded, published, and not have any performance history of any kind. Works should be between five and twelve minutes in duration.

The winning composer will be selected collaboratively by Maestro Louis Scaglione, and the director of the Young Composers Competition, Sheridan Seyfried, who is a Philadelphia-based composer. The work will be performed at the78th Annual PYO Festival Concert on Sunday, June 10, 2018 in Verizon Hall of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. The grand prize winner will receive a cash prize of $2,000. All details are available on the PYO website – www.pyos.org.

A PYO alumnus, Seyfried is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem. When asked about the success of the first year, Seyfried said, "We had a wonderful time collaborating with Alan Mackwell, last year's YCC winner, in bringing his piece to life at Verizon Hall. We spent many hours dialoguing about composition, orchestration, parts preparation and formatting. It resulted in a high-quality recording of the piece that Alan can add to his portfolio. It’s an honor to be a part of such a worthwhile program. PYO offers an invaluable opportunity for young composers to take their craft to the next level."

There are additional prizes for the second place and third place winners. The second-place winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The third-place winner will receive a cash prize of $500.

Submissions should be made electronically as an e-mail to YCC@pyos.org and should contain the following information:

1. Composer’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail address

2. Composer’s age (required), country of citizenship and gender (optional)

3. Composer’s current school with address and phone number

4. Resume and bio

5. A cover letter and/or statement explaining the composer’s work is optional

About the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra:
Now in its 78th year of training tomorrow’s leaders, the renowned Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization is one of the nation’s oldest and most respected community music education and youth orchestra performance programs, providing talented young musicians from across the tri-state area with exceptional musical training. Students go on to excel in many diverse fields, and it is with pride that Philadelphia Youth Orchestra notes that many members of the prestigious Philadelphia Orchestra are alumni. For more information, please visit www.pyos.org.

The anchor group is the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO), conducted by President and Music Director Louis Scaglione, featuring 120 gifted instrumentalists who range in age from 14-21.

Young musicians 12-18 years old are featured in PYO’s companion ensemble, the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra, which is led by Director and Conductor Maestra Rosalind Erwin, who is Music Director and Conductor of Drexel University Orchestra.

Philadelphia Young Musicians Orchestra (PYMO), directed by Maestro Kenneth Bean, is a beginning to intermediate-level full symphonic orchestra that provides most students with their first introduction to large orchestral playing featuring students age 10-17 years old.

Bravo Brass, directed by Curtis Institute Dean of Faculty and Students, Paul Bryan, is an all brass ensemble for promising middle and high-school instrumentalists.

PRYSM (Philadelphia Region Youth String Music) and PRYSM Young Artistsensembles provide string large ensemble and sectional master class instruction for beginning and intermediate musicians ages 6-14. The director and conductor of PRYSM is Gloria DePasquale, cellist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and conductor of PRYSM Young Artists is Andrea Weber.

Tune Up Philly (TUP) is PYO’s engagement program, directed by Paul Smith, that focuses on creating and inspiring true community by providing children in under-resourced communities with invaluable opportunities to learn and perform a differentiated orchestral music curriculum.

No comments: