2021 Emerging Composers Competition

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTED COMPOSITIONS:

• Mixed choir (SATB, divisi possible)
• Unaccompanied, with piano accompaniment, or with instrumental accompaniment of not more than three individual instruments
• Three to five minutes’ duration
• Unpublished works which have not received a premiere performance, only
• Rights to text must be cleared and evidence of copyright holder’s permission must be shown
• Secular or sacred text
• Level of difficulty suitable for a college choir or community choir

PRIZES:

• $1500 plus travel expenses to New Haven for attendance at premiere performance by the Yale Glee Club during its 2021-22 concert season
• Possible future publication in Yale Glee Club New Classics Choral Series
• The winner will be announced in May, 2021. All entrants will be notified by e-mail. The winner will also be announced on the Yale Glee Club web site (www.yalegleeclub.org) at this time.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
 
• Five (5) copies of the submitted score and brief resume outlining prior musical experience and education must be postmarked no later than April 1, 2021. Only one composition per entrant may be submitted.
OR
• Electronic submissions of one pdf version of the composition and brief resume outlining prior musical experience and education received no later than April 1, 2021 are preferred.  Only one composition per entrant may be submitted.
 
• Please send electronic submissions to sean.maher@yale.edu
 
• Names must not appear on the score. Instead, please include your brief resume, name, address, e-mail address and phone number(s) in a separate envelope.
 
• Please also include a brief resume outlining prior musical experience and education.
 
• Submissions will be evaluated by a committee of composers and conductors who will determine the winning entry.
 
• The winning score will be reproduced solely for performance by the Yale Glee Club. Copies will be destroyed in the event of future publication.
 
• The Yale Glee Club will have a non-exclusive, world-wide perpetual license to perform the winning score.• The Yale Glee Club shall have the right to record the inaugural performance for archival and other purposes, including distribution and sale of such recording.
 
• No scores will be returned.
 
If electronic submissions are not possible please use the following address(es)
 
U.S. Mail address:
Jeffrey Douma, Director
Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition
PO Box 201929
New Haven, CT 06520-1929
 
Fedex address:
Jeffrey Douma, Director
Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition
143 Elm Street, Room 208
New Haven, CT  06511
 

Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition, Isaac Lovdahl, for his composition of Though the great Waters sleep. 

 

Isaac Lovdahl is a composer, conductor, educator, and bass vocalist currently based in Fargo, ND. He directed high school, church, and community choirs in Minnesota after graduating from Concordia College in 2015, and is now pursuing a DMA in Choral Conducting at North Dakota State University. He was named the first ever Challey School of Music Choral Conducting Fellow in 2020, and directs the campus tenor/bass choir along with other teaching duties. Lovdahl also works as the director of music at the Lutheran Church of Christ the King in Moorhead, MN. His choral compositions and art songs have been performed in the United States, Germany, South Africa, and Great Britain by educational, community, and professional ensembles and soloists. His distinct harmonic language, detailed attention to natural speech rhythms, and highly expressive text setting have begun to solidify a niche for him in the world of vocal music. Lovdahl was named a winner of the 2017 VocalEssence ReMix composition program, and has received notable recognition in similar competitions. His team took first place at Minneapolis SongSLAM 2020, an art song composition competition hosted by Source Song Festival in conjunction with Sparks and Wiry Cries. Most recently, he was named the winner of the 2021 Bellevue Chamber Chorus “Emerging Composer Competition”. Lovdahl has sung as a chorus member and featured soloist with The Concordia Choir, The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists, Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale, the NDSU Concert Choir, Oratory Bach Ensemble (Bach Roots Festival), Vox Nova Chorale, imPulse (MPLS), and Great River Chorale. His original music can be found online through Graphite Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, NewMusicShelf, VocalEssence Music Press, MusicSpoke, and his own website: isaaclovdahl.com.