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• Unpublished works which have not received a premiere performance, only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
 

photo of Matthew Swartz, winner of the 2020 Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers CompetitionCongratulations to the winner of the 2020 Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition, Matthew Swartz, for his composition of In Singleness. 

 

Connecticut-born composer and pianist Matthew Swartz (b. 1988) has resided in Los Angeles County since 2010. He holds degrees from Claremont Graduate University (D.M.A. and M.A., Music Composition) and the University of Connecticut (B.M., Piano Performance). During his musical studies, Swartz has been fortunate to receive mentorship from prominent American composers Peter Boyer and Kenneth Fuchs as well as acclaimed pianist Neal Larrabee. 

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In recent years, Swartz has increased focus on his love for writing choral music. In September 2019, Swartz’s original carol Arise, Arise, the Morning Bells was chosen by ChoralArt as the winner of the 2019 New England Carol Contest. In June 2018, Swartz participated as one of seven Composition Fellows in Choral Arts Initiative’s PREMIERE|Project Festival, for which his piece I Shall Not Live in Vain was commissioned. Swartz received his first international premiere in October 2016 with his award-winning German setting Zueignung.