Calefax invites composers of all ages and nationalities to participate in the 16th annual Composers Competition for Reed Quintet. The winning composition will be announced in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam, on January 6, 2024.
Prize
The winning composer will be awarded a prize of 2.500 EUR. (The jury has the right to appoint more than one winner and divide the prize accordingly). The winning piece will also be performed in 2024 by the world-renowned Calefax Reed Quintet.
World Wide Reed Quintet Network
Moreover, the prizewinning composition will also be performed by various outstanding reed quintets from all over the world. On top of that, Kalamos Reed Quintet will also be choosing their own favorite composition, which will receive a ‘special mention’. Please keep an eye on the Calefax website for updates about participating reed quintets. In order to give all entries to the competition maximum exposure, Calefax will share the compositions with other ensembles of the World Wide Reed Quintet Network.
Rules
* Entries for the Calefax Composers Competition 2021 must be received at the latest on 4 December 2023, 09.00 hours CET.
* The length of submitted compositions should not exceed 6 minutes.
* Only one work per composer can be submitted
* Entries must be either an original work or an arrangement for Reed Quintet of an own work
* Compositions have to be feasible by five players on the following instruments:
* If live electronic media is used, it should be operable without the composer present, using stand-alone software to be operated by the ensemble or a sound technician. Multichannel sound should be limited to a maximum of four channels.
* If a soundtrack is used, preferably without click track.
Jury
The jury of the Calefax Composers Competition consists of all five members of Calefax and a chairman. We are very honoured to present Dutch composer Guus Janssen as a member and chairman of the jury this year. The jury will judge all scores anonymously. All participants will be notified about the results of the competition. The results of the jury are final.
Submissions
Send your composition both as a score (in C) and as transposed parts in PDF format to productie@calefax.nl. If your piece needs to be performed from a score please add a transposed score as well. Only digital scores can be submitted. Submitting a midi-recording of your piece is optional. Please note that digital scores and parts should not contain the composer’s name, since the scores are to be judged anonymously by the jury.
Deadline
The deadline for submissions is 4 December 2023, 09.00 hours CET.
Previous winners
Previous winners of the Calefax Composers Competition were Holger de Bruin (2008, The Netherlands) Heleen Verleur (2009, The Netherlands), Jeffrey Harrington (2010, USA/France), José Mora-Jiménez (2011, Costa- Rica/The Netherlands), Didier Marc Garin (2012, France), Corey Dundee (2013, USA), Michael Walsh (2014, United Kingdom), Janco Verduin (2015, The Netherlands), Mithatcan Öcal (2017, Turkey), Yeonju Kim (2018, Korea), Yonatan Ron (2018, Israël), Uğurcan Öztekin (2019, Turkey), Patrick John Jones (2020, United Kingdom) and Nina Shekhar (2020, USA), Abraham Gómez (2021, Mexico) & Ufuk Bicak (2022, Turkey).