The American Music Center (AMC) and American Composers Forum (ACF) have teamed up with Columbia University’s Research Center for Arts and Culture to conduct the first major study of living composers. The study aims to gather important data to guide our efforts in better serving and advocating for composers of all styles and backgrounds.

If you are a composer, you can be a part of this important research. We invite you to contribute to the study by filling out the online survey at the link below. The survey is estimated to take 20 minutes of your time. Your participation will broaden the study’s reach and give us a better understanding of current trends in the field. Thank you for helping us to help composers.

http://devcw.tc.columbia.edu/surveys/rcac/index.cfm

The Fifth House Ensemble announces its first annual Young Composer Competition:

Deadline: Postmarked by May 1, 2008
Application Fee: $40

Prize: The grand prize winner will have his/her piece programmed and performed on our 2008-2009 subscription series in downtown Chicago, and will receive a professional recording of the live performance. A special prize will be awarded to an outstanding local applicant (from IL, WI, or IN), and his/her piece will be programmed and performed on a non-series Fifth House concert in the Chicago area.

Requirements: Submissions must be under 10 minutes long, and can be written for a minimum of four players from the Fifth House roster (string quartet, wind quintet, bass, piano). Auxiliary instruments such as piccolo, alto flute, English horn, E-flat and bass clarinet are also available. The piece may have been previously performed but must not be published. Special consideration will be given to pieces with mixed wind and string instrumentation.

Please submit a completed application form with full score and a set of parts by mail or email in PDF format. Please note that materials will not be returned without a self-addressed envelope with full postage. In addition to score and parts, please submit a brief paragraph linking the work to Fifth House’s 2008-2009 season theme, Commedia dell’Arte. Winners will be notified by e-mail on or before June 15, 2008. Application forms and more information are available at www.fifth-house.com/ycc.html.

(We would like to thank Melissa Snoza for informing us about this competition)

Zygoat has recently released a new beta version of their drum machine application, Doggiebox. Ben Kennedy developer of Doggiebox made the announcement some days ago through the Zygoat Doggiebox discussion list.

Changes in this build (1F2) since version 1.3.1 (1E15):

• Now a Universal Binary (will run natively on Intel-based Macs).
• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is now required.
• The framework for loading and saving sound file on disk has been replaced with entirely new code.

Known issues:

• Sound playback is inconsistent under Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard).
• Exporting to some file types (e.g. MP3) does not work properly.

Areas for testing:

Make backup copies of your song and drum kit files before re-saving them with this version of Doggiebox, particularly if running on an Intel-based Mac. With this in mind, test to make sure that files you create with this build still open and work properly in Doggiebox 1.3.1. Also verify sound file importing and exporting and note any problems with compatibility of output files or the user interface.

This Beta version of Doggiebox is only available to registered users. If you would like to subscribe to Doggiebox’s mailing list, you can do so either via this web-based form or by sending an empty message to doggiebox-subscribe@lists.zygoat.ca.

Other comments:

The move to Univeral Binary has meant increasing the minimum supported Mac OS version from 10.3 (Panther) to 10.4 (Tiger). This is a side effect of portability; put simply, the routines that Doggiebox has used since 1.0 for handling sound files (a library called libsndfile by Erik de Castro Lopo) is hard to build for both PowerPC and Intel without involving two physically different computers. Fortunately, starting in 10.4, the Mac OS has provided similar sound-file services. Thus the decision has been made to retire libsndfile in favour of the OS-provided code. Aside from the Universal Binary build, this is the new major change in this build.

The playback problems under Leopard still persist for the moment, but this issues
will be addressed soon.

(We would like to thank Mr. Zack Browning for letting us know about this)

“The Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award is an international composers’ competition held annually in memory of Mr. Martirano who was a faculty member at the University of Illinois from 1963 to 1995. Since its inception in 1996, the competition has attracted over 1,000 entries from over 30 countries. The first place prize consists of $1000.00 and a performance of the winning composition by the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Zack Browning who is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Illinois directs the competition.” You can read more about Salvatore Martirano here.

The University of Illinois School of Music presents.
The 2008 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award.

Eligibility: Any composer, regardless of age or nationality.

Awards: First Prize cash award of $1000 and second prize cash award of $500 plus performances by the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble in the fall of 2008 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Additional awards and performances may be given at the discretion of the judges.

Judges: A panel of judges consisting of University of Illinois music composition faculty members will select the winning compositions. The winning composers are expected to attend the award concert/reception and will be responsible for their transportation costs (the competition will provide a stipend for lodging). The winning composers will assume full responsibility for providing adequate performance materials upon request.

Guidelines:
1. Medium: Full scores of any style or aesthetic direction for one to fifteen performers (including vocalists) may be submitted. Works for tape, electronics and/or mixed media with or without instruments/voices are eligible.
2. Duration: 20 minutes maximum
3. Limit: One entry per composer
4. Entry fee: A non-refundable entry fee of fifteen U.S. dollars ($15.00) in the form of a check must be included with each submission. All checks must be payable to the University of Illinois, and must be an international money order or drawn on a U.S. bank.
5. Anonymous Submission: The composer’s name must not appear on the score itself or on any item (tape, CD, etc.) submitted in supplement to the application. A sealed envelope must accompany the score and contain the composer’s name, address, telephone number/e-mail (if applicable) and a brief biographical sketch. If a recording of the work is available, it should accompany the score and be identified only by the title of the composition.
6. Return of Materials: Scores will not be returned unless a self-addressed, stamped envelope of the proper size is enclosed.

Send submissions to:
2008 Martirano Composition Award
Attn: Zack Browning, Director, Martirano Award
2136 Music Building
University of Illinois
1114 West Nevada
Urbana, IL 61801 USA
zbrownin@uiuc.edu
http://www-camil.music.uiuc.edu:16080/comptheory/Awards/Martirano.html
All submissions must be postmarked by February 29, 2008.