The Scottish Music Centre and sound are pleased to announce an open call for a Scottish-based contemporary classical composer to be commissioned to write a new work for solo instrument/voice and electronics to be performed in Norway at Ultima Festival in September 2025 as part of the Northern Connection project.
Northern Connection is an international collaboration aiming to establish creative links between the participating countries. The project has a strong focus on sustainability through strengthening and establishing new contacts, ideas, and networks within the contemporary classical music scene in the northern area. Each country is represented by a composer, a musician or an ensemble, a contemporary music festival, and a music export/information centre.
Partner organisations are:
DENMARK: Art Music Denmark and KLANG-festival
FINLAND: Music Finland and Musica nova Helsinki
ICELAND: Iceland Music and Dark Music Days
NORWAY: Music Norway and Ultima Contemporary Music Festival
SCOTLAND: Scottish Music Centre and sound.
Each country’s selected commission will be performed by one of the ensembles or musicians at a festival in at least one of the partner countries, and possibly more festivals. The pieces will then be added to the pool of Northern Connection compositions.
The Commission
Composer Profile: There is no age limit or defined career stage, but applicants must be based in Scotland* and able to show their career is at a point where they will benefit from international exposure.
Composers who have participated in previous rounds of Northern Connection cannot apply.
Please note that we are committed to working with and supporting composers from under-represented groups. Female, trans, gender-diverse, and global majority composers, composers from a low-income background, and/or composers with a disability are encouraged to apply. By global majority we mean people from all ethnic groups except white British and other white groups, including white minorities.
(* Your main residence must be in Scotland, and you must have lived in Scotland for at least 18 months).
Instrumentation: One musician (either instrumentalist or singer) and electronics.
The composer should suggest the solo instrument in the application, but the final decision for soloists will be decided in dialogue with the festival director.
The electronics part can be either fixed media or live electronics. The premiere will take place in a chamber music venue with a standard sound system. In keeping with the sustainability theme of Northern Connection, we would like to encourage the composers to design the electronics so that after the premiere the work could be performed with the assistance and technical equipment of any professional sound engineer (i.e. without the composer travelling and/or special equipment shipped for every performance).
Duration: 10-15 minutes
Theme: This year’s commission theme will be “Borders and boundaries”.
Premiere: The new work will be premiered by a Norwegian-based professional musician and sound engineer at Ultima Festival in Norway in September 2025 (https://www.ultima.no/en/).
Process: The Composer will be given an opportunity to meet and work with the musician directly both digitally and in person.
Delivery: the deadline for submitting the composition is by June 2025 (exact date tbc)
Fee: £3,000 plus travel and accommodation expenses.
How to Apply
Application Form: https://neartail.com/sm/pGaX_f...
Materials to submit
- Short biography
- Personal Statement: Describe how you would approach this commission and explain why this international exposure would benefit your career. This statement may be a written submission (500 words max), spoken word, or video clip.
- Two recordings or other audio samples of previous, relevant work via a link or mp3
- Performance materials for one of the submitted recordings (score or performance instructions, as pdf)
Deadline: Tuesday 24th September 2024
We offer a 2-day “grace period” until the end of day on Thursday 26th September for applicants who can’t reach the deadline due to health challenges, having to care for family members, or other reasonable and/or unexpected circumstances. Please state your reason in the application form.
Selection process: The selection process will take be in two main parts:
An initial shortlist of composers will be made by the Scottish Music Centre and sound. As mentioned above, we are committed to working with and supporting composers from under-represented sections of the population. To enable this, the shortlist itself will be a two-stage process: an initial selection in round one being made, which will then be narrowed down to around 6-10 composers in round two. If you are a woman, LGBTQ and/or gender diverse, global majority or Gypsy/Traveller composer, disabled and/or from a low-income background, you can choose to self-select automatically to the second round.
A jury of festival directors (Musica nova Helsinki, Ultima Oslo, Sound Festival, Dark Music Days and Klang Festival) will then select the successful composer from the shortlist.
Decision: By the 12th October 2024
