National Sawdust Announces Call For Scores From Female, Nonbinary,and Trans Composers

National Sawdust, the Williamsburg music incubator and non-profit, has opened its third call for scores for the annual Hildegard Competition. Named for the seminal medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen, the competition serves as a platform to give outstanding female, nonbinary, and trans composers - voices often underrepresented in the world of new music - opportunities for their work to be recognized.

The competition is targeted at composers in the early stages of their careers, providing them with financial resources, a commission, a public performance, recording opportunities, and mentorship from some of the most talented composers working today. For its third edition, the competition will continue to provide mentorship and opportunities for exposure while also examining how gender distorts the lens through which music is perceived. Three winning composers each receive a $7,000 cash prize, a commission, a performance and recording by the new National Sawdust Ensemble led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, under the baton of conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, and coaching and mentorship by the judges. All Hildegard Competition winners' music will be recorded and released on National Sawdust Tracks. The deadline for submitting scores is November 29, 2019; a press release will announce the winners in early February 2020, and the concert featuring the winning compositions, as well as music by the runners-up, will take place in June 2020.

The five renowned artists who acted as judges and mentors for last year's competition were composer and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust Paola Prestini; composer Tania León; composer and former National Sawdust Artist-in-Residence Angélica Negrón; LCD Soundsystem synthesist, analog synth designer, and former National Sawdust Artist-in-Residence Gavin Rayna Russom; and Pulitzer Prize winner and former National Sawdust curator Du Yun. This season, the roster of judges and mentors includes Prestini, Negrón, Russom, and composer and vocalist Joan LaBarbara. Following the revised mentorship model from last year's competition, instead of pairing each winner with one mentor, mentoring responsibilities will be shared, to give the winners the benefit of the full range of musical experience represented by the pool of judges.

Throughout the period leading up to the concert, students will go through a professional development process that mirrors the residency program at National Sawdust. Within these sessions, students will cover issues ranging from intellectual property, improvisation, acoustics, publishing, criticism, and other relevant issues with leading figures in the field, as well as National Sawdust staff.

Fellows will be encouraged to take advantage of other venue resources, including National Sawdust's state of the art Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system as well as its immersive component Spacemap, in ways that enhance their compositional process and provide a bridge into their next compositional phase.

To qualify for the Hildegard Competition, all applicants must certify that they have met two of the following three criteria: that they have received no commissions of $7,000 or more, that there are no commercially released recordings of their work, and that there have been no performances of their work by a professional ensemble (except within a university setting). Applicants will be judged on their past compositions and on their curriculum vitae, personal statement, and proposal for a new original chamber work. In an attempt to remove the barriers traditionally faced by composers, neither letters of recommendation nor application fees are required.

The winners of last season's competition - described by Prestini as a "peer-based mentorship" experience - were inti figgis-vizueta, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, and Niloufar Nourbakhsh. The inaugural winners were X. Lee, Kayla Cashetta, and Emma O'Halloran.

Last season's winners had many positive things to say about the competition and the opportunities it afforded them. "It's been an amazing experience being welcomed into such a strong community of adventurous music-makers that National Sawdust comprises, and the support they give through the Hildegard competition is extremely important to up-and-coming composers," says Snæbjörnsdóttir. "Winning this competition, working with the musicians and staff, and all the additional resources that come along with it almost feels like becoming part of a new family," Nourbakhsh adds. "This community is unique in its support and warmth and I value its dedication to a wide range of genre and sound," explains figgis-vizeuta. "As a composer whose career and artistic practice is defined by current social, political, and aesthetic dialogues I have found a much needed well of knowledge and practice of collective learning here."

Funding for the Hildegard Competition comes in part from a generous grant by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. For submissions and further information, click here.

For submissions and further information, click here.