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Advice for the Emerging Composer: Competitions
Posted on October 25, 2009 at 12:15 am
Ah, composition competitions; there are hundreds, maybe thousands, every year, all over the world. Should you enter? Should you not? I’ve entered a lot of them over the years, and based on my personal experience the answer is yes. Competitions are a good thing, and offer a number of benefits to the emerging composer, as long as you know what those benefits are. To wit:
Exposure. Most of the time the judges in these contests are prominent conductors, or administrators, or publishers, and these are exactly the kinds of people you want to hear your music. Even if you don’t win (you won’t win – more on that later) you might leave a terrific impression on a single judge or the entire panel, and they may begin to follow your work more closely. Several times I’ve lost a competition and had the judges call me to ask if they could program my ‘loser’ score.
You’ll finish the piece. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a competition that is looking for “sketches” of a piece; they all want a finished product, ready to perform. This is great for you, because the application date becomes a concrete deadline to motivate you to complete your masterpiece. Then when you don’t win (seriously, you won’t win) you’ll have a finished work ready to shop around.
It will steel your will and prepare you for a career filled with rejection. Did I mention that you won’t win? In the last 18 years I’ve probably entered a hundred competitions and I have never won anything. Nothing. I lost the ASCAP Young Composers award three times (in three different years I entered When David Heard, Lux Aurumque, and Cloudburst, lost with all three). I lost the Dale Warland Singers competition, where I entered a never-performed piece called Water Night (although Dale decided to publish Water Night in his choral series, and the ‘winning’ piece from that year remains unpublished). Just last week I received a very nice letter from the good people at United States Artists, informing me that while my application was well received (all that interesting music you’ve written!), it didn’t merit an award.
But here’s the thing: I’m glad I’ve never won. It makes me feel like an outsider, makes me feel misunderstood, keeps me hungry, all the things that are essential tools for being a composer. You’ll be better for losing, because in your heart you’ll know you should have won, and the injustice will help drive you forward.
That’s an important point to remember: it is injustice. Composition competitions are hopelessly biased. The juries do their best, but they are just human beings looking at a lot of scores, all through their own personal opinion of what constitutes a ‘good’ piece. (Years after a student competition at Juilliard I was told by a jury member that they had rejected the score to my string transcription of Water Night – without even listening to the recording – because it looked too ‘simple’ to be a sophisticated piece. I remember thinking, “but the simplicity is the whole frickin’ point!”).
Don’t worry about winning. As a composer you are going to get turned down a lot, by conductors, by music publishers, by critics; it’s all just part of the gig. Entering competitions and not winning is a great way to get used to the lifestyle, the drive to just keep writing, forging ahead. For me, it’s been a way to develop an ‘inner-compass’, a sort of quiet confidence that it doesn’t really matter if I win or lose; the work alone is it’s own reward.
Finally, and this is a big point: I never enter a competition that requires me to submit my application with a fee. Fran Richards, the extraordinary Vice President & Director of Concert Music at ASCAP, passionately advances this philosophy, and I couldn’t agree with her more. Don’t ever pay to be a part of one of these competitions; they are lucky to be getting an application from you.
So go out there and apply, dear friends, with head held high. Send them your very best work and prepare for rejection. You never know who might hear it, or how it might influence your career, now or ten years from now. And just think: at the very least you’ll have a beautifully engraved piece that you can turn around and send to the next reject… er, competition.
33 Comments
Colin Read on October 24, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Thank you, Eric.
tessyeggerman on October 24, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Wonderful suggestions, and words from the wise. :) Thanks!
Andy J on October 24, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Where are some good places to look for competitions? I am an ametur composer and I occasionally get the chance to write some stuff. Having competitions to help me finalize pieces would definately help me to get better at finishing projects.
Ryan Youens on October 25, 2009 at 2:49 am
Nice comments Eric.
Claire on October 24, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for the encouragement.
Courtney Lea on October 24, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Wow, this was very insightful and I'm glad I read it.
Though I've never really composed a piece (fully anyway), it fits in perfectly with my situation when I auditioned for 4 years for All-State in High School and NEVER made a recall or got in! I felt so hopeless and I felt it was my voice to blame and I almost quit singing afterwards. But THANK GOD my musical peers and teachers told me that these things are UNFAIR and it gives (as you said) INJUSTICE to talented people.
It's nice to hear this from a person such as yourself and hearing even your rejections (that shocked me quite a bit actually lol) to something like this.
Thank you for the inspiring words and encouragment!
Ran on October 24, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Eric, YOU ROCK ! ! !
Ran on October 25, 2009 at 4:37 am
Eric, YOU ROCK ! ! !
Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.
Scott on October 25, 2009 at 10:02 am
Great post, Eric.
I must disclose, however, that I was a winner of a competition (not THE winner, A winner; important distinction). You know what I won? No money, no recording, no travel expenses, but one world-class performance of a three-minute piece I had the privilege to fly halfway around the world on my own dime to (I did get to conduct). Was it worth it? You betcha.
Matt on October 25, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Thanks for the advice Eric. I'm glad to see that this series hasn't died! Do you think you could tag all the "advice" entries so that we can see them all together? I really appreciate the lessons you have to share (especially the business side).
Matt
Kristopher on October 25, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Best.
Post.
Ever.
Mike Anderson on October 26, 2009 at 5:34 pm
This is a really excellent post! Thanks for the advice!
Were your conceptions of the music industry any different when you first started working at this?
Curtis Macdonald on October 27, 2009 at 9:18 am
this is a GREAT post.
Blair on October 27, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Hi Mr. Whitacre!
I came across this flute beatbox video that you should most definitely see. I immediately thought of you when I saw it. If you haven't seen this guy perform Inspector Gadget on his flute, you're missing out! There might be a 30 second commercial before you get to see him, but hang in there…it's worth the wait.
Sorry to leave you a comment not pertaining to your blog post; I didn't know of any other convenient way of sending you this. Enjoy! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16hdk_flute-bea…
(I REALLY hope I'm the guy that gets to introduce this to you…I'll FINALLY be cool!)
inspiring reads | curtis macdonald on November 2, 2009 at 10:04 pm
[...] is composer Eric Whitacre’s remarkable post on composition competitions and [...]
Peter on November 3, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Sorry, I don't have a Twitter account, but I wanted to reply…
"Was anyone at the BYU Singers/King's Singers' concert last Wednesday? Dying to hear how 'The Stolen Child' sounded…"
It sounded amazing. Ronald Staheli did a few weird things with the dynamics, like some subito piano moments that weren't in the premier, and I'd have to be able to listen to it again to decide which of the two I think better. The BYU Singers were marvelous as always, and the King's Singers were absolutely perfect.
Steve Danielson on November 4, 2009 at 9:45 am
Here are some links to some music competition websites. I've entered some (haven't won any either). The last link has some additional resources.
http://nyme.org/forcomposers.html http://artofthestates.org/about_submit.html http://www.universalsacredmusic.org/programs-2/ http://www.nyvirtuoso.org/competition.html http://www.octarium.org/CompositionCompetition09….
http://www.composersforum.org/opportunities.cfm
Enjoy!
Ashley Jensen on November 5, 2009 at 9:58 am
Brilliant!!! I loved this post. I can't agree with you more. I got sucked in reading your post. I took a lot from it and will take it with me when I audition for something.
Eduardo ANdres Malac on November 6, 2009 at 9:43 am
I was really surprised reading that you, Eric, never won anything in the composition competitions that you have sent your scores… But, is it wining competitions what it matters? or what it really matter is that our music be sung? Let me share my experience with your friends of this blog, experience that comes from the lucky (lucky?)side of the game…
I am a pretty lucky winning composer; since 2001 when I have sent for the fisrt time one of my choral scores to a composition competition until now, 2009, seventeen times (17 in 8 years!) my pieces have get to the final stages of several contests around the world winning all kind of prices (very probably I am the most awarded Argentinean choral composer nowadays. You should think that as a natural consequence of those prices my music is well known and sung a lot: WRONG!!! Have you ever heard about Malachevsky and his awarded choral music…? I don’t think so.
Wining competitions doesn’t really means that our music will be spread around (as your music does, Eric). Of course, winning competitions is a very important personal success, helping you to be confident with what you do, to meet and get in touch with distinguished composers and conductors (the ‘Jury’ of our music), to travel…, and so on; but, most of the time as a result of your award your music is sung once (if it is sung) and never more again… Your nhonored and inspired composition will sleep long and silently waiting to much to be awaked once again… Even if you propose your wining piece to a publisher, he will probably say (if he answers you) ‘Not thanks’….
I am not sharing this to discourage composers to send their well written and inspired scores to composition competition –not way! : do it!!!, but do not expect too much (even if you win).
I might guess that Eric did not win any competition, because of his simple writing style (even if it may sound complex) that I found myself A VIRTUE TO BE AWARDED! But to bestow a prize the honorable Jury contest usually is VERY critical to simplicity… (look as well to Arvo Part and see how many competition of this kind has won!…).
In all these last year, I have spent my composition time to write music to win competitions…, and I did win, once and again! and I am of course very happy and proud with that, but my experience teach me that if you really want that your music be interpreted and sung, write thinks suitably (and short!) enough to good amateur choir; music that your friend conductor will say ‘It looks great and accessible to my singers!’ (and let aside your more complex stuff for commissions or contests…); with those pieces maybe you will not win a prize but you will have more chance that spread your inspiration more easily! (and this is a very precios true prize!). Eric is a great champion of that and you should learn from him! He, smart guy, makes use of all the ultimate technology to achieve his goal (the virtual choir is a pretty good example!) and we, awarded or not awarded composers, should take his example if we really want to spread around our inspired and well written music.
Eduardo Andres Malachevsky
Argentinean Composer & Conductor http://www.malachevsky.com.ar
Ps. If you are curious about my choral music go and visit my web, there you will find some recordings and videos.
Matt on November 7, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Eric,
To answer your question from Twitter, I was at the BYU Singers/King's Singers concert last Wednesday (actually I was in it *blush*). "The Stolen Child," was great! Everybody loved it to death, even people who are not really fans of choral music were raving about how amazing the piece is. It turned out to be many people's favorite piece of the entire night.
It was so amazing to sing with the King's Singers and to sing this piece with them. So cool. I lived in Ireland for a while so the Yeats text is particularly meaningful to me.
Great job!
Matt
Baritone
BYU Singers
JC on November 8, 2009 at 6:48 pm
How would I go about getting an arranging license for one of your pieces? I would like to perform (and possibly record) my personal arrangement of Lux Aurumque for marimba quartet late next spring. It's a beautiful piece and I find that the marimba texture fits it well.
Thanks for any info or suggestions you may have!
-Jonathan Carr
Lane on November 8, 2009 at 11:07 pm
To anyone who would help a fellow musician
Is there an email or way to conctact Mr. Whitacre? I've been dramatically influenced musically by him, and was just wondering, thank you.
Lane on November 8, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Concerning the article, so true! Not that I can relate at my age but it seems like it would be like that. It's great that Mr. Whitacre takes his time for this kind of stuff, and…in a way stands "defiant" against whatever judges him. Thanks for the article, very inspiring!!!
Bruce Babcock on November 9, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Eye opening to see which pieces did not win. Great advice. I've actually won two competitions – thirty years apart. I'm not due again for another 28 years.
Seth Garrepy on November 22, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Eric,
I couldn't agree more with your statements! Having talked personally with Fran over at ASCAP, I can hear her saying what you mentioned above– and I agree wholeheartedly with her.
Your advice to composers on rejection is very true. I have been rejected, but I have been fortunate to also meet with success. It's in those times when that "big break" happens, we you are reminded how precious few those moments are. I applaud your sage wisdom and that you shared it with us all.
I wish you, Hila, and your family a happy Thanksgiving this week.
Best,
Seth Garrepy
Martin on December 13, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Not to bring down the optimism, I would like to express my disagreement. When you lose, it is because the judges did not think your piece was good enough to win the prize. Even though the odds are very much against you winning every time, if your music is good, you should win sometimes.
Composers should always consider improving their technique especially when given advice from other composers who they respect. To think that you lost because the judges don't know music as well as you do is the wrong attitude to take.
Matt on January 16, 2010 at 9:20 am
Does anyone know any other competitions without an "application fee?" It seems that almost every competition I find, there's an application fee.
Anyone?
Thanks,
Matt
andrew violette on March 2, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I, like you, Mr Whitacre, have never won anything—not a grant, not a prize, not an award—and I recommend young composers to apply for these things only if they have the time.
When I was in Juilliard, studying counterpoint with Otto Luening, he happened to be on the committee for a certain award and recommended I apply. I did and, of course I didn't get it. Later, I met him in the hallway of the hallowed halls of big J and he said, "Why didn't you get your score engraved? They wouldn't even look at it." "Oh," I said, nonplussed, "I thought they judged on merit." He rolled his eyes and gave me a look, "Silly boy!"
It was then and there I decided I would never enter a competition again because I realized it just wasn't worth it monetarily. For all the time I would spend entering I could do a few gigs and make the same amount of money. I thought, "Why should I let my work be judged by these academic hacks?"
It's pathetic when a composer puts on his bio the things he's won. Are we nothing but vultures for the little government funding set apart for the arts? Ridiculous. Get a menial job, make the money, put it towards concerts and CDs and never look back.
Schedule on October 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm
You you should edit the webpage name Advice for the Emerging Composer: Competitions – Blog – Eric Whitacre to more generic for your webpage you write. I liked the blog post however.
Daniel Routh on May 14, 2011 at 11:40 am
Thanks for this Eric!
I will be submitting a piece to the Anthem Competition here very soon!
-Daniel Routh
Mary DeLia on May 31, 2011 at 12:11 am
I just read your "Advice for the Emerging Composer", and honestly, I was so thrilled to have found someone with as much insight as yourself. You may be my new favorite person <>.
Steven Kudlo on July 15, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Fascinating response from Malachevsky. I’ve only placed in a contest once, but it was a complex composition. I’ve always thought there was something interesting about heavily chromatic music, which it was. I wonder if multiple contest wins can be parlayed into more frequent performances (of which I have none.)? I really enjoyed your blog article, Eric! Thanks.
Steve.
Kerri Powles on January 31, 2012 at 10:37 pm
I too am simply amazed at you not winning any competitions! Your amazing. I play your music a lot, and my daughter has had the pleasure of having you conduct one of your choral pieces (Sleep) to her Cardiff University Choir.
I also compose my own music, and would love to be pointed in the right direction of some competitions please…….can you help?
Keep the beautifull music coming Eric.
Thanks. Kerri