Vacancies

O/Modernt Composition Award 2023 – Competition

O/Modernt

  • Vacancy Data

  • Institution
    O/Modernt
  • Full description
    O/Modernt Composition Award 2023 – Competition
  • Type
    Competition
  • Application deadline
    Closed
  • Additional notes

    O/Modernt is delighted to announce its annual Composition Award (2023), staged in collaboration with Festival Internacional de Música de Marvão (Portugal), Rusk Chamber Music in Jakobstad (Finland) and Fondazione Entroterre (Italy). The winning composition will be awarded €4,000 and will be premiered in 2023 in Sweden, and in Portugal, Italy and Finland in 2023/2024.


    BRAHMS Inventing the Past

    In a celebrated call to arms, Schumann singled out Brahms as a young composer who was capable of opening up New Paths in nineteenth-century music. Brahms rose to the challenge by doing something that we continuously strive to do at O/Modernt. He reinvented the past. Drawing on his fascination for early music, he reconfigured traditional materials, incorporating them into expressively powerful new wholes that are suffused with personal feeling and contemporary urgency.

    O/Modernt invites submissions for our 2023 Composition Award that invoke the spirit of Brahms by looking backwards and forwards, to the past and to the future. The theme can be freely interpreted to reflect the composer’s own interests and concerns.


    Applicants are required to submit a 8-12 minutes piece composed for two or three string instruments (violin, violoncello, viola) and piano (no electronics).

    Entrants must also submit the following attachments:

    • Anonymous composition score in PDF format (individual parts are not required).
    • A sound file of the Composition uploaded via Soundcloud (preferably a live recording, but midi files will be accepted; a professional recording is not required).
    • A short description of the Composition and the idea behind it in accordance with the competition brief (c.1000 characters).
    • A short biography (c.1000 characters).
    • A high-resolution photograph.

    Scores will be adjudicated by an international jury, chaired by Jill Jarman, and to include Ondřej Adámek, Alasdair Beatson, Nicola Campogrande, Sebastian Fagerlund, Matthew Peterson, Vicky Sayles, Raminta Šerkšnytė and Benjamin Staern.

    The application fee of 35 EUR is payable online via the secure payment method on MUVAC. The application fee is non-refundable, except in the unlikely event that the Competition does not take place.


    Please, read the full COMPETITION RULES in the file attached.

  • Short bio

    Candidates are required to write a short bio on application for use in programs or booklets, 1000 characters maximum.

    A short biography (c.1000 characters).

  • Question
    Answer on application

    A short description of the Composition and the idea behind it in accordance with the competition brief.

    (c.1000 characters)

  • Question
    Answer on application

    Piece duration

    (Maximum duration: between 8 and 12 minutes.)

  • Multiple Choice
    Answer on application

    Do you confirm that the submitted Composition have never been published, recorded (unless for archive/study purposes) or performed in public, with the exception of student performance(s) at an educational institution?

    (Details of any such performance(s) must be included in the next question) *

    • YES
    • NO
  • Question
    Answer on application

    * Details of any publication, recording (unless for archive/study purposes) or performance in public of the submitted Composition.

  • Multiple Choice
    Answer on application

    Declaration of authorship

    I declare that the score submitted is my own exclusive property and is freely at my disposal. I have not adapted, arranged or used any third-party copyright music in any way whatsoever for the purposes of the score and my composition.

    • YES
    • NO
  • Multiple Choice
    Answer on application

    GDPR consent: Are you happy for O/Modernt to contact you with updates about to the O/Modernt Composition Award?

    We manage personal and sensitive data for the only purpose of sending our newsletters and in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    • YES
    • NO
  • Required document(s)
    • Portrait photo: A high-resolution photograph.
    • Scores: Composition score in PDF format (individual parts are not required).


      Please note: the Composition score must be anonymous, and applicants must ensure that no information that might help to identify them is included in the score. Compositions that do not meet this requirement will be excluded from the evaluation process.
  • Audio

    Audio files are required (details below). No live audition.

    A sound file of the Composition uploaded via Soundcloud (preferably a live recording, but midi files will be accepted; a professional recording is not required). IMPORTANT: the sound file must be anonymous, and there should be no information that might help to identify the applicant. We advise to set up a new Soundcloud account with a suitable nickname or rename temporarily your existing account (and remove/hide all relevant information) solely for the purpose of the application. Please do get in touch with us if you have any difficulties with your file.

  • 2 Downloads
  • Application