Competition websites

My dearest composers,

As we all know, competitions are a necessary evil. Repeatedly we apply to these hopelessly biased competitions, to be one of possibly hundreds, of which only ONE winner selected, and of course it someone you have never heard of. Secretly you think, "My piece was better..." The somewhat tragic thing is, maybe it was. It's over now though. So just like that, your hopes of success and notoriety get dashed away with the callous lack of analysis from the incompetent judges.

Of course the easy thing to do is to just dismiss competitions altogether. Bartok said "Competitions are for horses, not composers." He turned out just fine! Well, alright, he died poor and alone in New York, but his music was definitely some of the most B.A. stuff produced in the 20th century. So, the moral here is to apply, even if it seems hopeless, because every nobody who wins a competition YOU should have, will eventually be YOU winning a competition YOU deserved. For a bit more emotional support, composer Eric Whitacre wrote a blog about competitions here.

There are websites out there to help you find competitions, because simply finding them is half the battle. Posted on the blog website are two of my favorites, The American Composers Forum website and the Composerssite. Each have their drawbacks. ACF is widely regarded by the academic music community, and many competitions will advertise on their site. However, in order to see the page, you must be a member, of which there is an annual fee. Luckily, it gives you a snippet of the competition, and you can often google search those details and find it that way. Of course, the magnitude of competition opportunities is quite great. The Composerssite has less, and some repeats within the site, but it is totally free to access.

Another site is Composersnewpencil. This has a few big ones, which is just another way of saying 'more likely to lose." However, it keeps annual competitions on it's page, which is a great way to access them. Let's say you miss a deadline for a competition because you didn't know it existed. If it is annual, just write it down in a log of what competitions you need to apply to when, to keep yourself organized, so you don't miss them anymore.

ASCAP and BMI will also sometimes post competitions on their websites. Some are required for members, some are not, such as the Morton Gould competition. This is not incredibly helpful, but most of these competitions are incredibly prestigious, just hard to win, because so many people apply.

Another site I have used is interestingly on another blog. Most of these are outdated, but it does show a history of what has transpired, and some are useful.

Lastly, other ways to find competitions are look for instrumental competitions for stuff you have written. Do you have a great flute piece? Go look at the International Flute Association, they might have a competition. String quartet? Google that, and I bet you can find a hit or two. Many competitions publicized to big websites, but some do not, and simply post it on their own website.

In short, the way to find competitions is to always be looking. As for what Whitacre said about fees, I would recommend using your judgment about whether you want to risk the money. Don't apply to a competition that has a fee if you NEED to win. You are already spending money to print and mail a score. However, you can't win a Pulitzer if you never apply to competitions requiring an entry fee. (Less than 15 is typically good.)


So, go out there, look, find, and conquer! You may just win one.