2023 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition
Deadline: March 31, 2023
Earplay sponsors the annual Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition, open to composers of any nationality and any age. Earplay performs the prizewinning piece and presents a cash prize of $1,000 to the winning composer. The competition honors the late composer/conductor/Earplay board member Donald Aird, an ardent supporter of the creation and performance of new music. A list of past competition winners, finalists, and honorable mentions is here.
You can submit an Aird competition application electronically or by mail. Please send e-mail if you have questions or comments.
Past competition winners:
- 2001 Massimo Lauricella
- 2001 Shintaro Imai
- 2002 Christophe Bertrand
- 2003 João Pedro Oliveira
- 2004 Vincent Chee-Yung Ho
- 2005 Fredrik Fahlman
- 2006 Mirtru Escalona-Mijares
- 2007 Hèctor Parra
- 2008 Nicolas Tzortzis
- 2009 Tolga Yayalar
- 2010 Adam Roberts
- 2011 Sven Daigger
- 2012 Alexander Elliott Miller
- 2013 Vera Ivanova
- 2014 Daniel Tacke
- 2015 Shiuan Chang
- 2016 Stephen Yip
- 2017 Daniel Godsil
- 2018 A. J. McCaffrey
- 2019 Gilad Cohen
- 2020 Carla Magnan
- 2021 Tomasz Skweres
Application form
Online application
Compositions:
Works are limited to 1 to 6 players (at most 1 of each, e.g., not 2 violins) from Earplay's ensemble:
- flute/piccolo/alto flute/bass flute
- clarinet/bass clarinet
- piano
- violin
- viola
- cello
Works may include electronics.
Works may be of any duration (8-15 minutes preferred).
Works may have been previously performed.
Each composer may submit any number of pieces.
Award:
Cash prize: $1,000.
Performance by Earplay during our next season.
Earplay will announce the winner in fall 2023.
All entries will be considered for future performance.
Deadline:
Applications must be submitted online or postmarked by March 31, 2023.
Application:
Earplay strongly encourages you to use online application,
but if you prefer you can print an application form,
fill it out, and mail it instead.
You can use online application even if you intend
to mail some parts of your application
(composer bio, score, program note, recording, or payment).
Sorry, mailed application materials cannot be returned.
Anonymity:
Each submitted score must have all composer identification removed
so that the competition jury receives no information about the composer when it reviews the score.
If you wish to submit video, the video must have all composer identification removed.
Only the competition administrator sees the submitted composer information, bio, and program note.
If a program note is included as part of the score,
the note should not provide identification data (academic affiliation, premiere personnel, ...).
Checklist:
- Completed online application (preferred) or application form
- Brief composer biography
- Score (all composer identification removed)
- Brief program note (not required but recommended)
- Audio recording (not required but recommended; send e-mail if you want to submit video)
- Application fee US $26 per score (cash, check payable to Earplay, or PayPal payment)
Mailing address:
Earplay
2023 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition
560 29th Street
San Francisco, CA 94131-2239
USA
Further information: aird@earplay.org