The Somerville Community Chorus in Somerville, Massachusetts, announces a special choral composition contest in honor of the 35th anniversary of its founding. The winner of the composition contest will receive a $1000 prize. The selected composition will be premiered by the Somerville Community Chorus on May 31, 2020 in Somerville in our Spring Concert, entitled "The Sung and the Spoken Word," which will be conducted by music director David Giessow. Travel expenses to the premiere are the responsibility of the prize recipient.

The ideal composition will address a theme relevant to life in Somerville or the Boston area and New England more broadly. This may involve setting a local poet’s work to music or composing a work that expresses aspects of life in the region today or historically.

Qualifications: Composer must be over 21 years of age at the time of submission and reside in New England.

Application Instructions: Scores and accompanying documents, in PDF format, should be emailed to Compositions@figgypuddin.com no later than December 15, 2019 (an additional copy in MIDI format and/or a "Finale" CODA notation File or XML file would also be helpful. This will be required of the winning composer in order for us to create “practice tracks” for the singers and a Braille score for one of our singers).

Submission criteria:

• 4-8 minutes' duration
• Unperformed works only
• Scored for SATB (or SAATB) choir, sung Unaccompanied or accompanied by piano or organ, and up to 4 obligato instruments;
• Moderately-Easy level of difficulty, for a 75-member non-auditioned community chorus
• Rights to text must be cleared, if they are not the work of the composer
• Text should be suitable for general public, and may be secular, sacred, or popular.

Composer will retain the copyright of the piece; the Somerville Community Chorus will retain winning manuscript and the rights to use it in future performances. Please include your name, email address, postal address, and phone number(s) with your score.

Please include a brief biography that is relevant to the submission.

Submissions will be judged by the Music Director and approved by a committee of chorus members. No feedback will be provided and scores will not be returned.

The winner will be notified by January 31, 2020.

This project is supported in part by an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England.