With financial support from the Crafoord Foundation, Svanholm Singers proudly announces the

Svanholm Singers Composition Award

International competition for male choir a cappella music

Aim

Svanholm Singers is a male-voice chamber choir established in 1998. The choir strives to perform a wide range of music, spanning from medieval to contemporary, sacred and profane. With Svanholm Singers Composition Award we want to draw the attention to, and stimulate the development in, vocal polyphonic art music, in particular for male voices. It is our hope that this will benefit many ensembles in the long run by keeping the art alive and expanding the contemporary repertoire.

We wish to inspire composers in creating pieces which are relevant for the time in which we live, and we hope that this will result in numerous exciting contributions.

Prizes and award ceremony

Among the contestants, three contributions will be awarded. The winning piece will be premiered by Svanholm Singers during an award ceremony and concert on October 20, as a part of Lund Choral Festival. With the support of the Crafoord Foundation, we are happy to announce the prizes as follows:

1^st prize: € 5,000
2^nd prize: € 3,000
3^rd prize: € 1,500

In addition, the winning contribution will be published by Gehrmans Musikförlag.

Jury

The competition will be judged by an international jury with broad experience of male voice choral music, comprised by choral conductors with merits in composition and arrangement:

Robert Sund, conductor and composer (Sweden)
Matti Hyökki, conductor and professor in choral conducting (Finland)
Sofia Söderberg Eberhard, conductor Svanholm Singers (Sweden)

Competition rules

1. The competition is open to any person, irrespective of nationality, age, or profession.
2. Each participant may enter one piece only into the competition.
3. The piece must be new and unpublished, must not have been entered into another competition, and must not yet have been performed.
4. Lyrics (new or pre-existing) are chosen by the composer, and should bear relevance for our time. For the purpose of spreading of the work, it is important that the language chosen is applicable in an international context. For contributions in other languages, an English translation is required.
5. In case of pre-existing lyrics, it is the composer’s responsibility to seek written permission to use the text, which should be enclosed when entering the competition.
6. The music shall be written for male voice a cappella choir with 4–12 parts (TTBB–TTTTTTBBBBBB), and the duration of the piece shall be 6–9 minutes (including all movements, if subdivided).
7. Contributions may be submitted between April 1 and June 15, 2012, following further instructions on svanholmsingers.se**.
   1. The contribution shall be submitted as digital scores (including lyrics) in pdf format accompanied by an audio file (midi format or similar), following instructions on svanholmsingers.se.
   2. In addition to the contribution, the composer must submit personal details separately as instructed on svanholmsingers.se.
8. There is a non-refundable administrative fee of € 30*, to be paid when entering the competition.
9. The competition will be judged by an international jury with broad experience of male voice choral music, comprised by composers as well as choral conductors with merits in composition and arrangement.
   1. The decision of the jury is final and cannot be appealed against.
   2. The jury is reserved the right not to reward a particular prize level, should they consider no single work meets the proper standards.
10. The first prize is € 5,000, second prize is € 3,000, and third prize is € 1,500. In addition, the winning contribution will be published by Gehrmans Musikförlag.
11. Any taxation of the prize money is to be paid solely by the recipient.

Timeline

Submission of compositions opens: April 1 2012
Last day for submitting compositions to the competition: June 15 2012
Notification to composers: September 1 2012
Award ceremony and concert: October 20 2012

Terms of entrance

Svanholm Singers Composition Award will open for contributions between April 1 and June 15 2012. A non-refundable administration fee of € 30 shall be paid upon submission of competing composition. Further instructions to procedures for entering the competition will be presented at svanholmsingers.se**.

Partners & Funders

The Crafoord Foundation
Lund Choral Festival
Gehrmans Musikförlag

Contact

The competition is coordinated by Martin Stervander and Oscar Lundberg. Please email awardsvanholmsingers.se for information and administrative questions. For artistic questions and matters of composition technique, please contact Sofia Söderberg Eberhard at sofiasvanholmsingers.se.

* Update February 27: For technical reasons the payments must be done in SEK rather than Euro. SEK 285 is approximately equivalent to € 30, as originally stated for the administration fee.

** Entry is now open, see Enter competition.