FAQ

In this section, some important questions about the Svanholm Singers Composition Award are addressed:

• Why is there an entry fee?
• I cannot enter online, because I have no credit/debit card, how can I participate in the competition?
• Why do you require an audio file, when it does not represent the choir music satisfactorily?
• How do I create an audio file?
• I don’t have Adobe, how can I create a pdf file of my scores?
• Why do you require digital scores and what do I do if I ususally prepare scores by hand?

Why is there an entry fee?

Some potential contestants have asked us why there is an entry fee, and been worried that this might discourage composers from participating in the composition. For example, some questions that haven been raised are:

• “Why would you as a composer in the first place ‘give’ your composition to the composition award for free, and also pay for it.”
• “Why don’t you decrease the prize money and keep the entrance free from fees?”
• “Why would you want to make money from submission of entries to your competition?”

We would like to stress that we discussed the matter of how to handle the administration of the competition carefully, and that we do not take lightly on the issue of entry fees. There is of course an ideological question of whether there should be any fees at all in a competition to which composers submit new pieces in which they have already invested a great deal of time. We see no point of hight entry fees (and as a choir competing in international choral competitions, we have had our fair share of outrageous entry fees!). However, there are a few reasons to why we think a relatively low entry fee is a good solution.

First of all, the entry fee is by no means intended to make the choir richer. It is simply intended to cover the costs of administrating the competition and the contributions. This includes, among other things, keeping separate databases of contributing composers and their (anonymous) works, serving the jury members with the works, and corresponding with contestants. Therefore, we decided on an administrative entry fee which should cover these things, but which should be so low that we hope it should pose no financial obstacle for any composer or student. (SEK 285 roughly equals about EUR 30 or USD 40.) Should this fee actually impose a noticable financial blow to anyone, we trust that you would contact us. We are eager that there is not a single composer who decides not to contribute out of financial reasons.

Secondly, since there is no way of knowing exactly how many contributions there will be, it is also very difficult to predict the administrative workload and the workload for the jury. We did not want to to reduce the prizes, since we think it is important to keep them as high as possible and signal the importance that we give the award, and also we did not want to cautiously set aside money which might not be needed if we failed to predic the number of participants. Therefore, we thought it would be better if there was a low administrative fee for each participant, so that the increasing administrative costs with an increasing number of participants would be covered automatically (without reducing prize money). We hope that potential contributors will agree on the trade-off and value the attraction of the original prize money over the abolition of an administrative fee. Also, please keep in mind that all organizational work for the composition award is done on a voluntary basis. Go back to the list of questions

I cannot enter online, because I have no credit/debit card, how can I participate in the competition?

For most people, it should work to enter the composition according to the general instructions. You will be asked to pay the administrative fee with a regular credit or debit card online, and following this you will receive further instructions, and automatically be registered in the composer database.

If, for some reason, you are unable to use credit/debit card for your payment, there are two alternative options. As a first resort, we would suggest you to ask a friend who has a debit/credit card to pay the fee online for you, and then you can reimburse your friend directly. This is easily done by following the regular entry to the competition. Once you reach the registration page, click the “I am signing up someone else” option. Then fill out your details (i.e. the composer details) in the first section, headed “1 x Administration fee”, and the details of the person paying (your friend) in the second section, headed “Your Contact Info” (i.e. First name, Last name, Email, Phone). Once redirected to the credit card payment page (at PayEx), the “Card type”, “Card number”, “Cardholders name”, “Expire date”, and “CVC” code should all be stated for the person paying (your friend). This method is easiest since you will get automatically registered in the system.

As a second alternative option you may transfer the fee directly to the bank account of Svanholm Singers, following these instructions:

1. Transfer SEK 285 to the Svanholm Singers bank account (see below for account number). Make sure to state your name.
2. Send an e-mail to the competition registration, notifying that you have made a transaction.
3. Await confirmation of the payment, and further instructions of how to prepare the files for submission. (Note that international bank transfers may take a few days.)

Svanholm Singers bank account:

IBAN: SE6280000807960740119821
Swift address: SWEDSESS

Account holder: Svanholm Singers

Name and Address of the bank:
Föreningssparbanken
Fiskaregatan 21
BOX 136
SE-221 00 Lund
SWEDEN

Go back to the list of questions

Why do you require an audio file, when it does not represent the choir music satisfactorily?

We agree fully that a midi representation (or similar electronically formatted audio) of musical scores cannot even come near to making a composition any justice. Be assured that your composition will not be judged based on the audio file either! However, when there is a large number of contributions, having an audio representation of the scores will greatly aid the jury members when reviewing your scores. Thus, it is merely a tool for the jury. Go back to the list of questions

How do I create an audio file?

You will be able to create an audio file from your notation software; the fuction is available in commercial softwares such as Sibelius or Finale, but also in freewares such as MuseScore. Go back to the list of questions

I don’t have Adobe, how can I create a pdf file of my scores?

There is an abundance of free pdf writers available. We suggest that you may use PDF24, which is a simple freeware that after installation will be available in the list of printers in your computer (after choosing the Print option in any other program). Go back to the list of questions

Why do you require digital scores and what do I do if I ususally prepare scores by hand?

We require digital scores mainly for the sake of simplifying the work of the jury (which will be reviewing a large number of pieces) and the choir, since even the tidiest hand written scores often leave more space for interpretation mistakes than do electronically scored notation. Also, since there are a large number of contestants, it is important being able to handle all contributions properly in the administrration of the competition, and this is most easily achieved if all contributions are collected electronically, and all (anonynous) contributions can be connected to the composer information.

If you ususally do not produce digital scores, we would suggest you try the free software MuseScore, which is easy to use and has all features necessary. It is also available in several languages. With MuseScore, you can also produce audio (midi) files of your composition.

Should the preparation of digital files impose serious problems for you, please contact the competition co-ordinators to discuss any potential exceptions. Go back to the list of questions