2nd Annual Women’s Music Commission Competition Opens
Ralph N. Jackson, President of the BMI Foundation, Inc., has announced the opening of the 2nd Annual Women’s Music Commission. The winning composer will receive a $5,000 commission to create a new work to be premiered by the Colorado Quartet at Symphony Space in New York City. This commission commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the Colorado Quartet and the 30th Anniversary of Symphony Space, and celebrates both organizations’ long and outstanding commitment to American composers and new music. Laura Kaminsky, Curator of Music Programs at Symphony Space, is the artistic coordinator for the project.
The postmark deadline for entering the 2007 competition is Tuesday, May 15, 2007. All entries will be judged under pseudonyms.
Unique in New York City’s cultural landscape since its founding in 1978, Symphony Space presents more than 500 events each year in music, literature, dance, theatre, film and family programming, and is renowned for its adventurous programming. Signature events include “Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story,” hosted by Isaiah Sheffer and broadcast on 150 National Public Radio affiliates; “Bloomsday on Broadway,” the annual marathon celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses; “Upper West Fest,” a three-week cultural extravaganza involving more than 20 neighborhood institutions; and “Wall to Wall,” the free annual 12-hour musical marathon, which The New York Times called “a gift to New York City.” Symphony Space’s programs annually attract diverse audiences from throughout New York City and the metropolitan area and, including recording, touring and media efforts, reach nearly 500,000 people nationwide.
The Colorado Quartet celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2007-08 as a groundbreaking ensemble: the first all-female quartet to establish a career among the very top ensembles in the world. The group began with spectacular fanfare in 1983 by winning two international competitions within ten days: The Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the First Banff International String Quartet Competition. The ensemble has devoted its career not only to the classics - the first female ensemble to perform the complete Beethoven Quartets in western Europe and North America -but the performance and commissioning of new works by American and international composers. Some of these works are included in the group’s extensive discography. The Colorado Quartet is in residence at Bard College and Conservatory in New York, and founded the Soundfest Quartet Institute in 1991.
The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 95% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.
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