<p>Hello I am an arising Junior looking for competitions for high school composers to put on my resume. I'm looking into competitions because my grades aren't fantastic and I think my artistic merit is going to have to go a long way. My current GPA is 3.0 unweighted, 3.4 weighted. My grades slipped last year and I was unable to participate in any summer programs due to having to deal with medical issues. I will be bringing my grades back up and will participating in a summer composition program this next summer. I was wondering if anyone knew of composition contest for high schoolers that A) perform your work B) give you a recording of your work, and C) look nice on a college resume. I take lessons at a local university with one of their professors who is an Eastman alumni, and will have his help with any of my musical endeavors. </p>
<p>Thank you for your time and help in advance!</p>
<p>Thank you for the help! I’ve been following the composersite for a while, but it seems very few of the competitions on that website were for my age range. I’m looking into the first list from walden and it seems very promising. </p>
<p>You could also join The American Composers Forum and then have access to their opportunities page. They have a student rate. <a href=“http://composersforum.org”>http://composersforum.org</a> There are a number of good competitions for high school age composers - but you need to weed through these lists.</p>
<p>I would add to Spirit Manager’s excellent suggestions, ASCAP Morton Gould for under 18, and your state music teachers’ organization(s).</p>
<p>You mentioned grades slipping due to health problems. Do you have a 504 plan? Did your school accommodate your health issue? There really is no reason that a health issue should affect grades. You should have had excused absences, postponed projects and tests, extensions, a notetaker. In fact, if you missed school, you could perhaps have had tutoring and even daily reports from teachers on what was done in class with complete set of materials missed etc. </p>
<p>Can your professor/teacher help you get pieces played? Do you know any musicians who could help you out or could you pay them?</p>
<p>Summer programs, if chosen carefully, can provide great recordings. (My personal favorite is Walden School in NH but there are many.) Competitions are great for giving you and idea of where you stand but often they favor certain aesthetics so don’t put too much stock in them. And most don’t offer a recording, because you send a recording in, but some do.</p>
<p>Mainly, keep writing music and find some way to get it played. You will need 3-4 pieces for a portfolio but remember too that most colleges, as opposed to conservatories, will not require a portfolio and even one recorded piece will enable you to submit an arts supplement to the common app. Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Thank you for your comment compmom! As for school and medical issues I currently have a 504 but it took a lot of work to get one. I have Bipolar disorder, and since it wasn’t diagnosed until late spring it was hard to get the 504. My grades slipped because of the seer number of absences and in ability to do homework or makeup work at times. I will have a 504 coming into this school year and I have my condition under better control.</p>
<p>My teacher has mentioned getting some of the students at his university to play my pieces, but to be frank my music is very modern classical, a-tonal, and experimental; so I am unsure of how playable it is for an undergrad in state university. There are some techniques that I employ in a string quartet I am almost finished with now that I am not even sure how to notate. Regardless I’m sure my that my instructor can assist me in getting recordings.</p>
<p>I will definitely look into Walden when I begin to look for summer camps. As far as competitions I am less concerned with the “winning” something aspect and more concerned with the resume. I am pretty much set on going to a conservatory of some sort, with my dream school being Eastman. I have always lacked a born, “talent” for music and have to work very hard to get to where I am. Even now I struggle with ear training. Also, being a percussionist, I have above average mallet skills for my goals, but I am below average on snare and tympani. Because of this I feel I have to be overqualified in my composition in order to make it into schools that require instrumental auditions. </p>
<p>I have written several 1 minute solos as exercises and a 4 min cello solo in my lessons so far. I will have a 9-10 min string quartet that will be complete by mid august. I have a couple compositions from before my lessons but I consider them inferior. My teacher and I have already had discussions about building a portfolio and I believe he already has an idea of what he will have me do over the course of the next year and a half.</p>
<p>Thanks again compmom!</p>
<p>Well, not knowing how to notate is a sign of developing as a composer, believe me! (Walden has a whole class on this.)</p>
<p>Many talented composers have trouble with ear training and other music courses. In fact, if you hear notes really well/have perfect pitch, some theory, dictation and so on can be harder. Do you play piano at all?</p>
<p>Some conservatories don’t require auditions as you well know. Are you hoping to continue percussion?</p>
<p>You might like Oberlin 
Walden is connected to Oberlin but apparently Oberlin also has summer programs. Walden is 6 weeks, so has some depth, and really world class musicians play the pieces.</p>
<p>You still have plenty of time to develop a portfolio. And you have had a tough year.</p>
<p>Resumes are great but when you apply to a conservatory, it really is all about the music you submit. It sounds like you already have an individual “voice” which is really helpful in applications!</p>
<p>I’m going to PM you as well.</p>
<p>My state music association had a high school composition competition; winners got to attend the All State festival and participate in a masterclass. They also had the same thing on the local district level. I did get a lot out of some of the masterclasses; they brought in a huge variety of composers and that was awesome to see in high school. As @compmom said, I would worry less about how much you have on your resume and more about your music! You have quite a bit of time. I never did a summer program for composition in high school because of deciding to be a composer too late in the game for that, but that could be useful if you don’t have access to musicians otherwise. Re: notation questions, score study and listening can be really useful (you should be able to do interlibrary loans even if your town library is lacking), especially if you’re trying out some more extended techniques. Good luck! </p>
<p>@compmom
The particular problem with notation is that I can’t find notation of a few extended techniques I came up with playing around on my viola and a few I read about. I actually have quite a horrible ear, but I have really good music theory skills. I mainly play percussion, but I also play piano, trombone. and viola. I have pretty good improvisation skills on piano. Although I would like to continue percussion, especially if I go to schools like Eastman or Northwestern where some of my idols teach. But I’m fine continuing my studies in private lessons. To be honest I’d rather spend time studying dance than percussion. I’m fascinated by dance and it’s relation to music and would love to go to a school with a good dance program that is open to working with the music program. Thank you again for your time and compliments!</p>
<p>@musician34
My state is sadly lacking in ANY support for young composers, I’ve spent hours checking that.I have several books and scores that my teacher let me borrow for the summer, which is more than anything the local libraries would have. Thank you for your time and comment!</p>
<p>General Up-Date: I found a fantastic competition called Nextnotes (here’s the info for it:<a href=“http://composersforum.org/sites/composersforum.org/files/2015_nextnotes_guidelines.pdf”>http://composersforum.org/sites/composersforum.org/files/2015_nextnotes_guidelines.pdf</a> ) and I signed up for The American Composers forum because of access to the opportunities page and the AMAZING discount for Finale the notation software, which I was going to purchase soon anyways. Thanks for all the help guys!</p>
<p>That looks like a terrific competition! Seems perfect for what you were looking for. There are some other ones for high school composers. Just keep checking the updates.</p>
<p>(Btw. one of the composers at Bard College Conservatory got his second degree, the BA, in dance…)</p>
<p>Oh great, Finale will help you. There are some good books on Amazon on Finale too. Your teacher might be able to help you with notation issues. I totally understand and, again, having trouble with notation is a nice sign of your bravery as a composer!!</p>
<p>One of my daughters is a composer, the other a dancer. I share your fascination with the interplay and each discipline seems so enhanced by the other.</p>
<p>You can try to find choreographers who might want to use some of your music. Sometmes composers put cards up in dance studios :)</p>
<p>I don’t know what state you are in but there will be some great choices that have both music and dance (and you can write for dance privately, as I just said). Juilliard, Purchase, Bard, Hartt, North Carolina School of the Arts, Boston Conservator y, for starters. And colleges: Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore, Vassar (Barnard for women). Oberlin does have dance too. And many more. Musician 34 knows Midwest and Spirit Manager knows west coast, as do others.</p>
<p>If you are interested in continuing with percussion, I know of several composers at my school who are also percussionists and who are pretty involved with that department (which focuses on anything from Cage to new music) without being double majors in most of their cases. There are definitely places where you could continue to be involved with that. CCM also has a dance department & you could make friends with a choreographer and write a piece for one of their annual choreographer showcases. Trying to find schools with a dance department or with schools with access to a ballet or company in the area should help you narrow down your search.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your support and advice, I will definitely look into the colleges you have suggested.</p>
<p>Here’s a recommended composition competition for pre-college students: Junior Mata Festival in NYC. Calling all Precollege Composers! Now’s your chance. MATA Jr. 2015 <a href=“http://matafestival.org/mata-jr-call-for-scores/”>http://matafestival.org/mata-jr-call-for-scores/</a></p>