Young Composers Awards 2003 - Competitions

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2003

The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and The Hartt School at the University of Hartford are accepting applications for their Young Composers Awards 2003.

The senior winners receive the $1,000 Herbert Zipper Prize and a $500 prize, and the junior winners receive $500 and $250, respectively.

The Young Composers Awards were established by the late Herbert Zipper in 1985, initially with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Zipper's distinguished international career as a composer and conductor, his lifetime commitment to music, youth and education, and his long service as a trustee of the National Guild are among the experiences that spurred his founding of the Guild's Young Composers Awards.

Since 1985, awards in the amount of $48,250 have been granted to seventy-six young composers.

The awards are currently made possible through the support of, among others, the Herbert Zipper Trust and the Foundations of the Milken Families.

Since 1998, The Ham School's Community Division and Composition Department has sponsored the Young Composers Awards in conjunction with the National Guild.

The competition is open to students who are resident in the United States and Canada. There are two categories: Junior, ages 13-15, born between July 1, 1987, and June 30, 1990, and Senior, ages 16-18, born between July 1, 1984, and June 30, 1987. Student composers must not be enrolled in an undergraduate program when they apply, but must be enrolled in a public or private secondary school, in a recognized musical institution or be engaged in the private study of music with an established teacher. Students who have won an award in 2001 or 2002 are not eligible to apply in 2003.

Four copies of the work must be submitted with a check for $15 made payable to The Hartt School. All entries must be postmarked on or before April 18, 2003. Announcement of the awards will be made no later than June 17, 2003.

All entries and inquiries should be addressed to Michael Yaffe, Director, The Hartt School Community Division, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT 06117; (860) 768-4451; harttcomm@hartford.edu.