The deadline for the 2013 Composers Competition has passed. Thank you for your submissions and please check back in the coming weeks for announcements of a winner.



Carlsbad Music Festival Composers Competition

to write for: Claire Chase, Flute

Submission Deadline: April 5, 2013

The Carlsbad Music Festival, in partnership with ArtPower at UC San Diego, announces its eighth annual Composition Competition with a prize of $3,000 to write a new piece for MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner and Artistic Director of ICE, flutist Claire Chase. The Festival and ArtPower seek to commission a new piece for solo flute with or without electronics for Chase from a highly original, creative, and compelling composer age 35 or under (born after 1/1/1977). The winner will be selected by Chase and Festival Director, Matt McBane. The winning composition will be premiered by Chase at the 10th annual Carlsbad Music Festival in September 2013. The $3,000 prize includes the commission fee and a travel stipend for the Carlsbad Music Festival concert, free room during residency, and a professional recording of the premiere.

All applications will be handled online and include the following items:

- a score and recording (MIDI mock-ups are highly discouraged) of two recent pieces
- optional links to online recordings of additional pieces for further listening
- artistic biography, resume, or CV
- list of works
- $20 application fee
- optional project proposal or cover letter

The winner will be notified in April 2013. The winner’s completed score must be delivered to the Festival by August 1, 2013 and the winner must attend the concerts on September 20-22, 2013.


Claire Chase

Claire Chase is active as a soloist, collaborative artist, curator and arts entrepreneur. Over the past decade Claire has given the world premieres of more than 100 new works for solo flute, many of them tailor-made for her, and she has produced and curated more than 500 concerts of contemporary music. First Prize Winner of the 2008 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Claire has given solo recitals recently at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and throughout the US. Claire released her debut solo album in October 2009 on the New Focus Recordings label featuring world premieres by emerging composers, which was named one of the Top Ten Releases of the Year by TimeOut Chicago. Declared "indefatigable" by TimeOut New York and praised in the New York Times for her "extravagant technique, broad stylistic range and penetrating musicality," Claire is rapidly emerging as one of the most innovative artists of her generation.

Claire founded the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2001 and has served as ICE's executive director since its inception. Under Claire's leadership, ICE was awarded the 2010 Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, and the organization has garnered two ASCAP/Chamber Music America Awards for Adventurous Programming, in 2005 and 2010. In her capacity at ICE, Claire has produced and overseen eight large-scale ICE new music festivals and released seven acclaimed commercial recordings with the ensemble on the Tzadik, Bridge, Mode, Kairos, Nonesuch, Naxos and New Focus labels. 
A sought-after lecturer, teacher and chamber music coach, Claire has given lectures and master classes recently at Smith College, CalArts, Northwestern University and the Oberlin Conservatory, where she received a B.M. in 2001 in the studio of Michel Debost. Her many honors include the Carlos Surinach Prize from the BMI Foundation (2010), First Prize in the Concert Artist Guild International Competition (2008), First Prize in the California Young Artists Competition (1995), First Prize in the National Young Artist Competition (2001), and The Presidential Scholar Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (1996).

Her current projects include an evening-length solo flute multimedia production in collaboration with the television director Habib Azar, an album of 20th century flute masterworks (Boulez, Carter, Xenakis, Donatoni) and an album of Bach transcriptions. She lives in Brooklyn.