This past winter, the Calder Quartet and Matt McBane went through the always fascinating and exciting journey of judging the annual Composers Competition. The panel whittled down the 134 applicants from all over the world and all over the stylistic spectrum to a handful of fantastic finalists and finally down to the winner: Jacob Cooper.

Many of Jacob’s compositions come from his interest in recreating the sound of digitally slowed down music for live ensembles. The result is beautiful slow-motion music that the panel found to be unique and emotionally powerful.

Here are excerpts from the two pieces Jacob submitted in his application:

As the winner of the competition, Jacob won a $3,000 co-commission between the Festival and ArtPower @ UCSD to write a new piece for the Calder Quartet. It will be premiered at the 2011 Festival (September 23-25) and performed again at UCSD on January 27, 2012. We are very excited to hear what Jacob comes up with for this piece!

Here’s what Jacob has to say about this commission:

"I'm delighted to be the commissioned composer for this year's festival. I had the opportunity to see the Calders play Christopher Rouse's new quartet at Zankel Hall [at Carnegie Hall] recently, and they totally nailed the harrowingly difficult piece. Many of my recent works have included amplification and live processing (through a laptop), and I expect that my Carlsbad piece will continue in this vein. Whatever notes end up on the page, I know they will be in good hands."

Here’s what Andrew Bulbrook, violinist of the Calder Quartet has to say about this commission:

"It is always an honor and a privilege to go through the judging process for the Carlsbad Music Festival competition.  This year saw a record number of highly qualified applicants from around the world and there were many incredible composers we could not select whose music we hope to play in the future.  Jacob Cooper's work leapt out at us from this incredible pool of talent.  His work was both intellectual and emotional and he carried those qualities through both standard instrumentation as well as a variety of incorporations of various media and technology.  We felt he was a unique and creative voice, an artist as well as a composer, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him."