In celebration of Make Music Day, and of all the young composers stuck at home this spring, the Make Music Alliance hosted a composition contest this year for composers aged 13-21, inviting them to write a short, 3-minute piece for SATB vocal quartet, set to William Carlos Williams’s poem, “By the road to the contagious hospital”.
Winning Composers (listed alphabetically):
Jamey J. Guzman
Sander Owens
Miles GK Swinden
Special Judges’ Commendation:
Isabelle Epps
Honorable Mentions:
Linden Figueroa
Audrey Ormella
Ari Schwartz
Adrian B. Sims
Dana Al Tajer
Zoe Yost
Many thanks to our judges, composers David T. Little, Ellen Reid, Christopher Tin and conductor Anna Lapwood, and to the singers of our “Make Music Quarantet”: Charlotte Mundy, Lucy Dhegrae, Steven Caldicott Wilson, and Christopher Dylan Herbert.
And most of all, thank you to all of the young composers!
Contest Entry Details
Judges
Make Music Quarantet
Text: By the road to the contagious hospital
Special thanks to Meg Davies, Christopher Herbert, Kris Kautzman, Jane Shore, and Ashley Trupp.
Contest Entry Details |
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Judges |
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Anna Lapwood Anna Lapwood is a trailblazing musician. As a broadcaster she is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and hosts a live, weekly classical music show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. This year she makes her TV presenting debut, hosting BBC Four’s coverage of BBC Young Musician 2020. Alongside her work as a conductor, Director of Music and public speaker, she is a highly distinguished concert organist. Appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 2016, she conducts the Pembroke College Chapel Choir. In 2018 she established the Pembroke College Girls’ Choir and the Cambridge Organ Experience for Girls, both of which she runs. Sought after as a conductor, Anna has directed the BBC Singers and leads choral workshops around the world, specializing in bringing music to children from impoverished backgrounds. |
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David T. Little David T. Little is “one of the most imaginative young composers” on the scene (The New Yorker), with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times). His operas Dog Days, JFK, and Vinkensport (librettos by Royce Vavrek), and Soldier Songs have been widely acclaimed, “prov[ing] beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future” (The New York Times). Little’s music has been presented by the LA Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, LA Opera, Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center Festival, Kennedy Center, Holland Festival, and Opéra de Montréal, with upcoming engagements at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Opera Theater. He is chair of the composition program at the Mannes School of Music (The New School) in New York, NY, and his music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. |
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Ellen Reid Ellen Reid is one of the most innovative artists of her generation. A composer and sound artist whose breadth of work spans opera, sound design, film scoring, ensemble and choral writing, she was awarded the the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera, p r i s m. Along with composer Missy Mazzoli, Ellen co-founded the Luna Composition Lab. Luna Lab is a mentorship program for young, female-identifying, non-binary, and gender non-conforming composers. Since the fall of 2019, she has served as Creative Advisor and Composer-in-Residence for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Ellen received her BFA from Columbia University and her MA from California Institute of the Arts. She is inspired by music from all over the globe, and she splits her time between her two favorite cities – Los Angeles and New York. Her music is released on Decca Gold. |
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Christopher Tin Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer of concert and media music. His music has been performed and premiered in many of the world’s most prestigious venues: Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, and the Hollywood Bowl. He has also been performed by ensembles diverse as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, and US Navy Band, and has also conducted concerts of his own music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Welsh National Opera Orchestra. His song “Baba Yetu”, originally written for the video game “Civilization IV”, is a modern choral standard, and the first piece of music written for a video game ever to win a Grammy Award. In addition to scoring films and video games, he is also an in-demand collaborator, working with artists across a wide-range of musical genres: Lang Lang, Alan Menken, BT, and Danny Elfman, to name a few. |
Make Music Quarantet |
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Charlotte Mundy (Soprano) Range: E3 to E6. The upper extreme of my range (A5-E6) is tiring and should be used sparingly. Text will not be clearly intelligible above G5. Lower extreme of range (E3-B3) is comfortable but quiet. |
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Lucy Dhegrae (Mezzo-Soprano) Range: F3 to Ab5. I prefer to approach high notes (anything above D5) with a leap from a lower note. |
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Steven Caldicott Wilson (Tenor) Range: D3 to C5, consistently mixed throughout. Comfortable reading either treble or bass clef. Prefers not to produce “extended technique” vocalisms such as whispering and guttural/throat sounds. |
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Christopher Dylan Herbert (Baritone) Range: G2 to E4 in chest voice, F4 to C5 in falsetto. Please write mainly in the middle of the range. Do not write extensively at either extreme. Please do not hang out on E4 for extended periods of time unless you want it very loud or very soft. |
By the road to the contagious hospital
William Carlos Williams, from Spring and All (1923)
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast – a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines –
Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches –
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind –
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined –
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
Entrance – Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pediatrics and general medicine.