Young Composers Forum 2016 (1st Edition)

About the Forum for Young Composers

The Forum for Young Composers is organized to promote music composition activity in Singapore. It aims to provide opportunities for young musicians to write music and have their pieces worked and shared.

Through organizing the Forum, the Composers’ Society of Singapore wants to widen music participation in the youths of Singapore as well as engage meaningfully with the various music communities in Singapore, composers and musicians, educators, students and members of the public.

Call for participation

The Forum is open to composers under 25. The focus is to explore instrumental colours of various music traditions; Violin, Cello, Clarinet, Bansuri (South Indian flute) and Gambus, through workshops and rehearsals with musicians, compose a piece of chamber music, which may be presented in a concert.

Through a Meet the Musicians session on 24 January 2016, participants will get to know more about the musicians and their respective instruments. Interested composers will start to compose a piece of music for at least one or more (including all) of the instruments and send the piece to a panel by 1 March 2016.

The panel will verify that the submitted pieces are playable and make a selection (if necessary) for a Reading Workshop on 17 April 2016. At this workshop, the musicians will read the music and the panel will be able to provide comments and points for further considerations. By the end of the workshop, the panel will make a selection of pieces for the concert scheduled on 12 June 2016. Between the Reading Workshop and the Concert, composers of the selected pieces for concert will be able to refine their work before the first rehearsal in the first week of June.

Age of participants

We welcome participation from young composers living in Singapore, under 25 (the age considered on 1st March 2016. There are 3 categories:

• Age 12 and under
• Age 13 to 17
• Age 18 to 25

Duration of pieces

There will no time limits (neither max nor min) on duration of pieces. However, if the selected piece is longer than 10 minutes the organizing committee reserves the right to include only an excerpt in the concert.

Number of pieces selected

As far as possible, the organizing committee will read every submitted piece of music for the Reading Workshop. Whilst for the Concert, a maximum of four pieces will be selected from each group.

Timeline

Registration Fees

For participation in the Forum, the fees are as follows:

• Age 12 and under – $10
• Age 13 to 17 – $20
• Age 28 to 25 – $30

If you have any queries, please contact us at composerssocietyofsingapore@gmail.com

Musicians

Qing Lun Tan, Bansuri/Chinese Flutes

Colin Tan, Clarinet

Bingling Wu, Violin

Chia-Min Chen, Cello

Muhammad Firdaus Mohamad, Gambus

Clarence Tan, Music Director

Dr Robert Casteels, Mentor Composer

Our Participants