The organisers of an international composition project are inviting online audiences to vote for shortlisted finalists.
The Commonwealth Composition Challenge is a special project created by The Commonwealth Resounds (TCR) and launched at the beginning of the lockdown in March/April 2020. The aim of the project is to offer online opportunities to school-aged musicians and composers all over the Commonwealth who have been stuck at home during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
Many young people around the world were unable to communicate effectively with their own schools during the lockdown, and so this project has provided, in the words of a parent, ‘a wonderful, unexpected lifeline for them to continue their music education’.
Young people were invited to compose and submit a piece of music which reflected in some way their own feelings and experiences during this unusual time. The organisers received more than 70 entries from a wide range of different Commonwealth countries.
To help support inexperienced young people further, TCR organised a series of one-day training workshops called ‘Go Compose Online’, during which school-aged composers worked online for a day with professional tutors and instrumentalists, who helped them to write and record their pieces.
To date, TCR has managed to fund seven Go Compose workshops for over 80 young composers, at the same time creating badly-needed employment for the professional musicians involved.
Find out more about the finalists
The awards
There are three awards:
- The Audience Vote: £250
- The Young Adjudicators’ Vote: £250
- The Commonwealth Composition Challenge Prizewinner Award: £500 and a commission to compose a piece for a professional ensemble and/or a special event
The Audience Vote closes at 10pm BST on Monday 26 October 2020.
Awards ceremony
An Online Awards Ceremony will be on Friday 30 October 2.00pm BST hosted on The Commonwealth Resounds YouTube channel.
A message of support for the whole project from Layne Robinson, Head of Policy at the Commonwealth
