The Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the 2024 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize. Please read below for details and guidelines.
Submission deadline: January 8, 2024
The Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the 2024 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize. Please read below for details and guidelines.
Submission deadline: January 8, 2024
The Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is proud to administer the Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize, a bi-annual wind ensemble/concert band composition contest. This highly successful and nationally renowned series is funded by the gracious support of the Ithaca College administration, alumni, and generous friends of the institution.
The current Prize is the successor to the original Walter Beeler Memorial Commission Series, established in 1975. This Commissioning Series produced 10 compositions for wind band. Subsequently, the Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize was created to further encourage the composition and performance of the highest quality wind band literature in honor and memory of Ithaca College's renowned director of bands. During his thirty-five year tenure as conductor of the Ithaca College Concert Band, Walter Beeler ("Mr. Band") premiered a number of new compositions for wind band. His method books, arrangements, and transcriptions for wind band number nearly 200. The current iteration of the Prize has honored 15 outstanding works.
There will be a cash prize of $5,000. There may also be the opportunity to perform the winning work with the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble in the following academic year, with travel and accommodation support of up to $1,000 for the winning composer. Depending on the length of the work, the ICWE may decide to use an abbreviated version of the winning composition at this performance. The Ithaca College Center for Music has the option of withholding the award if no entry is found to be suitable.
Files must be electronically submitted via the IC Formstack linked on this page. Files should be labeled as follows.
NOTE: When distributed to the committee, the files will be renamed for anonymity and the score stripped of its cover page, thus these stipulations on the files above. Please do not include any metadata within the files, as it may accidentally unveil composer identity.
All entries must be received no later than Monday, January 8, 2024, at 11:59pm EST. Entries received after that date will not be considered. Do not include any materials other than those specifically asked for with your submission.
The winning composition will be selected and the composer notified during the academic spring semester. Prize monies will be processed on receipt in good order of the performance parts.
Daniel Cook, DMA
Director of Bands