Commissioning Process for Interested Composers
The Metropolitan Wind Symphony Commissioning Fund awards commissions to established and emerging composers. The process is a fairly open one. First, we solicit names of prospective composers from our members, board, former music directors, friends of the MWS, and so on. People generally only submit the names of composers they feel would write an interesting or challenging or thoughtful piece bringing credit to the ensemble and composer. Thus, new composers with little reputation established so far will generally have difficulty making it onto this list as we likely will not have heard of them. This universal problem is addressed below.
The next step in the process is for the five member committee to vote for their individual top 5 choices from the master list - "who do we wish to be awarded the next commission?" is the question we answer. We are not instructed to vote for the "best" composer, a wholly different (though equally subjective) question. More than one world class composer was on the last master list and received no votes at all, so personal choice may outweigh reputation. We tally the weighted votes, the music director approves the ordered list and adjusts it if he deems it necessary, and the composers are contacted one at a time to see if they are interested, can meet the schedule, and can come to terms.
Having said that, the way you could make it onto the list is if any of the 5 committee members is aware of your works or becomes aware of your works. If you send a resume and tape and perhaps a score, these will be circulated to the 5 members and taken from there. We would be happy to return these materials if you provide return postage.
The voting tallies are confidential, but future commissions are announced. The 1998 commission was awarded to Guy Woolfenden of the United Kingdom. The previous two commissions were awarded to Peter Schickele and James Curnow.
The income from the Commissioning Fund is used to fund MWS commissions; we cannot touch the principal. So, when sufficient income has been accumulated, we start another commission. Sometimes, the purpose of the commission is to commemorate a special occasion. Or, we may have a soloist in mind whom we wish a piece to be written for. We would like at some point to be able to award a commission to a student at a music school following a competition.
In this fashion, commissions are planned to be awarded on a regular basis long into the future. If any composer wishes to be considered for any or all future commissions, all they have to do is send us appropriate material as outlined above. It need not be submitted by a particular date as the process is a continuous one. Please contact Bob Piankian if you wish any further information.
We will keep our comments on the materials submitted to us by you on file so that you can be considered for future commissions without having to resubmit those materials.
For further information, contact:
Metropolitan Wind Symphony
c/o Bob Piankian, Commissioning Committee
9 Surrey Road
Newton, MA 02458
Telephone: (617) 796-9990
Fax: (617) 527-8543
E-mail: rap@mws-boston.org
