1. Mission: Traditional Korean music contains many unique elements. The Sejong Music Composition Competition encourages composers to explore these elements and incorporate them into their compositions to create contemporary pieces for Western instruments that evoke Korean themes. Using these pieces in performances, we hope to bring the world of Korean music not only to composers, but performers and listeners, as well. For Sejong Prize Competition, we are looking for high quality Korean-themed pieces that can be performed frequently. Our goal is to encourage composers to write music that is appealing to general public and has clear expression of Korean themes.
2. Competition Rules:
– Eligibility: Open to composers of all ages, all nationalities, and all ethnic backgrounds.
– Judges’ decisions are final.
– Prizes may not be awarded at the judges’ discretion.
– Please keep in mind that we are looking for pieces that can strongly convey Korean themes.
3. Submission Requirements:
– Submit a work for 2-5 instruments chosen from violin, cello, piano, flute, and clarinet that can strongly convey Korean themes and is no more than twelve minutes in length. The piece must contain elements of traditional Korean melodies or rhythm.
– Representative samples of Korean traditional music transcriptions and recordings of traditional Korean instruments can be found on our website as examples.
– The application should include a short paragraph (up to 500 words) that explains how the Korean theme was expressed in the composition.
– The contestant’s entry and application form must be sent as email attachments to sejong@sejongculturalsociety.org.
– The music score must be submitted in a PDF file. Printed scores or other file types will not be accepted.
– Anonymous submission of score: the entrant’s name and contact details must not appear on any page of the score. Having a name on the score will result in disqualification. File names should include the contestant’s name (eg. JohnSmith.pdf)
– First prize winners of the previous competition (2005 Korean-American Music Composition Competition, 2008 International Sejong Music Composition Competition, 2012 Sejong Prize Competition) may not enter this competition.
4. Submission deadline: Jun 30th, 2015 (*No application fee)
5. Winners and prizes: First place $2,000; Honorable Mentions (2-3) $500
In addition, the winning entries will be performed for recording, may be submitted for publication of music scores or performance of the music to be broadcasted by television and radio stations.
6. Judging Criteria: Works will be judged based on originality, technique, and use of Korean themes
7. For more information:
Visit our website at www.sejongculturalsociety.org or email us at sejong@sejongculturalsociety.org.