Composition Workshop

March 24-March 28, 2025

The RED NOTE New Music Festival Composition Workshop will help composers widen their creative perspectives and hone their craft through open rehearsals with guest performers Akropolis Reed Quintet and Unheard-of Ensemble, and seminars with distinguished guest faculty composer Colin Matthews, as well as resident faculty composers Martha Horst, Roy Magnuson, Carl Schimmel, Alex Stephenson, and Alex Taylor. Invited participants will each compose a 5- to 10-minute piece for one of the guest ensembles. Each composition will be carefully rehearsed during the festival and will be premiered at a formal concert. Each composer will receive a recording of his or her piece. Participants will discuss their compositional ideas, techniques, and aesthetics with the faculty and other fellows. In addition, each student composer will have the opportunity to meet with the faculty composers individually or as part of group lessons or masterclasses. Each day of the festival culminates in an evening concert featuring contemporary music performed by the guest ensembles or members of the School of Music faculty.

Faculty

Colin Matthews, guest composer
Martha Horst
Carl Schimmel
Alex Stephenson

Featured Performers

Akropolis Reed Quintet, guest ensemble
Unheard-of Ensemble, guest ensemble

2025 Workshop Participants

Daixuan Ai
Indiana University
Yingting Liu
University of Iowa
Alexey Logunov
Indiana University
Sean MacCarthy-Grant
Howard University
Hirad Moradi
University of Toronto
Sehyeok (Joseph) Park
University of Toronto
Jun Jie Edmund Song
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Justin Weiss
University of Chicago

Dining and Housing

Dinners will be organized and paid for by the RED NOTE New Music Festival. Workshop participants will be responsible for their other meals, and for their own lodging. Normal, Illinois is a university town with many dining options within walking distance. RED NOTE will assist workshop participants in finding appropriate lodging; options range from staying with one of our student composers at no extra cost, to a room at the Marriott hotel for a discounted rate (within a short walking distance from campus). We will facilitate room shares and transportation to reduce lodging costs.

Tuition

$350 (due by October 31, 2024)

Refund Policy

We do not offer refunds for our workshop. All fees are non-refundable.

Eligibility

Applicants must be enrolled as graduate or undergraduate students in spring 2025.

How to Apply

Submit an ANONYMOUS PDF AND audio file (mp3 or MIDI) of your best work for chamber ensemble.
The submitted PDF and audio files must be free of names and identifying marks.
No application fee is required. However, please note that if you would like to submit your work in the Composition Competition you must submit it again separately via the Composition Competition link on the RED NOTE homepage.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: October 1, 2024.
6-8 selected applicants will be notified by email by October 15, 2024.
The selected applicants must each compose a new work for Akropolis Reed Quintet or Unheard-of Ensemble.
Score and parts to the new composition must be received by Festival Co-Director Alex Stephenson no later than February 5, 2025. Alternatively, if the composition submitted with your application has not received a previous performance and is scored for a subset of the available instrumentation, you may request that this piece be rehearsed and premiered in lieu of a new composition.

Please contact Alex Stephenson with any questions.

Past Participants

2024

Featured Composers

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

2023

Featured Composers

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

Devin Cholodenko
Dayton Hare
Huijuan Ling
Wenbin Lyu
Kian Ravaei
Ethan Soledad
Siqi Wang
Yanchen Ye

2022

Featured Composers

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

2021

Featured Composer

Martin Bresnick

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

2020

Featured Composer

Stacy Garrop
David Rakowski

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

Nathan Courtright (b. 1989)
Joseph Harkins (b. 1995)
Olga Janković (b. 1994)
Benjamin Morris (b. 1993)
Yiyang Wang (b. 1995)
Daniel Whitworth (b. 1996)
Jonathan Wyatt (b. 1997)
Kitty Xiao (b. 1989)

2019

Featured Composer

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

Li Bo (b. 1988)
Josiah Tayag Catalan (b. 1989)
Derek Cooper (b. 1987)
Miles Jefferson Friday (b. 1993)
Aaron Houston (b. 1991)
Stephen Karukas (b. 1997)
Cullyn Murphy (b. 1993)
SiHyun Uhm (b. 1999)
Ania Vu (b. 1994)

2018

Featured Composer

William Bolcom

Featured Ensemble

Ensemble Dal Niente

Workshop Participants

James Chu (b. 1990)
Joshua Hey (b. 1988)
Howie Kenty (b. 1980)
Joungmin Lee (b. 1975)
Minzuo Lu (b. 1991)
Mert Morali (b. 1992)
Erik Q. Ransom (b. 1970)
Max Vinetz (b. 1996)

2017

Featured Composer

Sydney Hodkinson

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

Michael M. Lee (b. 1987)
Andrew Davis (b. 1986)
Chris Neiner (b. 1994)
Nicholas Landrum (b. 1987)
David T. Bridges (b. 1986)
Alex Berko (b. 1995)
Daniel Harrison (b. 1987)
Ian Guthrie (b. 1992)

2016

Featured Composer

Stephen Hartke

Featured Ensemble

ENSEMBLE MISE-EN

Workshop Participants

Roydon Tse (b. 1991)
Sean Clarke (b. 1983)
Lucas Marshall Smith (b. 1989)
Jean-Patrick Besingrand (b. 1985)
Yunkyung Hong (b. 1984)
Jihyun Kim (b. 1988)
Andrew V. Ly (b. 1985)
Spencer Snyder (b. 1988)

2015

Featured Composer

Steven Stucky

Featured Ensemble

Workshop Participants

Weijun Chen (b. 1990)
Jae-Goo Lee (b. 1977)
Carolyn O'Brien (b. 1968)
Corey Rubin (b. 1983)
Viet Cuong (b. 1990)
Brian Heim (b. 1993)
Ryan Lindveit (b. 1994)

2014