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Masterprize
Tel: +44 (0)20 7233 0111 Masterprize site designed by Room101 Ltd |
BUILDING ON SUCCESS - Registration now open for Masterprize 2003 (September 2002)
Composers from around the world are now invited to enter the world's leading composition competition.
Registration for the third Masterprize, the international competition for composition of symphonic works, is now open. Composers of any age and nationality are invited to submit short works for symphony orchestra of between 6 and 15 minutes. This marks the start of a 16-month cycle of selection, international broadcasts and recordings, culminating with the gala final at London's Barbican Hall on 30 October 2003.
Masterprize was successfully presented in 1998 and then again in 2001. For the third competition Masterprize has received a major boost as Classic FM, Gramophone magazine and NPR in America join the London Symphony Orchestra and EMI as partners. Underscoring its status as the world's leading composition competition, renowned conductor Mariss Jansons has accepted the post of Artistic Adviser of Masterprize. Mr Jansons will take the primary responsibility for overseeing the jury selection and determining the criteria for judging entries.
Unparalleled opportunities for composers
With the aims of encouraging classical music lovers to listen more to new music, and helping living composers find a large international audience, Masterprize achieves vast international exposure for its finalist pieces through a powerful combination of
- a network of radio stations with a listenership of well over 20 million (Classic FM and NPR alone reach a combined weekly audience of well over 20 million)
- covermount CDs with a circulation of over 110,000 through Gramophone and Classic FM Magazine
- gala final performance by the LSO broadcast internationally
The winner receives a cash prize of £25,000.
At the final stage of the competition, after pre-selection by two international panels, the music-loving public will have a 50% say in the selection of the winner. This vote will be combined in equal measure with that of a jury of celebrated international musicians (for past competitions members have included personalities such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Thomas Hampson, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Kamen, John Harle, Jon Lord, Sir Charles Mackerras, Marin Alsop and Sir George Martin) and members of the London Symphony Orchestra.
All of the finalist works from Masterprize 1998 and 2001 have received repeat international performances and broadcasts and many of the finalists have received commissions and residencies as a direct result of being shortlisted in Masterprize.
Key changes
- Recording mandatory
- Works which have won other competitions are no longer ineligible
- Appointment of artistic adviser - Mariss Jansons
- New partners - Classic FM, NPR, Gramophone magazine, Classic FM Magazine
Masterprize - the process
Composers must submit their scores and recordings to the Masterprize office by 20th December 2002. Works that have been previously entered to Masterprize and works that have been performed by a professional orchestra prior to 31st December 1997 are ineligible.
A shortlist of 10 semi-finalists will be selected and recorded during March to May 2003. The semi-finalists, juries and sponsors will be announced to the public in April 2003, at which time multiple international broadcasts of the semi-finalist works will commence. From this shortlist of 10, five finalists will be selected and their works will be distributed as a covermount CD with the October 2003 issue of Gramophone and Classic FM Magazine, accompanied by further international broadcasts. Worldwide public voting via the magazines, internet (www.masterprize.com) and phone will commence in August 2003.
The winner will be decided at the Gala Final on 30th October 2003 at London's Barbican Centre. Here the London Symphony Orchestra will perform the five finalist pieces under star conductor Daniel Harding. At the end of the concert the world-wide public vote that was cast prior to the Gala Final will be combined with that of the Final Jury, the members of the orchestra and the audience in the hall. Votes will be weighted as follows:
Worldwide public vote: 45%
Gala audience: 5%
Final Jury: 40%
Members of the London Symphony Orchestra: 10%
Education
Following the success of Masterprize 2001's education programme for selected UK youth orchestras, Masterprize will extend this selection nationwide. Full details will be announced in September 2002.
For further information: Madeleine Milne / Tessa Milne
T: +44 (0) 208 727 2370 mob: +44 (0) 7786 061 986 F: +44 (0) 208 727 2372
info@masterprize.com
www.masterprize.com
Mariss Jansons
As one of the most respected and distinguished conductors, Mariss Jansons performs regularly with some of the greatest orchestras in the world, appearing each season with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. He also continues to appear each year at Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals and at the BBC Proms in London.
Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1997 and of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 to 2000, Jansons has recently accepted the post of Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich from September 2003.
Born in Riga, Latvia in 1943, Jansons is the son of the renowned conductor, Arvid Jansons. He studied violin, piano and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated with honours. In 1969 he continued his training in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky and in Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan. Two years later he won the International Herbert von Karajan Foundation Competition in Berlin.
Jansons has recorded prolifically for EMI, Chandos and Simax and his discography includes works by Berlioz, Dvorak and Bartok, Mahler, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Respighi, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Kurt Weill, Brahms and Strauss.
In 1995, King Harald V of Norway conferred on Jansons the honour of Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, for his work and achievements with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the highest such award available to foreigners. In 1999 he was given Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in June 2001 Jansons was elected Honorary Member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, the highest musical honour that can be awarded in Vienna.
Mariss Jansons is Professor of Conducting at the St Petersburg Conservatoire of Music.
HIGHLIGHTS OF MASTERPRIZE 2001
- Over 1,100 entries were received from 62 countries.
- an unprecedented level of support from the musical world (as demonstrated by the partners and level of judges).
- Participation of around 30 independent radio networks across Europe, the US, the Far East, and Russia - reaching an estimated 100 million people worldwide.
- Over 50,000 music lovers around the globe voted for their preferred piece by post and via the internet.
- The five finalists heard their works in a performance given by the London Symphony Orchestra at London's Barbican Centre on 10th October 2001 under Daniel Harding. Following the concert they received awards from HRH The Duchess of Kent.
- Jurors included Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Fedosteyew, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Thomas Hampson, John Harle, Jon Lord, Kent Nagano, Sir Charles Mackerras.
- Masterprize broke new ground with an education initiative that involved seven leading youth orchestras and over 500 young musicians. The programme aimed to generate interest in contemporary music amongst talented young musicians.
MASTERPRIZE PARTNERS
Classic FM
With 6.838 million listeners a week and more than 10 million listeners a month, Classic FM is the largest commercial radio station in the UK and the largest classical music station anywhere in the world. Launched on 7 September 1992, Classic FM is the flagship station of the GWR Group plc, the largest pure radio group in the UK. Roger Lewis, Managing Director and Programme Controller of Classic FM, was a founding director and trustee of Masterprize during his time as Managing Director of the classical division of EMI.
Classic FM Magazine
Classic FM Magazine is passionate about classical music and breaking down the barriers that surround it. Through familiar stars, attractive cover CDs, and lifestyle features that mix music and living, the magazine attracts ordinary people keen to connect with classical music. The magazine's watchword is 'inclusivity', an approach that has clearly struck a chord with thousands of new and experienced music lovers who over the past 12 months have helped grow sales of the magazine to record levels. Within six months of Haymarket Magazines assuming publication of Classic FM Magazine, the title posted an official ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) figure of 42,177, making it the best-selling classical music title on the news-stand. Now, as partners of Masterprize, the Classic FM Magazine looks forward to welcoming even more people to the world of classical music.
EMI
EMI Classics is a division of EMI Recorded Music and is the foremost and longest established classical music company in the world.
Based in the UK, EMI Classics is responsible for a worldwide business operating through EMI's companies and licensees in some 60 countries. EMI has enjoyed long recording relationships with many of the greatest artists of the 20th century including Maria Callas, Pablo Casals, Herbert von Karajan and Yehudi Menuhin. Artists currently under contract include Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Antonio Pappano, Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and the artist/composer Thomas Ades.
EMI Classic's involvement in Masterprize reflects the EMI Group's commitment both to music education and contemporary music.
Gramophone
Gramophone was founded 78 years ago by the novelist and writer Compton Mackenzie to respond to the relatively new medium, the gramophone recording. In nearly eight decades of existence Gramophone has secured and maintained its position as the most authoritative magazine on classical music on record in the world. Mackenzie's mission statement to obtain 'the finest opinions procurable' still stands and the magazine publishes some of the leading music critics in the English language. Ever keen to maintain its relevance and topicality, Gramophone has commented on the new innovations of its time: electrical recording, the LP, stereo, quadraphonics, digital recording, CD, SACD and DVD and in the coming months Gramophone will start to review streamed and downloadable music. Gramophone's annual Awards, which recently celebrated their 25th anniversary, are widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious of their kind, often referred to as 'the Oscars of classical music'. www.gramophone.co.uk, the magazine's web presence, which contains an archive of some 23,000 CD reviews, was last year voted No 1 classical music magazine site by Google.
London Symphony Orchestra
(Clive Gillinson, Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra)
The London Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1904, and was the UK's first independent, self-governing orchestra. It is now the resident orchestra at the Barbican in London, where it gives about 90 concerts per year. The Orchestra tours extensively, performing concerts to audiences all over the world and collaborating with artists of the highest calibre. The LSO is also noted for the extraordinary number of film soundtracks it has recorded, and for its award-winning education and community programme, LSO Discovery.
NPR
NPR®, renowned for journalistic excellence and standard-setting news, information and cultural programming, serves a growing audience of more than 16 million Americans each week via more than 640 public radio stations. NPR Online at www.npr.org brings hourly newscasts, news features, commentaries and live events to Internet users through original online reports, audio streaming and other multimedia elements. NPR also distributes programming to listeners in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa via NPR Worldwide, to military installations overseas via American Forces Network and throughout Japan via cable.
Masterprize Board of Management:
- John McLaren - Founder and Chairman
- Kevin Costello - Managing Director, Haymarket Publishing
- Mischa Damev - Conductor
- Clive Gillinson - Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra
- James Jolly - Editor, Gramophone
- Roger Lewis - Managing Director and Programme Controller, Classic FM
- The Hon. Richard Lyttelton - President, EMI Classics
- Benjamin K. Roe - Director of Music, NPR
- Lady Browne-Wilkinson - Pro Bono Legal Adviser