International Composers Competition Opava cantat 2014

Competition Aims:
The organizers set themselves the task of initiating and supporting creation of new works which would be distinctive in composition and accessible for interpretation and which would be of benefit for the repertoire of non‑professional choirs.

Competition Rules:

Art. 1
Composers, without any age and/or nationality limitations, may enter into the competition with their compositions for youth choirs, with singers aged between 13 and 19 years (mixed, all-girls choirs, man choirs), written on a text of their choice – preferably in Czech, Slovak or Latin language – or alternatively in other language.
All texts, submitted in languages which use other than Roman alphabet, should be underlaid with phonetic transcription in the Roman alphabet (including the names of the authors of both lyrics and music) and accompanied with a rough translation into Czech or English language.

Art. 2
We recommend to apply the compositions for women, men and mixed cast, mixed choires as four-part (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), for women choirs as four-part (soprano I., soprano II., alto I., alto II.) or three-part (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto); for men choirs as four-part (tenore I., tenore II., bass I., bass II.) or free-part (tenore, baritone, bass);  compositions (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass), for women and all-girls choirs as four-part (soprano I., soprano II., alto I., alto II.); those parts should not be further divided. Recommended range in individual voices, taking into account the age singers, is – soprano (maximum pitch g2), alto (minimum pitch g), tenore (maximum pitch e1), bass (minimum pitch G).
The applied composition should be a cappella with the use of percussion, based principally on singing, with the use of other means of expression or spoken words.
The individual composition should be 2 – 4 minutes in length.

Art. 3
Each composer can enter into the competition with only one composition for each cast type which has never been awarded in any competition nor commercially published (i.e. up to 3 compositions in total).

Art. 4
Each composition should be sent in three copies (easy legible manuscripts, their copies or computer printouts) to the address: Mgr. Barbora Novotna, Narodni informacni a poradenske stredisko pro kulturu (NIPOS), Blanicka 4, P. O. Box 12, 120 21 Praha 2, Czech Republic. Demo recordings are appreciated.

Art. 5
The composition should be sent to the organizer of the Competition till 20th Septembre 2013 (postage stamp date is the deciding factor).

Art. 6
The competition is anonymous.
Each composition should be marked by code-name only. Sheet of paper with the data about the composer (name and address, both mail and e-mail and possible other contact data) should be enclosed in a sealed envelope marked by the same code-name.

Art. 7
The manuscripts, copies and printouts shall remain in the possession of the competition organizers. By entering into the competition the author confirms his/her permission with the reproduction of his/her composition for the purpose of the potential presentation and with possible non-commercial publishing for NIPOS.

Art. 8
Any failure to meet any of the requirements mentioned in Articles 1 to 7 results in the composition refusal from the competition.

Art. 9
The winning compositions will be performed during one of the future seasons of Opava cantat in Opava and will be published by NIPOS. 

Art. 10
The accurate and complete terms and conditions of the competition in Czech and English are for your disposal on the website of NIPOS (www.nipos-mk.cz). In case of any doubts or ambiguity of their interpretation, the decisive version is Czech.

Art. 11.
The results of the competition will be officially announced at the 5th Opava cantat, which will be held from 14. to 17. 11. 2013 in Opava.
Contact address: Mgr. Barbora Novotna, Narodni informacni a poradenske stredisko pro kulturu (NIPOS), Blanicka 4, P. O. BOX 12, 120 21 Praha 2
E-mail: bnovotna@nipos-mk.cz