Cortona Contemporary Music Festival

The Cortona Contemporary Music Festival offers composers the opportunity to coach musicians in the performance of their music. Coachings are mentored by faculty performers and composers, with all sessions open to festival participants. In addition to private lessons with composition faculty, composers will also participate in the Colloquium, a daily forum featuring the music of your festival colleagues. Daily workshops discuss performance techniques, idiomatic writing, various repertoires, career planning, and networking. Evening concerts feature faculty and distinguished guest artists, with final performances of the festival highlighting your music. Cortona fosters life-long alliances with composers and musicians from around the world.

The program is primarily orientated toward undergraduate and graduate university students who are currently enrolled in a composition-degree program. In order to receive a performance at the festival, applicants must submit two works. (1) a work of any instrumentation and length; this will be used to evaluate your application in consideration for a scholarship award. Works with prior performance history accepted. (2) a previously unperformed work for any solo or chamber arrangement of piano, flute, violin, or guitar for performance at the 2007 festival. If possible, a CD recording (midi realizations accepted) of these works should also be included. Works utilizing electronic media are also welcome.

The festival will also consider pieces for possible performance by composers in more advanced stages of their careers. See Call for Scores. Composers whose work is selected for performance at the festival are strongly encouraged to attend the performance. Composers at this level may attend for a special 5-day rate, or attend for the complete 10 day period.