Composer INC.
Now Accepting Applications for January 2024!
About Composer INC.
What does INC. stand for? It stands for Inclusivity, creating space for those who have historically been underrepresented on the traditional concert stage.
Secondly, it stands for Incubator - a safe space that will allow you the opportunity to explore your compositional voice in a professional and supportive environment.
Over the course of Composer INC., participants will work individually with an acclaimed composer mentor over a period of six months, participate in professional development sessions with industry professionals, and workshop their Incubator piece with a supportive professional ensemble.
Our ultimate goal for the outcome of the program is for each participant to find and express their authentic voice as a composer, benefit from the real-world experience of their mentors, gain valuable and practical professional development tools, and come away with quality materials and recordings to add to their professional portfolio. This program will culminate in a Composer Showcase performance on June 20th, 2024 at the Orpheum Annex in Vancouver, BC, featuring pieces created within the Composer INC. programs, performed by members of the Allegra Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Janna Sailor.
Who should apply?
Due to the historical inequities present in classical music, this is a program tailored to and created for self-identifying female, minority, and other-abled composers.
Due to the funding structure of this program, it is only open to candidates who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
This program is open to composers of any age.
Candidates should be open to feedback, guidance, and input on their compositions in order to benefit from the program.
Successful candidates should be available and prepared to work on a new composition under the supervision of their mentor from January 2024-June 1st, 2024.
Candidates should be available (either in person or virtually) to workshop their compositions in Vancouver with the Allegra Composer Incubator Ensemble and conductor Janna Sailor between June 17-19th 2024, and selected works will be featured on the Composer Showcase June 20th, 2024 at the Orpheum Annex.
Program and Application Guidelines:
It is expected that the primary focus of the one-on-one coaching will be the completion of the project piece, however, if time (and the mentor) allows, other materials may be worked on during the coaching time as well.
Any and all compositional mediums will be considered and can be included as part of this project. We do ask that submitted score materials be created using a software program (no handwritten score materials please).
Participants will have access to the conductor and orchestral musicians as required throughout the composition process to ask instrument-specific questions.
If a selected participant does not demonstrate adequate commitment and interest throughout the project, their spot may be re-allocated to another candidate.
There are no applicant or participant fees, selected participants are fully sponsored by the Composer INC. program presented by the Allegra Chamber Orchestra. Travel and accommodations in Vancouver for the workshop and performance are at the composer’s own expense. Arrangements will be made for the composers to workshop their pieces virtually in the event that they cannot be physically present.
Completed compositions should be between 10-12 minutes in length and instrumentation as specified at the time of acceptance to the program.
In addition to the workshop experience, participants will have the chance to participate and take part in events such as career development and instrument-specific workshops.
Participants will receive one-on-one coaching each month with their mentor during the program. This is up to the participant and the mentor to arrange these meetings, either in person or virtually.
The monthly check-ins with mentors will provide constructive feedback, ensure deadlines are being met (simulating deadlines of a professional commission), and offer advice/guidance in a collegial manner.
While the mentors will provide insight and expertise, it is up to the participants to ensure they are meeting the deadlines and making good use of the time/resources allotted to them to ensure their materials are prepared prior to the June workshop and performance deadlines.
Click HERE to access the application form
Accepting responses until Dec. 18th, 2023 at 11:59pm PST
Questions about your application? Email us at info@allegrachamberorchestra.com
Past Participants and Mentors
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Alice Ping Yee Ho
Composer Mentor 2021 and 2024
One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong-born Alice Ping Yee Ho has written in many musical genres and received many awards including the 2022 Symphony Nova Scotia’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, 2022 Barlow Endowment General Commission, 2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 2016 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, 2014 Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition, and 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award for her opera “Lesson of Da Ji “.
Critics have called her music dramatic and graceful, while praising its “organic flow of imagination,” “distinctly individual” style", "colourful orchestration", and "emotive qualities".
Her works have been performed by the Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Victoria Symphonies; the Finnish Lapland Chamber Orchestra, China National Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Luxembourg Sinfonietta, and the Polish Radio Choir.
A twice JUNO Award Nominee, she has an impressive discography released on the Centrediscs, Naxos, Marquis Classics, Blue Griffin, Electra, Leaf Music, and Phoenix labels. Besides “A Woman’s Voice”, her 2022 releases including “Blaze”(Centrediscs), a solo piano album featuring acclaimed Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico; and the full-length recording of her new opera CHINATOWN, commissioned by City Opera Vancouver with librettist Madeleine Thien in September, 2023.
My Compositional Approach:
As a composer, it is important for me to create music that looks deeper into humanity; to reflect on, inspire, educate, as well as incite challenges to the mind of the listeners. My ongoing pursuit is to collaborate with performers to explore different art forms and cultures, discovering new mediums and musical styles that are provocative to the ears.
A lot of my recent compositions are inspired by or thematically related to our Canadian history and global environmental issues. It is also important for me to update my creation process with new mediums and technology. Through my works, I hope to continue to pay tribute to society and give the audience something special in return.
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Mari Alice Conrad
Composer INC. participant 2021
is an emerging, award-winning composer currently finishing her BMus in Composition in Edmonton, Alberta with Dr. Emilie LeBel and Kent Sangster. For fifteen years she was active in classical piano pedagogy, accompanying, and community programming and has recently devoted time to hone her compositional skills. She actively seeks opportunities to develop her compositional capacities and has participated in enriching programs offered by the Canadian Music Centre and Babɛl Choral Composer Mentorship Program in Toronto, Canada, and the Standing Wave Ensemble, of Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to formal undergraduate studies, she received associateships and diplomas in piano performance, accompanying, and teaching from the Victoria Conservatory of Music and Camosun College and holds an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music. She is a registered music teacher, a member of the Kodaly Society of Canada (Level I certification), and a committee member of the Contemporary Showcase Music Festival in Edmonton, Alberta. Her scope of musical skill and passion for mentoring young musicians has presented opportunities to conduct and develop inclusive and impactful community music programs. With her life perspective, authenticity, open mind, and desire to learn, she brings enthusiasm and depth to her compositional practice. Mari Alice will be attending graduate studies in composition at the University of Alberta in the fall of 2021.
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Sasha Kow
Composer INC. participant 2021
is a Malaysian composer currently based on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil- Waututh peoples. She obtained a BMus in Music Composition from the University of Oregon and is now in the 2nd year of her graduate degree in Music Composition at the University of British Columbia. Her music has been performed at the Eugene Concerts at First series, Oregon Bach Festival, Oregon Composers Forum, and the Music Today Festival. Her most recent work was premiered at the West Coast Student Composers’ Symposium by UBC’s Contemporary Players. Her involvement with The Score Research Cluster has encouraged her to diversify her approach to writing music and hearing sound as a whole. Her music is inspired by the desire to understand processes, especially how things come to be. She draws from a variety of human experiences surrounding emotional states, memories, belonging, and even food. She also strives to understand where and how her background and upbringing fit into the Western world of contemporary art music. In the future, she hopes to see more representation of minority BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ artists throughout the arts and hopes to provide access to the arts across all social classes in her home country, Malaysia.
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Holly Winter
Composer INC. participant 2021
known for her bold approach to aesthetics and expertly crafted electronics. Her diverse artistic background is evident in her works, which implement visual art, theatrics, creative writing and improvisation. Her scores are colourful works that inspire the eye as well as the ear. Her current compositional fascination is with colour, metaphor and exploring how sound contexts can transform meaning. Holly grew up in Halifax, NS and is currently based in St. John’s, NL. Her work has been played across Canada, notably at the 21st Century Guitar Conference in Ottawa, The Newfound Music Festival, The Tuckamore Music Festival and as part of Continuum’s HATCH program. Her work Violence which explores frustrations surrounding the treatment of victims of sexual violence was recently recorded on Canadian Guitarist Ben Diamond Debut CD Prime. Her work for chamber ensemble and electronics nothing to do with explosions was recently featured on the YouTube channel ScoreFollower. Upcoming commissions include a work for percussionist Beverly Johnston and performances at Sound Symposium. Holly holds a B.Mus from Memorial University (St. John’s, NL) and a B.A. from the University King’s College (Halifax, NS). She is currently working toward a M.Mus from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC). She has studied composition under Andrew Staniland, Jocelyn Morlock, and Dorothy Chang.
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Rodney Sharman
Composer Mentor 2021 and 2024
Rodney Sharman lives on traditional Musqueam territory in Vancouver, Canada. He is the Victoria Symphony's Composer-Mentor-in-Residence, and has been Composer-in-Residence of Early Music Vancouver’s “New Music for Old Instruments”, the Victoria Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Composer-Host of Calgary Philharmonic’s Festival, "Hear and Now". In addition to concert music, Sharman writes for cabaret, opera and dance. He sings, conducts, plays recorders and flutes. Sharman was awarded First Prize in the CBC Competition for Young Composers, Kranichsteiner Music Prize (Darmstadt), Dora Mavor Moore Award (Toronto), and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
How I Teach Music Composition:
I teach compositional technique in all its aspects, helping students bridge the gap between their imagination and technique, assisting artistic growth without getting in the way of finding their personal voice.
My Approach to Composing:
I am a sensualist, and my music reflects my love of instruments and voices. Often ideas come from the acoustical properties of the instruments themselves; I allow the music to radiate from the soundsource outwards, blurring distinctions between harmony and timbre. Other work transforms historical western music through colour, layering, elongation, fragmentation, distillation, and distortion, taking the original as a point of artistic departure. In music for incorporating spoken or sung text, my goal is to halo and frame the words so that text and subtext is enhanced, illuminated.
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Rita Ueda
Composer Mentor 2024
Rita Ueda is a Canadian composer based in Vancouver, the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Applauded as a composer whose ‘poetic is often very delicate and introspective…’ (Guido Barbieri, Warner Classics), her works inspire contemplation and dialogue between cultures in flux. Notable recent works include “as the first spring blossoms awaken through the snow” (2021), “let us not be the reason why someone out there is praying for peace” (2020), “forty years of snowfall will not heal an ancient forest” (2010), and “Birds Calling… From the Canada in You” (2022), described as “… fresh, thoroughly Canadian, and breathtakingly original.” (James Imam, Musical America Worldwide).
Winner of the 2022 Jules Léger Prize for New Canadian Chamber Music, 2022 Azrieli Prize in Canadian Music and the 2014 Penderecki International Composers’ Competition, Ms Ueda has premiered works with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest MAV Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Modern, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore). Since 2012, she has been creating intercultural collaborations with the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, BC Chinese Music Ensemble, Allegra Chamber Orchestra, and the Turning Point Ensemble. Her chamber opera, “One Thousand White Paper Cranes for Japan” (2012) has been performed in 6 countries over Europe, North America, and Asia. Her latest intercultural chamber opera, “I Have My Mother’s Eyes: a Holocaust Memoir Across Generations” featuring musicians from Japan and Canada will premiere with the Chutzpah! Festival (Vancouver) in November 2023.
Ms Ueda holds degrees from Simon Fraser University and the California Institute for the Arts. Her teachers include Rudolf Komorous, Rodney Sharman, David Rosenboom, Wadada Leo Smith, and Morton Subotnick. Her latest recordings are I Solisti Della Scalla – Octets (Warner Classics) and Il Viaggio di Dante (Stingray Classica).
My Compositional Approach:
My current compositional approach is about collective discovery, community building, and respectful intercultural dialogue. I seek virtuosity of communication in both my collaborators and myself. Through my projects, I hope to create a safe environment where we can explore and discuss important issues that are relevant today. This often calls for scores that involve aleatoric procedures, graphic notation, immersive performance space, and movement. Past ACO collaborations have led the orchestra to imitate melting ice, engage in orchestral improv, and drop 1,200 table tennis balls from the ceiling of the Orpheum Annex. These novel procedures were not performed just for the sake of experimenting with something new. I hope to foster important conversations and to tell positive stories that inspire us to create change for a better world.
