ACTIVATE : Young Com­po­ser Pro­gram is an adju­di­ca­ted com­po­si­tion pro­gram pre­sen­ted by The Alliance for Cana­dian New Music Pro­jects (ACNMP) and Cana­dian Music Centre (CMC).

ACTIVATE is an ear­ly entry point for young artists (25 years of age or youn­ger) explo­ring com­po­si­tion and sound : in par­ti­cu­lar those who are not working/studying in a pro­fes­sio­nal context, and would the­re­fore want to access dif­ferent forms of men­tor­ship and oppor­tu­ni­ties to hear their music per­for­med by pro­fes­sio­nal musi­cians. ACTIVATE par­ti­ci­pants will gain new skills, and have oppor­tu­ni­ties to connect with a peer group from across Canada.

The 2020 edi­tion fea­tu­red adju­di­ca­tor and com­po­ser men­tor Anna Höst­man as well as vio­li­nist and com­po­ser Aline Homzy.

Sub­mis­sion Criteria :

• All appli­ca­tions were sub­mit­ted through an online form (along with the score and sound file of the sub­mit­ted work)
• Adju­di­ca­ted pieces could be in any medium (for any ins­tru­men­ta­tion, inclu­ding elec­tro­nics), and have a dura­tion from 2 to 10 minutes
• To be consi­de­red for the rea­ding ses­sion, com­po­sers were requi­red to sub­mit solo or duo works, or fixed elec­tro­nic pieces for ste­reo play­back, that meet the dura­tion cri­te­ria. If a piece is writ­ten for solo or duo ins­tru­ments with fixed elec­tro­nics (ste­reo play­back) it will be consi­de­red for the reading.

Pro­gram Experience :

Adju­di­ca­ted com­po­si­tion class :

• Each com­po­ser recei­ved a short writ­ten adju­di­ca­tion from Anna Höst­man or Aline Hom­zy in res­ponse to a sub­mit­ted piece of music (addres­sing tech­ni­cal and artis­tic aspects of the work, with some recom­men­da­tions for fur­ther deve­lop­ment in each young composer’s practice)
• Adju­di­ca­tor com­ments pro­vi­ded a balance of encouraging/positive remarks, with construc­tive feed­back regar­ding tech­ni­cal and com­po­si­tio­nal mat­ters. In par­ti­cu­lar, adju­di­ca­tors were encou­ra­ged to direct com­po­sers towards lis­te­ning or score samples from contem­po­ra­ry com­po­sers active today.

Rea­ding ses­sion with guest musicians :

• Anna Höst­man, along with ACNMP and CMC orga­ni­zers, will select up to six (6) of the adju­di­ca­ted works to be inclu­ded in a pro­fes­sio­nal rea­ding ses­sion with guest musi­cians per­for­ming the works.
• Com­po­sers would access the rea­ding ses­sion remo­te­ly using an unlis­ted lives­tream link, and a video confe­ren­cing appli­ca­tion to faci­li­tate real-time interaction.
• Com­po­sers selec­ted for the rea­ding ses­sion will receive a pro­fes­sio­nal audio recor­ding for per­so­nal reference
• Eve­ry appli­cant from the adju­di­ca­tion stage will be invi­ted to audit the rea­ding session.
• There will be an oppor­tu­ni­ty for par­ti­ci­pa­ting com­po­sers and those audi­ting to dis­cuss their music

*If you are inter­es­ted in sub­mit­ting a com­po­si­tion to our next ACTIVATE pro­gram, here are a few tips from Anna on how to get started :

• begin in one scale and gra­dual­ly move to a dif­ferent scale by the end of the piece
• create a piece through com­bi­ning two scales ‑one to be played in low regis­ter 1st octave, the second to be added above in the 2nd octave
• com­pose a canon
• com­pose using a single pitch
• create a rhythm com­po­si­tion where pitch is inde­ter­mi­nate (left up to the players)
• find any kind of noise-maker (or seve­ral) and make a duet for noise-maker(s) and ins­tru­ment (eg. egg bea­ter & clarinet)
• ask an ins­tru­men­ta­list or sin­ger to show you a few exten­ded tech­niques and include one or two in your piece