Classical MPR’s third annual Minnesota Varsity showcases Minnesota’s best young classical musicians.
New this year, Classical MPR has partnered with the American Composers Forum on a composition category designed to highlight the state’s young composers. The program will accept submissions Oct. 22 through Jan. 9, 2013. Music students ages 14-18 (grades 9-12) from across the state are invited to recordings of themselves performing. The recordings don’t have to be professional quality and can be as simple as a smartphone recording.
Classical and music theater vocalists, instrumental soloists and small ensembles are all welcome to submit recordings. Performances can be solo or with a group, and can be up to 10 minutes in length. For the composition category, student composers are invited to submit an original score for flute, oboe, and clarinet, between 3 and 7 minutes in length.
Alumni of this program have been featured on NPR’s “From the Top,” won major competitions and studied at some of the best music schools in the country, according to Classical MPR. Minnesota Public Radio judges will choose 15 instrumental and vocal entrants for the Featured Round. Featured Round artists will be invited to MPR’s Maud Moon Weyerhaueser Studio in St. Paul for a professional recording session. These performances will be heard on Classical MPR, on air and online, during March 2013. Up to five composer entrants will be chosen for the Featured Round, where they will participate in a daylong workshop with composer Carol Barnett, have their works performed by Mill City Winds and receive assistance in polishing their compositions and presenting them to an audience.
In March, four of the Featured Round artists will be selected as Showcase Artists by a panel of celebrity judges and an online audience vote. Mill City Winds and the American Composers Forum will choose two Showcase Composers. The Showcase Artists will then perform on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul at 4 p.m. April 28, 2013, in a live radio broadcast. The Showcase Composers’ works will be premiered at the Fitzgerald Theater as part of the live broadcast. Admission is free and open to the public.
All rules and information for Minnesota Varsity are posted online at Classical MPR.
