Continuing the success of the Inaugural Young Composers Competition (YCC) of The PYO Music Institute (PYO), Maestro Louis Scaglione, the President and Music Director of PYO, is pleased to announce the second annual Young Composers Competition for the 2017-2018 season. This competition gives young, gifted composers, age 18 to 24, an opportunity to premiere his or her orchestral piece with the PYO Music Institute.

Composers born between September 1, 1993 and September 1, 1999, are invited to apply. The deadline for submission of scores is November 15, 2017. All scores submitted are not to have been professionally recorded, published, and not have any performance history of any kind. Works should be between five and twelve minutes in duration.

The winning composer will be selected collaboratively by Maestro Louis Scaglione, and the director of the Young Composers Competition, Sheridan Seyfried, who is a Philadelphia-based composer. The work will be performed at the 78th Annual PYO Festival Concert on Sunday, June 10, 2018 in Verizon Hall of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. The grand prize winner will receive a cash prize of $2,000. All details are available on the PYO website – www.pyos.org.

A PYO alumnus, Seyfried is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem. When asked about the success of the first year, Seyfried said, “We had a wonderful time collaborating with Alan Mackwell, last year’s YCC winner, in bringing his piece to life at Verizon Hall. We spent many hours dialoguing about composition, orchestration, parts preparation and formatting. It resulted in a high-quality recording of the piece that Alan can add to his portfolio. It’s an honor to be a part of such a worthwhile program. PYO offers an invaluable opportunity for young composers to take their craft to the next level.”

There are additional prizes for the second place and third place winners. The second-place winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000.  The third-place winner will receive a cash prize of $500.

Submissions should be made electronically as an e-mail to YCC@pyos.org and should contain the following information:

  1. Composer’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail address
  2. Composer’s age (required), country of citizenship and gender (optional)
  3. Composer’s current school with address and phone number
  4. Resume and bio
  5. A cover letter and/or statement explaining the composer’s work is optional