Calling all composers!
Media Press, Inc. is holding its 2nd Solo Percussion Composition Contest! Composers are invited to submit a solo snare drum work that is not already published or recorded.
We are accepting pdf submissions only at this time. Evaluation of pieces will be blind, so please do not include identifying information anywhere on your submission. To enter, purchase the digital "2022 Contest Submission" item on our website and follow the directions for submission.
Music submissions are accepted from April 1st, 2022 – January 31st, 2023. Winner will be announced March 2023.
Application Fee: Pay what you can ($15.00 USD suggested). Please send fee via PayPal to mediapressmusic@gmail.com.
In addition, we believe our musical community is enriched and enhanced by diversity amongst a number of dimensions including race, ethnicity and national origins, gender and gender identity, sexuality, class, and religion. We are especially committed to increasing the representation of those populations that have been historically underrepresented in “classical” composition. All compositions will be given complete and careful consideration.
Prizes:
1st Place: $150; publication of your piece by Media Press; 10 printed copies of your piece; a standard composer contract with Media Press, Inc.; a featured spot on the Media Press website; promotion through Media Press social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram); video performance of your piece by Media Press co-owner Joseph Van Hassel on YouTube; professional recording of piece to be released on upcoming solo CD project by Joseph Van Hassel. Your piece will also be sent to Percussive Notes for review.
2nd Place: $75; publication of your piece by Media Press; 8 printed copies of your piece; a standard composer contract with Media Press, Inc.; a featured spot on the Media Press website; promotion through Media Press social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram); video performance of your piece by Media Press co-owner Joseph Van Hassel on YouTube. Your piece will also be sent to Percussive Notes for review.
3rd Place: $50; publication of your piece by Media Press; 5 printed copies of your piece; a standard composer contract with Media Press, Inc.; a featured spot on the Media Press website; promotion through Media Press social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram); video performance of your piece by Media Press co-owner Joseph Van Hassel on YouTube. Your piece will also be sent to Percussive Notes for review.
Competition Judges:
Jonathan Bisesi
Jonathan Bisesi has held the position of percussionist with the “President’s Own” United States Marine Band since May 2004. Currently he is on the percussion faculties at George Mason University School of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Previously held positions were with the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College from 2013–2015, Boston University’s percussion faculty from 2002–2004, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute from 2002–2003. In 2020, he cofounded and was a clinician for the Dragonfly Online Percussion Experience.
Bisesi has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Ballet, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center opera and ballet orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. His signature xylophone mallets from Dragonfly Percussion were released in 2018.
As a composer, arranger, and children’s book author, his works are published by Meredith Music, Pocket Publications, and AcuteByDesign. THEN/NOW, his debut solo percussion album, released in March 2021.
In 2020, he cofounded the Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion (NDCP), where he serves as secretary of the Board of Directors. The NDCP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the concert percussion community.
He received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music from Boston University, and was a fellow of the Pacific Music Festival (2000) and the Tanglewood Music Center (2001).
Brittany J. Green
Brittany J. Green is a North Carolina-based composer, creative, and educator. Described as “cinematic in the best sense” and “searing” (Chicago Classical Review), Brittany’s music works to facilitate collaborative, intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses. The intersections between sound, video, movement, and text serves as the focal point of these musical spaces, often questioning and redefining the relationships between these three elements. Recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems.
Brittany’s research and creative interests includes contextualizing the work of Julius Eastman through the lens of queer and critical race theory, mapping aural gestures to gestural recognition technology, and exploring virtual reality platforms as a tool for experiencing immersive, intimate musical moments. Her music has been featured at concerts and festivals throughout the United States, including the Boulanger Initiative’s WoCo Fest, the Society of Composers National Conference, New York City Electronic Music Festival, SPLICE Institute, and Experimental Sound Studio. She has presented research at the North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference, East Carolina University’s Research and Creative Arts Week, and the Darkwater Women in Music Festival. In 2018-2019, Brittany served as composer-in-residence for Pitt County Schools and East Carolina University’s Young Composers Project, working with K-5 students in Greenville, NC to compose acoustic music, explore music making through computer programming with Max/MSP, and record electronic music using digital audio workstations. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the JACK Quartet (Inaugural JACK Studio Artist), Mind on Fire, Transient Canvas, and Elizabeth A. Baker. Current projects include an artist residency with TimeSlips and Black Echoes//Brick Ripples, an audio-visual interactive installation created in collaboration with media artist Kate Alexandrite.
Brittany’s music has been awarded the ASCAP Foundation’s Morton Gould Award (2021), New Music USA’s Creator Development Grant (2021), and Rebel 60’s 1st Place Music Award (2018). She holds a BM in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and a MM in Music Composition and Theory from East Carolina University. She is currently in residence at Duke University, pursuing a Ph.D in Music Composition as a Deans Graduate Fellow.