Young Composers’ Competition
Young Composers' Competition
The competition is open to all composers of any nationality under the age of 35 to have their work performed by the Golden State Youth Orchestra (GSYO) along with prize money.
Who Are We?
More than 450 K-12 students from over 100 schools from San Francisco to Santa Cruz train and perform in four orchestras and two ensembles, led by the award-winning, internationally recognized Symphony Orchestra. Concerts, tours, retreats, summer workshops, masterclasses and music festivals form a vital part of the GSYO experience, creating opportunities for youth at all levels of musical development to grow socially and artistically while participating in the Bay Area’s foremost instrumental training and education program.
Prizes:
- 1st Prize – US$1,000, Performance of the work during the 2027-2028 season by Symphony Orchestra, top orchestra at GSYO including professional audio recording of the concert performance
- 2nd Prize – US$500
- 3rd Prize – US $250
All composers of any career status, nationality, or demographic group under the age of 35 are encouraged to apply. Works will be considered based on their composition quality and appropriateness for GSYO and its audience.
The two video recordings below are reflective of GSYO’s playing level of recently composed works:
Jonathan Shin’s Night Bazaar (2019) ; Anna Clyne’s Masquerade (2013)
Commissioning new works is extremely important for any orchestra. Symphony orchestras can very easily fall into the habit of regurgitating masterworks of great composers from the past, for a good reason. However, composers are at the frontier of progress in Classical Music and if they do not write, we will not have the music of tomorrow. The purpose of this competition is to encourage more new music to be written and performed.
After a very successful first edition, in which we received more than 90 applications, we are thrilled to bring the competition back for its second edition! Since the first edition, we have performed 1st prize winner Jordan Jinosko’s Tales from the Aviary in California and taken it on tour across Europe, with performances in Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. I also selected composer Adrian Sterk’s vibrant and youthful Adventure of a Lifetime for a performance with our associate orchestra, the Camilla Kolchinsky Orchestra. Coming up this October, we will perform 2nd prize winner Jacob Harrison’s California Contrasts. I am incredibly grateful for the high caliber of applications we received in the first edition and for the opportunity to bring several of these outstanding works to life. I look forward to receiving your application for this exciting second edition!
Music Director & Conductor
Jury
Yun Song Tay
Music Director & Conductor
Emily Koh
Associate Professor of Composition, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia
Tito Muñoz
Interim Principal Conductor, Cleveland Institute of Music
REQUIREMENTS
- Applicants must be born on or after January 1, 1992.
- Works must be between 6-12 minutes.
- Previous commissions by community orchestra or composition projects in music schools are allowed. However, works that have been publicly performed by a professional orchestra are not allowed.
- The work must not have been commercially recorded.
- Work must be written for a full symphony orchestra. Maximum instrumentation (3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.1 – strings – hp.pf – 5 perc). Composers are encouraged to fully utilize this instrumentation but not necessarily all of them. Auxiliary woodwind instruments such as piccolo, alto flute, e-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, english horn, and contrabassoon are available.
- No chorus or concerto/vocal soloists.
- No arrangements.
- No staged elements (e.g. operas, ballets).
- Works with multimedia (e.g. video, electronics) are acceptable. But technical requirements must be sent along with submission. Upon the discretion of GSYO, performance may or may not include multimedia elements.
- All materials must be submitted online – no mail submissions, in whole or part.
TO APPLY
- PDF Score of the complete work in its complete orchestration (no short scores or reductions)
- Do not include your name in the full score during submission
- MIDI recording of the work
- Program notes of the work
- If the composer is under the age of 18 by the time of the dateline, the form must be completed by a parent or legal guardian
- Photocopy of Passport/ID may be requested if applicant is a finalist
- $50 application fee/$25 student discount-show proof of school attendance in application form (If the application fee will cause an undue financial burden, please fill out the applicable fields in the form prior to submitting.)
Deadline to apply: April 30, 2027, 5pm (PDT).
Late applications will not be accepted.
Past Winners
Thank you to every composer who took part in the 2024-2025 Golden State Youth Orchestra Composers' Competition!