INTERNATIONAL

CALL FOR SCORES

ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS OCTOBER 1, 2024 - JANUARY 31, 2025

FACULTY INSTRUMENTATION

Write for any subset of three or more of our Nief-Norf Summer Festival 2025 faculty instrumentation, listed below!

  • Flute (full family)

  • Oboe / English Horn

  • Saxophone (full family)

  • Voice (G3 - G5)

  • Folk Voice (G3 - D5)

  • Violin

  • Violin / Viola

  • Violin / Viola

  • Cello

  • Piano

  • Percussion

    Please note that each bullet point reflects one faculty member!

PANELISTS

  • Vicki Leona Nguyen (b.1997 | she/her) is a NYC-based Vietnamese-American composer and multi-media artist. Her work explores the psycho-social - or rather the intangible relationships - between all of us, both within and outside of the bounds of music. Her current works and musical interests question the barriers of accessibility within performance and expand the definitions of what it means to listen vs. participate in music, with pieces ranging from classical notation to abstracted visual art to step-by-step written instructions. She also explores the complicated nature of language, a theme strongly influenced by her upbringing in a strict ‘mother-tongue’ household, through the use of field recordings in common social areas, manipulated speech and text, and fun linguistic quirks. Her aesthetics are deeply tied to her practice as a percussionist; extended techniques, sporadic interruptions, polyrhythmic layering, and maximalist textures can all be commonly heard in her repertoire.

    A Tennessee native, Vicki received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Music Composition while also completing her pre-medicine studies. She earned her Master of Music Composition at New York University studying with Julia Wolfe, Robert Honstein, Molly Joyce, Shelley Washington, and Michael Gordon.

    Outside of composition, Vicki loves photography, creating visual art, and feeding her loved ones the best food straight out of her Michelin-grade palms.

VICKI LEONA NGUYEN

  • Described as “stark” by WNPR, and “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times, an awardee of 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant, a winner of 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition, and a 2019 recipient of Opera America’s Discovery Grant and National Sawdust Hildegard Commission Award, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music has been commissioned and performed by Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic musicians, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, International Contemporary Ensemble, Camerata Pacifica, Library of Congress, Center for Contemporary Opera, National Sawdust, New Music USA, Shriver Hall, Forward Music Project, PUBLIQuartet, Loadbang Ensemble, Calidore String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Ensemble Connect at numerous festivals and venues including BBC Proms, Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Washington Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, and many more. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nilou is a strong advocate of music education. She currently teaches theory and composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College and Berklee College of Music. Nilou also regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.

    Nilou is a music graduate and a Global Citizen Scholarship recipient of Goucher College as well as a Mahoney and Caplan Scholar from University of Oxford. Among her teachers are Lisa Weiss, Kendall Kennison, Laura Kaminsky, Daniel Weymouth, Matthew Barnson, Margaret Schedel and Daria Semegen. She received a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University under the supervision of Sheila Silver.

NILOUFAR NOURBAKHSH

STRING QUARTET

Violin, violin, viola, cello
To be performed at SYNNERGY 2025 by the Formalist Quartet!

PANELISTS

KENNEDY DIXON

  • Kennedy Taylor Dixon is a composer, violist, and scholar currently residing in Princeton, New Jersey. Described as a “vibrant musical voice,” Dixon often writes for herself and is also passionate about collaborating with members in her musical community. Recent highlights of her career include recipient of Westminster College’s inaugural Hear and Now Emerging BIPOC Composer Commission (April 2023), Tetractys New Music: Here Be Monsters Commission (May 2023), New Music Gathering performer participant (June 2023), and Bang on a Can Composer Fellow (July 2023). Dixon has worked with numerous artists throughout her career, such as JACK Quartet, Sō Percussion, ~Nois, F-Plus, Boston Children’s Chorus, Parker Ramsey, Michael J. Love, and more. Dixon holds a MA in Music Composition in addition to her dual undergraduate degrees in Viola Performance and Music Composition from Western Michigan University. Dixon is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University as a President’s Fellow.

YAZ LANCASTER

  • Yaz Lancaster is a transdisciplinary artist residing in Harlem. Their work as a performer, composer, poet/writer, and organizer is grounded in queer, DIY, and liberatory frameworks. It utilizes fragmentation and collage; relational aesthetics; improvisatory forms; and experimental electroacoustic composition. Recent projects include collaborations with Andrew Noseworthy, Asia Stewart, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Eliza Bagg, International Contemporary Ensemble, Miss Grit, Sean Pecknold; and their ambient/noise duo medium. with gg200bpm. Yaz works as the co-manager of people places records, a director of abolitionist music collective Sound Off, and a freelance (music/arts) writer. They love powerlifting, horror, and summers down South.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

GENERAL INFORMATION

Each year, Nief-Norf’s International Call for Scores invites submissions of contemporary scores in a variety of rotating categories. One score from each category will be selected, rehearsed throughout the Summer Festival, and performed by performance fellows and festival faculty as part of a showcase at our SYNNERGY gathering..

Composers of the selected works will be invited to the Nief-Norf Summer Festival in the days leading up to the performance to coach and collaborate with performers in preparation for the Call for Scores Showcase Concert.

Composers must be 18 years of age or older by May 31, 2025.

APPLICATION FEE

  • Pay-what-you-can, with a
    minimum $5 and a suggested $15 amount per submission

  • Application fees directly support our panelist stipends, awards for selected composers, and production costs associated with the Call for Scores Showcase at NNSF25!

REQUIRED MATERIALS

  • Brief bio, two to three sentences

  • Score PDF(s)

  • Composition information (title, performance history if applicable, and program notes)

  • Duration of work

  • Recording of work (optional audio/video URLs)

SCORE SELECTION AWARD

  • $750 travel stipend with invitation to rehearsals and showcase concert at SYNNERGY 2025
    OR

  • $750 tuition scholarship to NNSF25

    OR

  • $500 award if the selected composer is not able to attend NNSF25

FAQS

  • No! While we would love to collaborate on a premiere, we deeply believe that the second performance of a piece is sometimes the most important.

  • We will consider any compositions written within the past 10 years.

  • Up to three! Please complete a separate submission for each one.

  • Yes! We are experienced and prepared to handle most technological requirements including amplification, video projections, click tracks, and interactive software. We will ask for collaboration from the composer upon selection, depending on the circumstances.

  • No — submissions can be any length!

  • We have access to one of the most extensive percussion equipment inventories in the country — please contact us if you have a specific instrument you'd like us to confirm! Standard concert/orchestral instruments (keyboards, timpani, bass drums, accessories, etc.) are most definitely available.

  • Yes!

  • We prefer Call for Scores submissions to be original works, however, please contact us if you're interested in submitting an arrangment!

  • No, but most of the winning composers since 2012 were previously unknown to us!

  • Please see the score selection awards above! Shortly after notifications are sent, we will ask that you send us digital score/parts, any electronic materials needed and reference materials if applicable.

  • You are welcome to submit, however, repeat winners will not be selected within the same three years.