Submissions Now Being Accepted for the 2012 AGBU Sayat Nova International Composition Competition

Competition Offers Emerging Artists Financial Support and International Exposure

Musicians around the world are now being invited to participate in the AGBU Sayat Nova International Composition Competition for the chance to win up to 2,500€ and showcase their work under an international spotlight.

The Sayat Nova International Composition Competition, now in its second edition, has three main objectives: to discover new talent, provide emerging artists with financial support, and record and distribute their work to a broad audience. For composers, it presents the perfect opportunity to raise their profile while paying tribute to the celebrated troubadour.

The 2012 Sayat Nova International Composition Competition, which marks the 300-year anniversary of the birth of the composer, is calling for submissions from young musicians in every corner of the globe. Participants need not be of Armenian descent; submissions from all artists who are interested in creating Armenian-influenced music are being considered. As Christian Erbslöh-Papazian, a pianist and musicologist who initiated the competition comments, "As an artist, blending classical music, which has mostly been documented on paper, with traditional music, which has long been transmitted orally, is most difficult, yet incredibly rewarding. By utilizing both the classical and the traditional, we can create the musical heritage of tomorrow." To that end, participants are asked to create a composition for a chamber ensemble that incorporates six instruments, including the duduk, the traditional woodwind instrument that can be traced back centuries in Armenian culture. Submitted work must also contain one quotation, spoken or sung, from a text of Sayat Nova in Armenian or translated into a Western language (i.e. English, German, French, Italian, Spanish or Russian). The winning pieces will be recorded and produced at a special concert on the occasion of the tercentenary of the birth of Sayat Nova, an anniversary celebration with which UNESCO is associated. The concert will be held at the prestigious Parisian venue Salle Cortot in December 2012.

When the competition was first introduced in 2006, it proved to be a laboratory of creativity that helped launch the career of its winners. Numerous submissions were received, and each was reviewed anonymously by a panel of anonymous expert judges, which included internationally renowned figures in the field of music and composition. The third prize was awarded to Argentinian composer Hernan Dario Palmieri, second place to Grégoire Lorieux, a native of France, and the winner was Armenian-born Artur Akshelyan. Since then, each has risen to new heights in their respective careers, carving a space for themselves in the international music scene and attracting a diverse body of listeners. Building on his experience with the AGBU competition, Palmieri went on to receive prizes in the Galperin Iascha Composition Competition (Argentina, 2007) and the Gustav Mahler Kompositionspreis Competition (Austria, 2007), while Lorieux is now teaching at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), one of the world's most important research centers dedicated to musical creation and scientific research. For his part, Akshelyan saw his winning piece, the string quartet "Im Memoriam," performed at the AGBU 2006 centennial celebrations in Paris before he continued to receive numerous international honors including first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition (2011) and the Kiefer-Hablitzel Composition Award (Bern, 2012).

This year's participants will have the opportunity to follow in each of those winners' footsteps and establish themselves on the international stage.

The deadline for submission is no later than September 1, 2012.
Participants will be considered for three prizes of 2,500€, 1,500€ and 1,000€.

For more information and a complete list of rules and regulations, please visit http://sayatnova.agbueurope.org or email Zarouhi Odabashian at zodabashian@agbueurope.org.