For 25 years, Bagaduce Music has offered a Young Composers Competition and Festival, whereby music students state-wide submit their original compositions for professional judging and prizes, and come to Blue Hill to perform their entries. Winning composers have also been invited to perform their pieces at our annual Blue Hill Pops Concert. As with so many traditions, COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine our celebration and encouragement of musical excellence in our state. Instead, Bagaduce Music will offer a Free, Virtual Composition Workshop for students in grades 4-12 on Saturday, April 17th via the now-familiar Zoom platform.
There will be two workshops, based on grade level. Grades 4-8 will meet from 10:30am to 11:30am. Grades 9-12 will meet from 1:00pm to 2:30pm.
The workshops will be preceded at 10:00am by an inspiring address from renowned music educator and conductor, Michael Butterman of Colorado. He is widely recognized for his commitment to creative artistry, innovative programming, and to audience and community engagement. He serves as Music Director for the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, whom he has led to national prominence, resulting in an invitation to open the Kennedy Center’s inaugural SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras in 2017. He is also the Music Director of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, an orchestra uniquely focused on music education. He has recently completed a 19-year association with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as their Principal Conductor for Education and Community Engagement, and a 15-year tenure with the Jacksonville Symphony, first as Associate, and then as Resident Conductor.
The workshops will be led by Joshua Jandreau, composer, songwriter, recording artist who creates genre-bending multimedia art that reframes traditional thinking and fosters personal connections. A self-described “musical misfit and voyager of the human condition,” his music ranges from the traditional to the experimental. An active educator, Mr. Jandreau teaches piano in the greater Boston area, maintaining a private studio of 40 students. He has been awarded several grants for educational and community outreach, has partnered with charity organizations and led successful crowd-funding campaigns to donate instruments and music to schools, and is an active advocate for arts education, being selected as a guest speaker for the 2016 Arizona Music Educators Association Conference held in Phoenix, AZ.
Interested students are encouraged to upload a composition and register at www.bagaducemusic.org by April 9th, 2021 for your composition to be considered for use in the workshop. Both finished and unfinished pieces are welcome. Upon registration, you will receive a Zoom link for the workshop. It is not necessary to submit a composition in order to benefit from (or participate in) the workshop.
All forms of composition are welcome, including:
- Instrumental (Winds, Strings, Percussion)
- Vocal (Solo, Duet, Mixed Voices, SATB)
- Singer/Songwriter (Notation Not Required)
- Keyboard (Piano, Organ, etc.)
- Jazz (Full Chart, Lead Sheet, and/or Individual Parts)
- Contemporary (Mixed Instrumentation, Voicing, etc.)
Audio recordings are also allowed to be submitted alongside your score. MP3, M4A, and FLAC codecs are all acceptable formats.
Even though Bagaduce Music is unable to offer a Competition component to its Young Composers Festival this year, it hopes that Maine music students will take advantage of this free opportunity to share their compositions with professional musicians, learn new techniques, kickstart the creative process towards a 2022 submission to the Young Composers Competition and Festival, and perhaps improve their collaborative skills with fellow music students.
For more information or to register, go to www.bagaducemusic.org