THE SIBELIUS FESTIVAL’S NURSERY GARDEN

In the autumn of 2020 the Lahti Symphony Orchestra is organizing a new type of concert including the first performances of five new orchestral works. Is your composition one of them? The mentors will be Lotta Wennäkoski, Perttu Haapanen, Riikka Talvitie, Sebastian Fagerlund and Matthew Whittall.

We are looking for applicants who live in Finland and are at the beginning of their composing careers, and who will be mentored by five composers who have already attained prominence. During the spring of 2020 each successful applicant will receive ten hours of mentoring and compose a work for symphony orchestra, maximum 10 minutes in length. The mentors will be Lotta Wennäkoski, Perttu Haapanen, Riikka Talvitie, Sebastian Fagerlund and Matthew Whittall. Selection will be made on the basis of applications and composition samples. The works will be performed at a concert by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in the Felix Krohn Hall on 17 September 2020, under the baton of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

No fee or material hire will be paid for the performance, but the usual payment will be made according to standard TEOSTO practice. In addition, professionals from our partner organizations, the music publisher Fennica Gehrman and Society of Finnish Music Engravers will advise the composers on notation technique and the preparation of performance material.

HOW TO APPLY
Send your application to maija.kylkilahti@lahti.fi no later than 30 November 2019. Your application can take any form but must contain the following information:

Name
Date of birth
E-mail address
Phone number
Home town
Short description of composition studies to date / CV
Composition samples as pdf files, optionally with links to sound files (max. 3 samples)
If you wish, you may also provide a short description of your idea for the piece that you will write (not compulsory).

Applications arriving after the closing date will not be considered.

SCHEDULE
30.11.2019 deadline for applications
15.1.2020 deadline for choosing the successful applicants
1.2.–30.4.2020 meetings with mentors (10 hours)
30.4.2020 deadline for delivering the score (instrumentation max. 2222/2221/2 perc/Str 10-8-6-5-4)
30.5.2020 deadline for delivering the parts
14.–16.9.2020 rehearsals at the Felix Krohn Hall with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra
17.9.2020 at 7 pm, CONCERT, at which the works will be performed, videos will be shown and the composers and their respective mentors will be interviewed.

By sending your application you consent to adhere to the timetable given above. The composition must be written (or at least the ideas and music developed) for this specific project. Meetings with the mentors will take place in Helsinki and successful applicants will travel to these meetings at their own cost.

At this time each composer and mentor will make a short video (approx. 1–2 minutes) that will be shown at the concert before the work is performed. These videos will also be used for advance promotion for the concert.

DECISION
On the basis of the applications and the submitted composition samples, the mentors themselves will decide which candidate they will work with. We shall inform all applicants of the decisions no later than 15th January 2020.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Maija Kylkilahti
Deputy General Manager
maija.kylkilahti@lahti.fi
Tel. +358 50 518 4486