The Featured Young Performer 2018
The London Ear Festival of contemporary music invites applications from advanced instrumentalists, aged 25 or younger, to audition to be the festival’s Featured Young Performer for 2018. Auditions will be held in December 2017 and January 2018.
London Ear’s Featured Young Performer project aims to identify and support outstanding young players, and in 2018 the successful applicant(s) will be offered the following career advancing opportunities:
- To perform a short solo recital of recent music, in the presence of an invited audience of musically influential guests. This will be held on March 21st, 2016, in The Cello Factory, Waterloo.
- To participate in a concert by Uroboros Ensemble, playing alongside world-class professionals, either during the festival period (March 21-25) or on a later date, to be negotiated.
- To be the subject of a short profile article in the festival book.
Past Featured Young Performers have been subsequently engaged as soloists and ensemble members in later editions of London Ear.
Conditions:
Applicants must be either UK citizens, or currently resident in the UK.
Applicants should either be embarking on a soloist/chamber music career, or be an advanced conservatoire student of the highest level, and must be aged 25 or less on March 31st, 2018.
Players of any standard orchestral/ensemble instrument, including piano, may apply. Players of other instruments (e.g. accordion, guitar, etc) are welcome to apply, but should be aware that if they win they may be asked to suggest suitable pieces for the ensemble performance mentioned above.
Although this project is primarily concerned with unaccompanied performance, applicants may be supported in a minor role by one other instrument. Music for a solo instrument and electronics may be included as long as the electronics is limited to a laptop computer (a PA cannot be guaranteed in the audition).
Not all applicants will be called for audition. From the applications a shortlist will be drawn up, based on the submitted material (see below) and all applicants will be notified as to whether or not they are invited to the audition stage.
Auditions will be held in London on a date between 1st November and 18 January. The exact date(s) will be established after the auditions shortlist has been made.
Auditions will last from 20 to 30 minutes per applicant, and players should ideally perform two contrasting solo pieces, of which one must have been composed after approximately 1980; It is acceptable to perform only one piece if it contains strongly contrasted materials. Extracts from longer pieces are also acceptable.
Application should be made in writing, stating date of birth and instrument played; also
Applicants must included the following in their application:
- Full Name
- Age at 1st April 2018
- Email and postal addresses
- Nationality
- Instrument played
- A very brief outline of studies and performance experience to date, including a list of contemporary pieces in repertoire (performed or studied; this need not be extensive)
- If possible, a short recording on CD of their playing; a contemporary piece is preferable but not obligatory (recording quality is not important, and candidates should not deterred from applying if they can’t send a recording).
- A list of dates within the period November 1st to January 18th when it would be impossible (not merely inconvenient) to be auditioned.
Applicants called for audition will be asked to pay a £20 fee, payable once the conformation of the audition has been sent. Any applicant for whom this would be financially prohibitive should contact the office. (Please note: the audition panel offer their time without receiving any fee, and all submission payments are used to cover administration and other costs associated with the Featured Young Performer project).
To send applications:
By email to: mail@londonearfestival.co.uk. Any attached texts must be in MSWord (doc) or Acrobat (pdf) format. Recordings may only be emailed in mp3 or acc format, and less than 10MB; if more than this a CD recording must be sent by post.
By post to:
The FYP Project administrator,
London Ear Festival, c/o Uroboros Ensemble,
2 Sandfields Farm Cottage,
Luddington,
Stratford-upon-Avon,
CV37 9SW