The Alea III
International
Composition Prize was established at Boston University to promote and
encourage
the creation
of new music by young
professional
composers
of all nationalities under
40 years
old.
Unperformed and unpublished
works
of all styles and esthetic directions are eligible and may be scored
for
any combination of single orchestral instruments, guitar, voice
and/or electronics
utilizing from
1-15 musicians.
Compositions range between
6 and
15 minutes in duration
and are submitted by March
15 of
each year.
During the preliminary
stage of
the competition,
members of the Boston
University
Music Faculty
select 6-9 works for the
finals.
At the final stage Theodore
Antoniou
conducts
the performances of the
finalistsŐ
composition,
and after the concert a
monetary
prize of $2,500 is awarded.
The judges for the final
round
are well known personalities
of the Boston music scene.
The panel, consisting of
composers,
performers, conductors, musicologists and educators, aims for a balance
among
a variety of musical
approaches.
The Prize was
established in 1979
by Charles Politis,
a Greek American
industrialist.
It was re-established by an
anonymous
donor in 1984
to honor Melanya Kucyna,
and again
in 1989 as the
Alea III International
Composition
Prize.
During the past 30
seasons more
than 5,500 scores have been submitted and approximately 183 have been
performed.
All scores are kept in the
ALEA
III library for the perusal of students, performers and any other
interested
individuals.
For the 2008
competition, 210 scores
were submitted from 45 countries, ranging from USA, Italy, England,
Russia and Germany to Ecuador, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Armenia, South
Africa, Chile, Malaysia and Iceland.
