CALL FOR SCORES
March 2026: "America: 250!"
Schedule and Instrumentation
SPRING CONCERT
Submission deadline:
Friday, January 16, 2026 at 11:59pm
Concert: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 7pm
Location: Resurrected Life Church on Hamilton Street, Allentown PA (formerly the Old Zion Church, where the Liberty Bell was housed during the Revolutionary War)
Theme: America: 250!
Instrumentation: Violin, Cello, Piano and a male Baritone vocalist (could be used for narration, spoken word or sung lyrics)
What do I need to incorporate to be eligible for selection as a finalist? : For this concert, we encourage each composer select and incorporate a chosen historical text (a written text or a quote by an American figure) as the inspiration for the piece or to enhance the performance. This text could be proejcted behind the musicians during the performance or it could be incorporated as spoken word or lyrics for our baritone soloist.
*Note: It is the responsability of the composer to look into the copyrights for this quote and to gain permission before using it in their composition.
Timing: Your original composition must be 5 minutes or less from beginning to end.
*We aim to always include 1-2 of our 8 members of our Composer Collaborative faculty. These compositions may be up to 7 minutes.
*For those who were featured in our last Call for Scores/Innovation concert, you are still welcome to submit a piece for consideration. However, we will give first priority to composers who have not been featured as recently.
Formatting: Requests from our Music Librarian
-For printed parts, please use a staff size of 7mm or 7.5mm and format the parts for 9.5”x13” paper.
-For iPad parts, please use a staff size of 7.5mm and format the parts for 8.5”x11”. Feel free to make the margins narrower as well.
-For scores, please use a staff size of 5mm or 5.5mm. Any size paper is alright, we can make anything work.
-When numbering pages for booklet printing, odd numbered pages appear on the right leaf, and even numbered pages appear on the left leaf.
-Please allow a reasonable amount of time to turn pages when formatting printed parts. This can be done by reformatting parts to have ample rests at the very end of odd numbered pages (or at the very top of even numbered pages). If absolutely necessary, a fold out page may be acceptable, this can be denoted by numbering the page as “2a” or “5a” for example.
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Required: All submissions must include a full score, separate individual parts, an mp3 recording MIDI file, a short composer bio (limited to 200 words), and a high-resolution headshot to be uploaded at this link. Selected composers must be avaialable to be present at the Monday evening rehearsal, the Tuesday afternoon rehearsal and the Tuesday evening concert. Please note that while improvisation and alternate notational techniques are allowed and encouraged for this concert, a score and parts will still need to be provided for the String Quartet members.
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Selection process and notification date:
Clarice Assad and Diane Wittry will review all submissions for the March 2026 concert in late January and early February. Composers will be notified of their decision in early February. If selected as a finalist, our Director of Education, Carolyn Powell (or Interim Director of Education, Renee James) l will reach out to communicate all next steps. You will also be notified if you are not selected.
*Note: We've made a recent adjustment to our policy regarding back-to-back submissions for those interested in possibly submitting for our next Call for Scores in October 2026:
“Composers whose works were performed in the most recent call for scores are welcome to submit a piece for the next call for scores but should understand that priory will go to composers who have not had a work played recently. If there is room on the program, works from previously performed composers may also be included.”