With the generous support from the SOCAN Foundation The Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects announces a Call-for-Scores of works for woodwinds (including works for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, and recorder with or without piano accompaniment) for inclusion in the Contemporary Showcase Syllabus.

The Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects (ACNMP) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of Canadian contemporary music. Throughout our history, it has been our mission to encourage teachers to teach Canadian contemporary music, to motivate students to study and perform this music, and to encourage Canadian composers to write music for students of all levels from the most junior to the paraprofessional.

Our Mission is to commission, promote, and preserve Canadian contemporary music as a cornerstone of our national heritage by fostering its performance among students, teachers, and performers through education, festivals, and workshops.

Contemporary Showcase

Presented annually by ACNMP, Contemporary Showcase is a national non-competitive festival featuring 100% Canadian contemporary works taking place in twelve centres across four provinces. Contemporary Showcase is wholly educational and inclusive, and aims to develop and disseminate Canadian compositions. 

ACNMP has compiled a wide-ranging and varied syllabus of over 2,200 Canadian works for a variety of solo instruments (from piano to double bass to soprano saxophone) and ensembles (from brass quintet and string quartet to full-sized choirs and wind bands) spanning over 100 years. These works are scrutinized pedagogically by ACNMP’s repertoire reviewers and divided into different levels for students to study, present and perform in a master class format for expert adjudicators.

Call-for-Scores: Woodwinds

Submissions to the Contemporary Showcase syllabus should ideally:

• Have musical, educational, and pedagogical value for both teacher and performer
• Contain new ideas or techniques introduced or presented in a novel or interesting way
• Strike an appropriate balance between composition length and difficulty, keeping the skill and ability level of the intended performer in mind
• Represent and/or contribute to the cultural fabric of Canada
• Composers identifying as LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC, Indigenous, and equity deserving groups are encouraged to submit their work

Composers must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Please carefully read submission details from the documents below. Fill out and submit to info@acnmp.ca.

Deadline is April 30, 2025

Submission for Syllabus Evaluation Form

*Please note that an ACNMP Membership is not a requirement to submit to the Call-for-Scores; however, the membership fee does help off-set our administrative costs and there is a new special rate for composers!

To help choose recipients for our National Awards we are getting help from two wonderful musicians.

Claire Harris is a Toronto-based collaborative pianist, specialising in opera and contemporary
repertoire. Originally from New Zealand, Claire holds a Bachelor of Music from the New Zealand
School of Music and a Masters from the Royal College of Music, London, England. Prior to moving to
Toronto in 2018, Claire was a staff accompanist at the Royal College of Music, London, as well as
working with companies including English Touring Opera, the Rossini Young Artists’ Festival, Opera
Alumnus, and the Academie de La Roche D’Hys annual opera workshop in France. She has performed
internationally as a pianist in venues such as Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall, London, The
Porgy and Bess, Vienna, and appeared on radio stations from Guernsey to Bogotá, Colombia.

Claire is pianist with Crossing Borders, a company performing works by living composers across
Canada and internationally, most recently touring Colombia with a programme of all Canadian and
Colombian living composers. She also recently curated and performed a recital of Canadian art song
with baritone Parker Clements at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.

Claire is co-producer and pianist for Opera Revue, a Toronto opera company which has been featured
on the cover of Opera Canada magazine, CBC National Radio and CTV National television.
She is also the pianist for Canadian Children’s Opera Company’s Principal Chorus, Associate Director
with Opera by Request, Toronto, and Pianist with the Toronto Children’s Chorus, as well as working
regularly as a répétiteur and coach with independent companies around Toronto and Ontario. Claire
coaches students in the vocal program at the University of Toronto as well as maintaining a private
coaching studio. Claire is also the pianist for Amarras, a Toronto-based contemporary Argentinian
Tango ensemble with whom she has performed in the USA and Argentina.

Thank you to all the participants in the Contemporary Showcase Festivals this year! We hope the experience was a positive and fulfilling one and you will consider participating again next year.

Adjudicators from each festival will have the opportunity to nominate participants for consideration for National Awards, listed here. If you have been nominated you will be asked to submit a recording of your performance, a scan of the music, as well as your name and what centre you are representing (which city you played in).

This year adjudications for the national scholarships will be delayed until after February so that another Contemporary Showcase can participate. You are welcome to submit your recording and information at any time between now and February 28, 2025.

If you have any questions please email info@acnmp.ca.

Thank you to Gloria Chu for allowing us to add her works Guiding Star and Soar to our vocal syllabus. Please check out her bio and links below!

Gloria Chu is a dedicated composer, pedagogue, adjudicator, examiner, speaker, and performer. She is a
multi-award winning composer of chamber, violin, cello, and piano works. Her compositions have been
praised to “transport [the audience] into a heavenly world” by International Youth Music Competitions.
Several of her pedagogical works have been featured in the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects
Contemporary Showcase syllabus. Her awards and recognitions include six Winning Awards from Alberta
Piano Teachers Association Creative Music Writing Competition, Canadian Folk Song Arrangement Prize,
First Place at the USA Modern and Contemporary Competition and First Place in Provincial Alberta
Registered Music Teachers’ Association Student Composition. Gloria holds two master’s degrees: MA in
Piano (University of Ottawa) and MA in Strings (University of Chichester). She has been recognized by
Steinway & Sons with a Top Teacher Award and is the recipient of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Teacher of Distinction Award for her leadership as a music educator. Gloria has given presentations at
city, provincial and national conferences on music learning topics. Her innovative teaching methods and
pedagogy compositions motivate students to develop confidence in expressing their unique voice in
both music and life.

QR Code Links:

Website YouTube “Guiding Star” “Soar”

We are happy to share that Hyacinth by Cecilia Livingston will be added to the ACNMP syllabus for voice. Please check out her bio and website linked below!

Known for music that asks “slow burning, sometimes fiery questions” (The New York Times), Cecilia Livingston specializes in composing for voice. She is composer-in-residence at the Canadian Opera Company (2022-) and was composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne (2019-22). Her music is driven by melody, mixing styles to create work that is lyrical and unsettling, and her work has been heard at Glyndebourne, Teatro Colón, Teatro Carlo Felice, Bang on a Can’s summer festival, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche festival, in recital at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and the Kennedy Center, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and Soundstreams, and is available on recording from Deutsche Grammophon. Cecilia is represented by Stratagem Artists in New York.