PAS Composition Contest

Funded by the Thomas V. Siwe Endowment

Purpose:

To encourage and reward composers who write music for percussion instruments and to increase the number of quality compositions written for percussion.

2025 Competition:

Category

Percussion Trio

Instrumentation: Three performers, specified as follows:

• Three percussionists performing on any number of percussion instruments. Non-standard instrumentation should be clearly described in the performance notes, along with any non-standard playing techniques. Pieces with aleatoric elements should have clear procedural descriptions.
• Electronics may be incorporated into any of the parts.
• Further instrumentation details will be provided at a later date.

Duration:

• A minimum of 4-minutes
• For works over 12 minutes, composers should submit one or more excerpts totaling 12 minutes or less.

Notation:

• All parts must be notated.
• Groove or quasi-improvised sections (slash notation, style indications, etc.) may be used but should not constitute a majority of the piece.

Awards:

• $3,000 grand prize (up to two honorable mentions – $250.00 each). Additional pieces may be acknowledged by the judges due to their quality. These pieces will not receive financial awards.
• Winning composition, Honorable mention(s), and additional pieces selected by the judges will be listed on the PAS website with the composer’s picture and bio.
• Winning composition and Honorable mention(s) will be listed along with a review of work(s) in Percussive Notes during early 2025.

Eligibility:

• Only works finished after January 2021 are eligible.
• Works may have been performed previously, but should not be published (self-published works are fine), and works may not have been written as part of a commission or consortium where monetary compensation was provided to create the work. PAS will select one winner and up to two honorable mentions.

Entry Fee:

• $20.00

Procedures:

Submit the following items through the online application:

• A PDF file of the composition absent of any composer information. Label file with title of work.
• An audio file of a computer realization or other recording (non-performance) of the composition absent of any composer or performer information. Label file with title of work.

PLEASE NOTE:

• All complete applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Contest results will be announced in late 2025.
• All entry materials become property of PAS. PAS does not claim rights to distribute materials. Materials will be archived for historical purposes only. Composers retain all rights to their composition.
• Multiple submissions are allowed, but a separate application and $20 entry fee is required for each entry.

Application Opens: May 1, 2025

Application Closes: September 15, 2025