Opens: February 1, 2026
Deadline: March 31, 2026

The Boston New Music Initiative is pleased to announce its Fourteenth Annual Commissioning Competition. The purpose of this competition is to further the mission of The Boston New Music Initiative to maintain an international network of composers, performers, conductors, directors, and champions of music in order to generate new music concerts, compositions, collaborations, and commissions. Incorporated in 2010, the organization aims to advance the careers of its members in the field of new music by serving as a resource for networking, professional development, commissioning, collaboration, and programming.

The 14th Annual Competition will be open to any representative work, however, composers are encouraged to show their ability to write for a small instrumental ensemble. The winning composer(s) will be commissioned to write a new work for three to four instruments out of BNMI’s core ensemble.

Any composer is eligible except composers currently or formerly on the staff of The Boston New Music Initiative and past commission winners are ineligible to apply. The competition will be adjudicated in a two-round, blind evaluation process. The winner(s) of this competition will be awarded a grand prize of at least $700 USD, in addition to being engaged to compose a new 6 to 8 minute work for three to four instruments with performance by members of The Boston New Music Initiative in a future concert season. Pending available budget, the organization may award up to three (3) additional winners from this competition to compose new works for performance by BNMI or select works for Honorable Mention. At least one winner will be named for this competition.

Previous Winners:
2014 Panayiotis Kokoras - Ghost Notes
2015 Nicola Straffelini - Labyrinth Song
2016 Travis Alford - Altered States
2017 Lonnie Hevia - After the Rain
2018 Charles Peck - Kindling
2019 Alex Berko - Living in Color 
2020 Andrew Davis - On the Nature of Things (premiere in 2022)
2021 Paul Novak - Prisms and Mirrors
2022 Ania Vu - Strange Birds
2023 Luis Quintana - Grooves and Whispers (Book 2)
2024 Yangfan Xu - Make Way for Ducklings
2025 Artur Akshelyan - NOTGRIR
2026 Lingbo Ma - TBD

Details

1. Number of Entries. There is no limit on the number of works a composer may submit; however, each work should be submitted as a separate entry. Multi-movement works should be submitted as single entries, even if movements are in separate files. (The submission process allows for multiple files per entry.)
2. Anonymity. All submissions must be anonymous. Scores or other materials with names or other identifying marks will not be considered. Please remove all identifying marks from all materials (except the composer information page, see submission process below) before submitting. Please make sure no metadata including names or identifying marks remain in submitted files. Please do not use a pseudonym or code number, simply remove your name. The best way to completely remove your name from a score is to use the "Redact" option in a pdf reader/editor. 
3. Membership. Composers do not have to become members of BNMI, however Shout It Out Membership ($50/year) includes one free submission to ALL BNMI Calls for Scores (we host up to four per year) for one year. Information on membership benefits can be found here.
4. File Formats. The only acceptable file formats are:

   • For the score: .pdf
   • For (optional) audio recordings: .mp3 or .m4a
   • For video: .mov or .m4v
   • All other materials: .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, or .pdf
5. Questions? Please address any questions to info@bostonnewmusic.org. Note: Please do NOT send submission materials to this email address as the materials cannot be submitted using this method. When submitting inquiries, please be as generic as possible, and do not include the title of your piece in the query in order to preserve anonymity.

Submission Process

Composers are asked to use this form to upload the following materials: