Art of Energy – Call for Composers

Fringe of Gold Festival: Art of Energy Compositions

Last summer, in collaboration with the University of St Andrews Laidlaw Music Centre we announced an open call asking composers to propose musical pieces inspired by the the Art of Energy award and the artwork presented in the Art of Energy galleries.

In response to our call, we received 152 submissions from around the world. After long and careful deliberation, the panel has selected four winners. Each of them composed a musical piece inspired by works of an artist featured in the Art of Energy Gallery.

We are absolutely delighted to present to you a world premiere of the winning compositions:

    • Neil Tomas Smith, responding to artwork by Ted Leeming
    • Emma Arandjelović, responding to artwork by Katerina Evangelou
    • Tom Green, responding to artwork by Adam Sebire
    • Sarah Horick, responding to artwork by Natasha Awuku

The concert was a celebration – a celebration of music, collaboration and coming together to consider and address big societal questions about how to create a better energy future for us all.

Including, alongside the four winning compositions, other works inspired by the environment and energy – the concert encouraged and provided a time for reflection about the world around us and the entanglement of life with energy in the past, present and future.

Call for Composers

The University of St Andrews Music Centre and Centre for Energy Ethics are looking to commission four composers to create new work for a concert on Friday 19 November as part of Fringe of Gold, the University’s wind, brass and percussion festival. The concert will be in the McPherson Recital Room of the Laidlaw Music Centre.

The commissioned works are to be based on the Art of Energy virtual exhibition and are intended to be in a way a form of musical ekphrasis or musicalization (cf Silverthorne, 2021).  Composers are free to choose a single image – or collection of images – as a starting point for a 4–6-minute composition. Each commissioned composer will be allocated an ensemble to write for. The ensembles will be a percussion quartet, wind quintet, brass quintet and saxophone quartet. The ensembles are student groups directed and tutored by esteemed teachers of the Laidlaw Music Centre.

To apply to be consider for these commissions, interested composers should complete this form here.

Each successful composer will receive a commission fee of £500 and be expected to engage with the premiere performance by introducing their piece live over Zoom, or by pre-recording an introduction to their piece.

Completing the concert programme will be music inspired by the themes of the Art of Energy exhibition.

Applications close Friday 16 July.

Successful composers will be commissioned by Wednesday 21 July. Deadline for submission of score and parts (PDF) is Wednesday 8 September.