I must be getting known for writing about prizes, both positively and negatively (to cite just two posts). I just learned of another new contest — in music, this time.
And it’s your chance to influence the course of classical music. DilettanteMusic.com — which is a U.K.-based online “global hub for classical music” — is allowing the public to choose its first digital composer-in-residence.
I haven’t explored the Dilettante Music website — or its business model — as much as I’d like; but the public input deadline is close, so I’m writing now.
Part of the site’s mission seems to be to provide a forum for listening to unsigned musicians, and to provide a way to buy music online. The contest was announced in June, when the website said it would choose a lucky composer:
The winner will receive the Digital Composer-In-Residence Award worth £1000, and a year-long ‘digital residency’ on the Dilettante website, including a ‘composer’s corner’ blog on the homepage and a podcast series. They will lead online masterclasses and take part in forum discussions with Dilettante members. The residency will conclude with a live event, which will include a newly commissioned work.
The finalists, from the U.S., Canada and Taiwan, were announced on Oct. 20, and now you can listen to their music online and vote — up until Nov. 4, which is just two days away.
The finalists are Aaron Gervais (left), from Edmonton Canada; Chiayu (below, right), from Taiwan (currently residing in Durham, NC); and David T. Little (below, left), from New York.
You can listen to their entries, read their bios, and vote here.
The prize seems a tad skimpy to me, and a bit of a gimmick just to promote the new website — on the other hand, it’s encouraging that DilettanteMusic.com has engaged judges, for 
the first phase, like Nico Muhly and Michael Christie.
Here’s what Muhly had to say about the contest recently in an interview, and here’s the site’s press release about the whole process and judges.
Now begins the countdown.
According to DilettanteMusic’s website:
The competition will culminate November 5 at 7pm with a concert event at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall, the oldest surviving music hall in the world, where the London Sinfonietta will perform a program curated by all three finalists, featuring their own contest entries alongside works that influenced them. The event will be hosted by the dynamic English conductor Charles Hazlewood.
I do like the voting process in this contest: let the experts choose the finalists in a first round, and then let the people have their say.
And we’ll find out the answer very soon, at the concert on Thursday.
Photos: Courtesy DilettanteMusic.com