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IDRS 50 for 50 Commissioning Project: Grants

Commissioning Grant Details

Grants

Three (3) grants of $1,000 each will be awarded to 2023 Conference recital applicants whose accepted proposals include the commissioning and premiere of at least one new work for a double reed instrument(s); this money must be used to assist in the fulfillment of the composer’s fee.

More information will be available when the 2023 artistic proposal process opens.

2023 Artistic Proposal Instructions

When you submit your 2023 Artistic Proposal for the conference in Thailand, there will be a checkbox to indicate that your proposal includes the commissioning and premiere of at least one new work for a double reed instrument(s). These grants are given towards the commissioning of composers who are women, Black, Indigenous, people of color (Latinx, Asian, Middle-Eastern, etc), ethnic minorities, and/or gender non-conforming.

Previous winners of the IDRS Commissioning Competition and composers on the IDRS Board of Directors, IDRS Staff, IDRS volunteers or members of the conference hosting team are not eligible to apply.

➤ The artist will be required to submit the following information and materials for the commissioning grant application:

  • Name of piece
  • instrumentation and duration,
  • name and detailed bio/resume of the composer
  • an audio example of the composer’s work

Questions?

Please address any questions to commissioning@idrs.org.

Submit an Artist Proposal

Congratulations to the following 2021 winners of the International Double Reed Society’s “50 for 50” commissioning grants!

Jenni Brandon: Places We Are From for oboe/bassoon, oboe/saxophone, or saxophone/bassoon and piano

Premiered by 2021 IDRS artists Teodora Pejasinovic Proud and Javier Rodriguez

Places We Are From, a new work by Jenni Brandon, explores the idea of identity and where we come from both geographically, physically, and spiritually. This unique exploration is reflected in the make-up of the 3 different instrumentation options for this work (oboe/bassoon/piano, oboe/saxophone/piano, saxophone/bassoon/piano), using these combinations to tell stories of joy, hope, frustration, and perseverance. The colors and combinations in each version reflect a vision of discovering who we are in unprecedented times and finding happiness in the journey.

Jenni Brandon
Javier Rodriguez & Teodora Pejašinović Proud

Luis Fernando Amaya: Pregunta No.4: Quimera for solo bassoon

Premiered by 2021 IDRS artist Ben Roidl-Ward

The pieces I call “Preguntas” (Questions) are sonic, emotional, and intellectual investigations of a particular topic that’s very important to me. In “Pregunta no.4: Quimera”, we delved into the chimeric qualities of an imaginary landscape that we got to discover rather than invent. In this landscape, like in non-imaginary ones, even the most contrasting sub-climates are interconnected and interdependent. Composing this piece was, for both Ben and me, a personal exploration of the subtle complexities of bassoon sounds and of the different bridges or connections that can be found between them.

Luis Fernando Amaya
Ben Roidl-Ward

Tawnie Olson: Perfectly Logical for bassoon and looper pedal

Premiered by 2021 IDRS artist Rachael Elliott

All of us make odd decisions, or arrive at false beliefs, while believing ourselves to be “perfectly logical.” This piece similarly follows its own logical structural journey, but travels a bit too far and lands in the “wrong” place. This process may or may not be evident to the listener – just as our own motivated reasoning is sometimes perceptible to us, and sometimes not. Perfectly Logical was composed for Rachael Elliott and commissioned by the IDRS.

Tawnie Olson
Rachael Elliott
These three new works were featured during the 2021 Second Annual Virtual Symposium.

Congratulations to the following 2022 winners of the International Double Reed Society’s “50 for 50” commissioning grants!

Molly Joyce: Duality for bassoon and violin

Premiered by 2022 IDRS artist Dyad
Leah Kohn, bassoon
Niv Ashkenazi, violin

Molly Joyce’s work is concerned with disability as a creative source. Using discussions between the composer and Dyad (Leah Kohn, bassoon and Niv Ashkenazi, violin) about what it is like navigating the music industry with a physical disability, this new commission is themed around the social model of disability and perception as a barrier to accessibility. This new work will be premiered as part of a chamber recital of new music for bassoon and violin, furthering Dyad’s mission of continuing to build a body of repertoire for this instrumentation.

Molly Joyce, Composer
Dyad
Leah Kohn, Bassoon
Niv Ashkenazi, Violin

Minor R. Estrada: La Conquista”, trío for oboe, bassoon and piano

Premiered by 2022 IDRS artists:
Luis Miguel De León, oboe
Telma Díaz, bassoon
Alfonso Hernández, piano

We all have internal struggles; our “inner demons”. We live in a struggle where there is always something that prevents us from realizing our dreams, and we do not realize that it is us, ourselves , who dictate those limits. This work explores that struggle between “what you want” and “what you can” until achieving the “conquest” of that desire.

Minor R. Estrada, Composer
Luis Miguel De León, Oboe
Telma Díaz, Bassoon
Alfonso Hernández, Piano

Althea Talbot-Howard: Hagia Sophia

Premiered by 2022 IDRS artists:
Kathleen Carter Bell, oboe
Conor Bell, bassoon
Stephen Innis, piano

Hagia Sophia, a new work for English Horn/Oboe*, Bassoon & Piano, intersects with two other works by Althea Talbot-Howard due to be heard at Boulder 2022.  Like Troparion, it will feature Greek Orthodox chant. Like Rievaulx, it will tell the story of an iconic church building.  Hagia Sophia was the world’s largest church for one thousand years, until the completion of Seville Cathedral in 1507.  Standing on the edge of Europe – a rock in the fast-moving current of time – it looks out, across the Bosphorus, at Asia Minor.
*Precise instrumentation TBC.

Althea Talbot-Howard, Composer

Kathleen Carter Bell, Oboe

Conor Bell, Bassoon

Stephen Innis, Piano

These three new works will be featured during the 2022 51st conference in Boulder, Colorado.