Berlin Prize in Music Composition Spring 2014
Application Guidelines
The American Academy in Berlin invites applications for the Berlin Prize in Music Composition until Monday, October 1, 2012. The Fellowship in Music Composition will be awarded for the Academy’s 2014
spring semester, which will run from January through May.
Composer Profile
The Academy wishes to support a composer with a unique musical voice and who is engaged in musical experimentation. The successful applicant should demonstrate how s/he is poised to interact with the contemporary music scene in Berlin, perhaps the most vibrant and innovative in Europe today. The Academy looks to present a composer whose artistic vision provides the Berlin music scene with an opportunity to experience a distinctive musical dimension within the diversity of US culture. Applicants
must show significant professional activity such as public performances, commissions, and awards. Recent recipients include Andrew Norman, Ken Ueno, Annie Gosfield, and Gene Coleman.

The Berlin Prize
The Academy will provide the composer-in-residence with new vistas and professional opportunities by offering a unique community of accomplished Americans from artistic, literary, and scholarly worlds, a distinctive venue for his or her music, and access to a valuable professional network. The reputation of the Academy within Berlin’s flourishing music culture, as well as the potential synergies between the composer and the city’s extremely lively new music scene, should make this an especially rewarding experience. The composer’s stay culminates in a portrait concert that showcases his or her work.

Prominent partner presenters have included MärzMusik / Berliner Festspiele, Radialsystem V, Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, and the Scharoun Ensemble.
Fellowship benefits include round-trip airfare, accommodations at the Hans Arnhold Center or in nearby apartments, partial board, and a stipend of $5,000 per month. Family accommodations are available.

Fellows are expected to be in residence at the Academy during the entire term of the award.

Selection Criteria
The Academy’s selection criteria are based primarily on the quality of the composer’s work, and evidence of the applicant’s unique vision, as demonstrated by the submitted materials. Commensurate with the Academy’s mission to foster transatlantic exchange, it is also significant for a composer to interact with Berlin's dynamic arts community, to present a unique American voice, and to experience the innovative music world in Berlin in a fellowship that would prove beneficial to all.

Application and Evaluation Procedures
A complete application requires six copies of each of the following materials:
 A completed application form Application for Berlin Prize in Music Composition Spring 2014
 Title and summary of the proposed project or work to be completed (one to two pages)
 Curriculum vitae (abbreviated version of 10-12 pages), artist resume, or current biography
 List of all works, if not included in the above (including year and instrumentation)
In addition, candidates must submit the following music materials:
 Three work samples
 Sample 1 should be a representative five-minute sample of your music that will introduce your
work to the Academy’s independent music jury. It can be an excerpt of one of the other works
submitted or a separate work
 Samples 2 and 3 should be complete works, one of which has been composed or recorded in the last five years
Please put the three examples of your music as described above on one CD with a separate track ID for each example. Indicate the track number, title of each piece, and composer’s name clearly on the CD. You will need to submit six CDs.
 Scores (one hard copy of each, as well as five copies on CD)
 For each recorded example, send one hard copy of a score. Scores should not exceed 14"x17" (two to three scores total, depending on whether your representative five-minute sample is part of a larger work sample; if the first music sample is drawn from one of the complete works submitted, please indicate where it starts in the score
 In addition, please include five copies of a CD with the scores in PDF files. This CD of PDFs should be separate from the CD of recordings
 Scores are required unless they are inappropriate to your compositional style. In this case, please include a description of the work and your role as composer in the creation and performance of the work

Eligible applications will be evaluated by musicians and music experts familiar with diverse genres of contemporary music. The panelists review both written materials as well as the recorded samples before the Music Jury meets in New York. Candidates will be informed in late February 2013.

In order to be eligible to apply for a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, you must be permanently based in the US. American citizenship is not required; American expatriates are not eligible.

Applications must arrive at the Academy’s New York office by Monday, October 1, 2012.
The American Academy in Berlin

Attn: Music Composition Fellowship Application
14 East 60th Street, Suite 604
New York, NY 10022
Tel: +1 212-588-1755
Applications may not be submitted electronically or by fax.

The Academy cannot assume responsibility for lost materials. Application materials are submitted at the candidate’s own expense and will not be returned. We advise that you not to send original manuscripts and to retain copies of all items submitted.
Please direct questions regarding the fellowship or application to the Fellows Selection office in Berlin:
The American Academy in Berlin
Attn: Carol Scherer, Fellows Selection
Am Sandwerder 17-19
14109 Berlin
Germany
cs@americanacademy.de
Tel: +49 30 804 83-0
Please visit our website for further information: www.americanacademy.de
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American Academy in Berlin
Application for Fellowship in Music Composition Spring 2014
Application for Berlin Prize in Music Composition
Spring 2014
To the Applicant: The information you provide on this form becomes part of your permanent record at the American Academy. We can process only complete and legible applications. You may fill out this form electronically using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader (use tab key to move from field to field). Please remember to sign the document, and submit by regular mail only.

All application materials must arrive in New York by Monday, October 1, 2012.
The American Academy in Berlin
Attn: Music Composition Fellowship
14 East 60th Street, Suite 604
New York, New York 10022
Questions may be directed to:
Carol Scherer
Fellows Selection
cs@americanacademy.de
Tel: +49 (30) 804 83-0
Fax: +49 (39) 804 83-111
www.americanacademy.de