BAMA is partnering with the UAB concert series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA” to present a concert that connects music with the art exhibit “Marking Time,” which will be on display in the AEIVA galleries.
Concert date: October 28, 2021, 5:30 or 6pm
Submission deadline: September 15, 2021
Concert location: Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts
Instrumentation: Any combination of guitar, piano, clarinet, violin, viola
Duration: No specific duration, though the program will total 30 – 45 minutes of music.
Requirements: Compositions must relate in some way to the art of exhibit “Marking Time”, an exhibit featuring 50+ works of amateur and professional visual artists impacted by the criminal justice system and mass incarceration. Themes include but are not limited to conveying the concept of time passing and highlighting every-day life that is missed.
Concert dates: October 2021 Submission deadline: Proposal by 03/31/2021, performance materials by 8/15/2021 Venue: Railroad Park Instrumentation: Saxophone Quartet, optional additional instruments and/or conductor
Submit a new work that is informed by something that is visible from Birmingham’s Railroad Park. The Cahaba Saxophone Quartet will form the core instrumentation. You may specify additional instruments, providing willingness to secure performers, arrange rehearsals, and supplement performer fees. ASO Assistant Conductor Kevin Fitzgerald is available as needed for, as example, works with spatial displacement or extra performers. Preferred are pieces with all four instruments (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone sax), but subsets may be considered. Preference may also be given to works under 10 minutes.
How to Submit: Proposal: By March 31, send a description of the landmark and how it will be the basis of the composition, instrumentation, and projected duration to using “RR Park proposal” as the subject. Materials: If the proposal is accepted, by August 15, send score, parts, title, duration, brief bio and program notes to using “RR Park concert” as the subject.
Call for Scores: Bent Frequency Duo Concert dates: January or February 2021, TBD Submission deadline: August 31, 2020 Venue: TBD Instrumentation: See below
Acoustic duos are preferred. Solos may be considered, as may works with electronics if easily staged for repeat performances.
soprano saxophone and/or alto saxophone
vibraphone, 2 toms, 1 pair bongos, kick drum, suspended cymbal, perhaps other small items
Duration: Preference may be given to works under 6 minutes
How to Submit: Send a PDF of your score plus any parts to using “Bent Frequency” as the subject. Recordings are welcome but not required.
Please include the following information with your submission.
Call for Scores: 2020 Birmingham New Music Festival Concert dates: Saturday, August 22, 2020 – others TBD Submission deadline: Extended to May 5, 2020 Venues: Hoover Library, others TBD Instrumentation: Variable Duration: No maximum limit, although preference may be given to proposals under 10 minutes
This is the only call for the 2020 festival. Those submitting for Category A are encouraged to also submit a second choice for Category B in case A is not selected. Only one work per member is likely to be programmed.
There is a possibility that some pieces could incorporate dance. Please indicate if interested in having your performance choreographed — in which case a recording is strongly recommended.
Category A
Submit a work (first priority only) for one of the following categories:
Cello, with or without electronics – Craig Hultgren
Clarinet/Eb Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Saxophone(s), solo with or without electronics — or in acoustic duo/trio/quartet with Soprano, Flute, and/or Piano – Lori Ardovino, LeBaron Trio, Vinna Trio (Note that a quartet may require supplementary funds from the composer.)
Piano, with or without electronics – Adam Bowles or Chris Steele
Category B
Submit a work for any instrumentation, and be responsible for securing performers and organizing rehearsals. For this option, compensation from BAMA is limited to $220 (up to two performers) per composer. Submissions for larger ensembles will be accepted providing the submitter will compensate additional performers.
How to Submit
Send the following info to with the subject “BNMF2020” by May 1, 2020:
Category B: Composer, title, duration, requirements, and optional recording.
If not submitting your own composition, consider sponsoring an emerging or mid-career composer whose work you admire. Women and minority composers are particularly encouraged. The process is the same as submissions from performer members.
BAMA Players – Spring 2020 Overview: The BAMA Players will present their spring concert. Concert date: Monday, April 20, 2020 Submission deadline: Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Concert location: TBD, most likely, Samford
Instrumentation: Any combination of flute, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, piano
Duration: No maximum duration, though the concert will last approximately one hour
How to Submit: Send a PDF of your score plus any parts to using “BAMA Players Spring 2020” as the subject. Recordings are welcome but not required. Please include the following information with your submission:
Composer Title Duration Date of composition Instrumentation Contact:
Concert location: Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts
Instrumentation: Any combination of string quartet, piano, mezzo-soprano, and soprano
Duration: No specific duration, though the concert will last one hour
Overview: BAMA is partnering with the UAB series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA” and the Alys Stephens Center’s “EMERGE Fest” to present a concert featuring “emerging artists” that connects chamber music with the art on display at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts.
Eligible composers: This call is open to students and composers in the early stages of their careers. Submitting composers (1) must be full-time students or (2) must have had no commercial recordings, publications of their works, or ticketed performance by an orchestra or other large ensemble.
Art exhibit: Compositions must relate in some way to one or more of the following exhibits: Mary Frances Whitfiled “Why?”; Quention Morris “Meditations on Black”; Christina West “Unscene”. See below for descriptions of each exhibit and visit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ppdxvu0vcrzy8a/AABk1e_NA5A4B8H2sFD8ITHda?dl=0 for visual examples. The West and Morris images aren’t necessarily what will be displayed, but they give a sense of the artists’ work. The Whitfield is what will be on display.
Submissions: Send a PDF of your score plus parts to or mail a hard copy to:
Laura Usiskin 950 13th Street South, HC 231 Birmingham, AL 35294
Recordings are welcome but not required.
Submissions must include the following information:
Composer
Title
Duration
Date of composition
Instrumentation
Brief description of how the piece relates to the art
Co-curated by AEIVA Curator John Fields and
Dr. Brandon Wolfe, Assistant VP of Campus and Community Engagement in the
Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UAB, Mary
Frances Whitfield: Why? is a collaborative exhibition between UAB’s
Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute.
This exhibition was developed in conjunction with the Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP), a grassroots coalition of community leaders working with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to retrieve Jefferson County’s memorial from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The mission of the JCMP is to bear witness to the country’s painful past and change the historical memory of Jefferson County to better include its history of racial terror and the legacies of racial injustice.
One of the most significant of Alabama’s
‘Outsider Artists’, Mary Frances Whitfield uses painting to create intimate
windows into her cultural past. Inspired by the rich and illuminative ancestral
history offered in the stories told by her grandmother, Whitfield’s paintings
present an affecting portrayal of daily existence for African Americans living
in the Southern United States during the 18th and 19thcentury.
WHY? presents paintings inspired by the artist’s first visit to
the BCRI. These works graphically depict horrific racial terror lynching
perpetrated against African Americans. This is the first time these works have
been exhibited in Whitfield’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama
Quentin Morris: Meditations on Black
Exhibition
Description: Philadelphia-based artist Quentin Morris uses a variety of
mediums to explore issues surrounding identity, race, spirituality, and
cultural mythologies. What’s most interesting about this work is that for
nearly 60 years, Morris has explored these themes through an astoundingly
focused and prolific series of black monochrome paintings. These paintings are
wonderfully subversive and deceptive in their depth. This will be Quentin
Morris’ first major exhibition in the South.
Christina West: Unscene
Exhibition Description:
Christina West is an Associate Professor of Art at Georgia State University. West creates immersive sculptural installations that utilize figurative sculptures and the alteration of space to create psychologically charged environments. These installations explore notions of what the artist refers to as “individual subjectivity in our experience of reality, and the ways our physical encounters with spaces and with representations of bodies can affect perceptions of our own bodies.“
Concert dates: October, 2019 Submission deadline: June 30, 2019 Venues: TBD Instrumentation: Any Duration: no maximum limit, although preference will be given to proposals under 10 minutes
Overview: There will be at least two nano-curated concerts during the 2019 Birmingham New Music Festival. If BAMA membership is current, propose (ordered by preference) up to 2 works that you will perform, sponsor, or otherwise oversee. Note that, even though a proposal may include more than one performer, the stipend for each proposal will be normal scale for a solo performance.
Send the following info to with the subject “DIY Call – [your last name]”:
Submitting BAMA member
Composer, if different from submitter
Performer(s), or number of performers if not yet engaged
Title
Duration
Requirements (audio, AC power, etc.) — if amplified, indicate whether self-contained or need house system
Proposals may include any of the following:
solo or group improvisation
solo performance by the composer, with or without electronics
