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
Event: “Arias and Art Songs” Event Date: November 12, 2019 Event Location: Reynolds-Kirschbaum Concert Hall, Alys Stephens Center, UAB
Deadline for Score Submissions: Friday, September 13, 2019**
**The deadline for submitting scores for our upcoming “Arias and Artsongs” concert has been extended to Friday, September 13th. We have already received several works for soprano and baritone. If anyone has a work (or two) for mezzo-soprano, tenor, or bass, please feel free to submit it using the criteria posted on the original call below.
If you are a submitting BAMA member and not submitting a work of your own, 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.
Voice Type/Instrumentation: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and/or bass voice with or without piano. Works that feature electronics and/or other instruments besides piano cannot be considered at this time.
Duration: Preference will be given to works longer than 3 minutes and less than 10 minutes.
Requirements: Alliance members in good standing are invited to submit two scores for the call; only one score per voice-type may be submitted (see details below).
Details:
Please submit 1-2 pieces for the above-listed voices with/without piano, in any combination.
Preference will be given to works longer than 3 minutes and less than 10 minutes; individual songs from longer collections or excerpts from operatic works will also be considered.
Members may submit two scores for consideration, however, only one score per voice-type may be submitted (for example, members can submit one score for soprano and piano, and another score for baritone and piano, but not two scores for soprano and piano). Combinations of the above-listed voice-types will also be considered (duets, etc.); submissions that include more than two voices per score will require the composer to reimburse the Alliance for the cost of additional performers.
The extended deadline for scores is: Friday, September 13, 2019.
How to submit:
All submissions should be sent via email to with the subject heading “BAMA Arias and Art Songs Call – Your Name,” and should include an attachment or a link (Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, etc) with the following files:
A PDF of the score (PDFs can also be sent as an attachment);
An audio recording, if available (MIDI realizations are acceptable);
A PDF document listing the name of the composer, title of the piece, instrumentation, duration, short biographical statement, and program notes.
Failure to supply all required materials with submissions will result in the composition not being considered for programming.
Overview:
The BAMA
Players, along with a guest oboist, will present their spring concert.
Concert date:
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Submission deadline: Sunday, March 10, 2019
Concert location: TBD
Instrumentation: Any
combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, piano
Duration: No maximum duration, though the concert will
last approximately one hour
How to Subit: Send a PDF of your score plus any parts to Laura Usiskin (see below). Recordings are welcome but not required. Please include the following information with your submission:
Composer
Title
Duration
Date of composition
Instrumentation
Contact:
For questions about the musicians and programming, contact Laura Usiskin:
Overview: BAMA will present a concert featuring the UAB Chamber Trio at UAB’s Hulsey Recital Hall. There will be two guest performers, but they are not included in the instrumentation for this call. You must be a current, submitting BAMA member for the 2018-2019 season to submit to this call.
Event Date: Sunday, April 7, 2019, 4:00pm Submission deadline: Sunday, March 3, 2019 (completed scores required with submissions) Event Venue: Hulsey Recital Hall at UAB Instrumentation: Trios for one clarinet (Bb clarinet and bass clarinet will be available), one trumpet (Bb trumpet, piccolo trumpet, and flugelhorn will be available), one piano. No duets or solos. No electronics. Preference for traditional notation without extended techniques. Duration: No specific maximum duration, though the concert will last one hour
How to Submit: Send a PDF of your score plus any parts to or hard copy to Chris Steele, 950 13th Street South, HC 231, Birmingham, AL 35294. Recordings are welcome but not required. Include the following information with submission:
Overview: BAMA is partnering for a fourth year with the UAB series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA” to present a concert that connects chamber music with the art on display at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts. You must be a current, submitting BAMA member for the 2018-2019 season to submit to this call.
Event Date: February 21, 2019. 5:00pm reception, 5:30pm concert Submission deadline: January 10, 2019 (completed scores required with submissions) Event Venue:Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts Instrumentation: Any combination of two violins, one viola, one cello, and one piano Duration: No specific maximum duration, though the concert will last one hour
Art exhibit: Compositions must relate in some way to the art either in “Stitching History from the Holocaust” (http://stitchinghistory.org/) or the contemporary Spanish artist Irene Grau (http://www.irenegrau.com/ or view this PDF). However, submissions need not be newly composed for this exhibit, you may submit existing works as long as the composition relates in some way to the art.
