Previous Seasons


Bent Frequency Duo

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. 

  1. soprano saxophone and/or alto saxophone 
  2. 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. 

  • Composer 
  • Title 
  • Duration 
  • Brief biographical statement 
  • Brief program notes 
  • Date of composition 
  • Instrumentation 

For questions about this call, contact 


2020 Birmingham New Music Festival

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 A: Composer, title, duration, score/parts/other performance materials, requirements, and optional recording. 
  • 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

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:

For questions about this call, contact


Call for Scores – Fall 2019 Chamber Music @ AEIVA

  • Concert date: September 14, 2019, time TBD
  • Submission deadline: August 10, 2019
  • 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

Questions? Contact:

Exhibit descriptions:

Mary Frances Whitfield: Why?

https://www.uab.edu/news/arts/item/10218-why-by-alabama-artist-mary-frances-whitfield-presented-by-uab-s-aeiva-may-31-nov-23

Exhibition Description:  

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.“


Call for Scores – 2019 DIY

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
  • fixed media (including video)
  • guest artist sponsorship
  • proxies or additional performers


Call for Scores – Arias and Art Songs

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:

  1.  A PDF of the score (PDFs can also be sent as an attachment);
  2. An audio recording, if available (MIDI realizations are acceptable);
  3. 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.


BAMA Players – Spring 2019

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:

Click here to download this call as a PDF.