The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music
The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music
The Azrieli Prize of $50,000 CAD is awarded biennially through a competitive process to a composer who has written the best new major work of Jewish music*.
Open to the international music community, works can be nominated by individuals and institutions from all nationalities, faiths, backgrounds and affiliations, and submitted to the AMP Jury for Jewish Music through the open call for scores. Works may have been premiered within ten (10) years of the award date, but must not have a significant performance history, and must not have been commercially recorded.
The winning work will be:
- premiered by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne at the AMP Gala Concert;
- given a subsequent international performance; and
- recorded for future release on the Analekta label.
The winning composer is expected to attend the rehearsals, performances and recording of their prize-winning work, and will be publicly honoured at the AMP Gala Concert in Montreal, scheduled for the fall of 2020.
The total prize package for the Azrieli Prize is valued at over $200,000 CAD.
Eligibility & Guidelines
Prize Eligibility
- Nominations will be accepted for individual works written by living composers.
- Multiple nominations of works by the same composer will not be accepted.
- Only works written and/or premiered after January 1, 2010 are eligible for nomination.
- Nominated works:
- may have already received a premiere performance;
- must not have been commercially recorded (such works are ineligible); and
- must be at least fifteen (15) minutes and no longer than twenty-five (25) minutes in duration.
- Nominations may be submitted by individuals and institutions of all nationalities, faiths, backgrounds and affiliations.
- Composers of nominated works may be of any age, experience level, nationality, faith, background or affiliation.
- Any nominator (individual person or institution) may submit a maximum of two (2) nomination packages, each of which must be for a different composer and their work.
- Eligible works must be shown to be relevant to the field of Jewish music (a written statement of relevancy must be provided.) Please see below the Foundation’s definition of ‘What is Jewish Music’ to ensure that the nominated work complies. All works that do not comply with this definition will be disqualified.
Guidelines for Nominated Works
All nominated works must meet the following guidelines. Any work that does not meet these guidelines will be disqualified.
A nominated work must:
- Demonstrate its relevance to the Prize theme – a celebration of excellence in new Jewish music; and
- be scored for up to fourteen (14) instruments as follows:
- Brass: 1 trumpet, 1 trombone and 1 horn
- Winds: 1 flute, 1 oboe, 1 clarinet and 1 bassoon
- Strings: 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello and 1 double bass
- Piano
- Percussion
- works may also include:
- Up to two (2) soloists (vocal and/or instrumental); and/or
- pre-recorded digital media.
- Proposed works must not exceed sixteen (16) musicians in total.
The Nomination Package
Please note: all documents and media must be submitted electronically via the online application form on or by Sunday September 1, 2019.
All nomination packages must include:
- a completed nomination form;
- a completed work description form;
- a biographical note on the composer of the nominated work (not to exceed 500 words), including pertinent information as to the composer’s engagement with Jewish music;
- the full score of the nominated work in PDF format;
- It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure clarity and legibility of the score.
- A live audio recording of the nominated work (if possible) in MP3 format or a MIDI simulation where a live recording is not available;
where a nominated work contains text not written by the composer, provide proof of the right to use the selected text; and - a written explanatory note (not to exceed 1,000 words) describing those aspects of the nominated work which are relevant to Jewish music.
Composer Agreement
The composer who wins the Azrieli Prize agrees to:
- have their work premiered as part of the AMP Gala Concert; premiered as part of an international concert; and professionally audio recorded, mixed and mastered for commercial release on the Analekta label;
- be available in person for the rehearsals and performances of their winning work; and
- participate in outreach events, workshops, press conferences, media interviews, and other such promotion and education activities as they relate to the Azrieli Music Prizes and its objectives to educate the general public about the enduring appeal and artistic importance of works that result from engaging with the topic of Jewish music.
Criteria
Some Considerations for a Successful Submission
In addition to the guidelines and requirements stated above, the AMP Juries have provided the following considerations to help shape a more successful submission:
- Don’t worry about how ‘Jewish’ you are (or are not) before considering a submission to one of the prizes. People from all faiths, backgrounds and affiliations are equally welcome to apply their artistry, creativity and musicality in response to the Prize themes. In fact, one of the Foundation’s hopes for AMP is to generate productive intercultural understandings through a rich consideration of what Jewish music is and can be.
- Carefully consider the guiding notes in addressing the questions and reflections on what constitutes Jewish music. A successful submission will suggest an interesting, appropriate yet compelling potential response to these questions and reflections in the shape of a musical work. We are calling on composers to extend their own creativity, inquisitiveness and thoughtfulness in seeking out this potential response. It also calls for a deeper, purposeful and conscious consideration of Jewish values and experiences that extend beyond simple representations of Jewish people or subjects, or simple incorporations of Jewish secular, sacred and/or traditional musical materials, depending upon the guideline requirements.
- A submission package must be conceptually and musically balanced. Strong, wonderful musical examples accompanied by an insubstantial and/or ill-researched proposal or explanatory note will not succeed within the competition. The inverse is also true: a strong proposal and/or explanatory note will not compensate for weak musical examples. The two must go hand-in-hand.
- Please note that the quality of submitted scores and recordings greatly affects the Jury’s ability to evaluate your application. Please be sure that submitted scores are easily legible and that recordings are as clear and undistorted as possible. If the quality of the score or sound is so low that it’s difficult to ascertain the artistic product, this will impact an evaluation.
- In the case of the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music, please be certain that the CV and musical examples demonstrate an ability to compose for the available musical forces described in 2020 Prize guidelines (i.e. chamber music for large forces up to 16 musicians.)
Review Process and Criteria
Once received, submissions are first registered and screened by our staff for eligibility and completeness.
Submissions are then pre-screened by a small team of staff and Jury members to evaluate their fit and relevancy to Prize themes. Those submissions that clear the pre-screening stage are then delivered as qualified submissions to the respective AMP Jury for their evaluation.
The Jury will review and grade the qualified submissions using the following three main criteria: Artistic Merit, Technical Merit and Thematic Fit. These criteria are separately weighted based on their level of importance to arrive at a score out of 100 for each evaluated submission.
Artistic Merit (70 points)
This is the most important criteria the Jury applies in evaluating each submission. It is directly tied to the composer’s proven ability to write original concert music of high artistic merit.
The Jury will determine:
- the level of creativity displayed in the conceptual, formal/structural and musical ideas of each qualified submission;
- the ability of the submitted musical examples to sustain a listener’s attention over their entire length;
- the level of authenticity and distinctiveness displayed in the composer’s artistic voice;
- the composer’s ability to work successfully within the complex format of chamber music for large forces (i.e. up to 16 musicians); and
- the composer’s capacity to generate high quality, original and professional musical material based on the AMP guidelines for instrumentation and duration.
Technical Merit (20 points)
The Jury will evaluate each qualified submission with the aim of identifying how well thought-out it is in regards to its use of rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, texture, dynamics and orchestration. They will evaluate these elements especially in regards to how well they express or positively reinforce the composer’s purpose and intentions for the proposed or submitted work, and as they relate to the objectives of the Azrieli Music Prizes.
Thematic Fit (10 points)
The Jury will evaluate whether the qualified submission offers a topical and original fit to the objectives of the Azrieli Music Prizes based on the approved guidelines of what can constitute Jewish music.
What is Jewish Music?
For the purpose of the Azrieli Music Prizes, the Azrieli Foundation defines ‘Jewish music’ as broadly as possible, taking into account the rich and diverse history of Jewish musical traditions, as well as music by Jews and non-Jews, which may be said to incorporate a Jewish thematic or Jewish musical influence.
Jewish themes may vary broadly, and can include biblical, historical, liturgical, secular and/or folk elements.
Fundamentally, the Foundation encourages an understanding of Jewish music as deeply rooted in history and tradition, yet forward-moving and dynamic. As such, it encourages themes and content drawn from contemporary Jewish life and experience.
Jewish music can*:
- be based purposefully and consciously on musical materials traditionally perceived as belonging to a specifically “Jewish melos” – sacred or secular;
- incorporate actual liturgical melodies or secular folk tunes from any one of numerous distinct geographic or cultural Jewish traditions;
- be based on Jewish historical or biblical subjects, events, or characters, or Jewish legends or literary themes;
- include or be founded upon Jewish texts or Jewish literature (prose, poetry, or drama);
- incorporate specifically Jewish languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, or Ladino;
- depict in musical terms, with or without sung or spoken text, visual images of Jewish connection (landscapes in the land of Israel, for example) or scenes of Jewish religious or folk life (a Hassidic gathering, a Yemenite Jewish wedding, or daily life of Jews in an eastern international market town, or shtetl, to cite three examples);
- express moods of Jewish life-cycle events or holy days;
- give voice to Judaic ideas or concepts; and/or
- have been composed expressly for a Jewish commemoration, celebration, ceremony, or other occasion conceived in some way to represent the nature of that occasion.
*excerpted from Dr. Neil W. Levin, The Milken Archive of Jewish Music
For more information about the Azrieli Music Prizes please contact:
Phone: 1-(416)-322-5928 ext. 326
Azrieli Music Prizes
22 St. Clair Ave. East, Suite 202
Toronto, ON M4T 2S3