How do you get university orchestras or bands to play your music?

Hello,

Now, this perhaps varies among universities...

Now, I'm going to be majoring in music composition at the University of Western Ontario, and am starting my first year next year. Without sounding cocky, I understand that they have young composers concerts there, but what I am most curious about is how does one go about getting full orchestral or concert band performances of one's work? I know that they do readings, but is it done by having the conductor first of all LIKE the reading, and then he conciders if it should be performed before everybody else? That's my guess, and the most logical way.

I would suggest first completing the work fully, adding all dynamics and phrasing. Then, bring it to your composition professor. He/she will look through it and tell you what to do to make your piece better. Then, when all who have heard it are completely satisfied, ask for a meeting with the conductor that you wish to conduct your work. Don't just walk up to him/her. Set up a formal meeting for the conductor to look at your score. Also bring a piano reduction so he/she can play it for themselves. If they don't like it, ask them what they don't like about it. If it something that would completely change your piece for the worse, go to another conductor. If it it doable, then edit it and return it. Chances are this way you will get your work performed.

... and how about getting them to play your music if you're not a music major?

If you are not a music major...then still talk to the Composition Professor. And still follow what's written above. Unless they are narcissistic halfwits they should not bite...*trails off*

News flash: most composition professors are narcissistic halfwits......

I was able to get one of my songs performed at my high schools end of the year concert my senior year. I had the song ready to be sung as I saw it, so I talked to my choir director who looked over it and did some editing. I fixed the song to his liking and asked if we could do it at the end of the year concert. To my luck he said yes. That's how it is in the music composition world, you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right song and the right person to hear it. A lot of stuff has to line up, but give it a shot, see what your professor says, if he says no, write another one and try again. Keep trying until you get a song performed, then repeat.

Oh I've got a ton of my stuff done by my high school in front of an audience. At university though it's a bit different, though, isn't it?

News flash: most composition professors are narcissistic halfwits......

not really necessary, no?

I guess you've met most of the composition professors in the world?

as to the original question:

some universities will do regular readings when they have a solid orchestral program running at that school.

however, even most of those universities will only select one or two student works to actually perform in a single school year.

most university orchestras already have very full concert seasons which they must prepare, and very few conductors are willing to take extra time with their student orchestra to perform new works (which is pretty much like professional symphonies, by the way - don't expect to just walk into your local symphony offices and get a reading).

I spent 6 years in university doing both bachelors and masters and I only saw 2 student works get performed in concert in all that time (the university had special competitions two years running). They had twice yearly readings of "excerpts of selected works" (ie: teachers submitted their best student's pieces). And even those readings are hard to get into - don't forget, the university probably has three or four composition teachers, if not more. So the orchestra gets to read through the first 5 minutes of a piece by one single student of each teacher.

I've found that university concert bands were considerably more open-minded to playing/reading new pieces. sadly, my alma mater hasn't had a concert band in years now :(

Oh, my experience is that composition professors, without even looking at the scores that I've brought, have tended to make snide remarks along the lines of "what makes you think you're as good as our music majors?", about self-teaching in general, and about my choice to go into medicine rather than music. If they look, I tend to get dismissed as a "tonalist".

But then I went to a school with *no* music department, virtually no music instructors of any kind other than the conductors of the orchestra, concert band, and choral ensembles, most of whom thought I was just a lousy violist/low-brass-player/singer trying to find some other way to get attention.

Caltech, My experience has been that it

Excuse me... why are you assuming I don't play in these ensembles? I've been in every single one of Caltech's musical ensembles at some time or another (hence my comment about being considered a lousy violist/low brass player/singer), and write only for ensembles I'm in or people I know. I've tried every recommendation you're giving short of actually forming a chamber ensemble, and that's because I don't know enough other musicians who have the time to add another ensemble to their schedule.

Excuse me... why are you assuming I don't play in these ensembles? I've been in every single one of Caltech's musical ensembles at some time or another (hence my comment about being considered a lousy violist/low brass player/singer), and write only for ensembles I'm in or people I know. I've tried every recommendation you're giving short of actually forming a chamber ensemble, and that's because I don't know enough other musicians who have the time to add another ensemble to their schedule.

... and how about getting them to play your music if you're not a music major?

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Oh, my experience is that composition professors, without even looking at the scores that I've brought, have tended to make snide remarks along the lines of "what makes you think you're as good as our music majors?", about self-teaching in general, and about my choice to go into medicine rather than music. If they look, I tend to get dismissed as a "tonalist".

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Have you honestly tried? Have they really dismissed you or is that just what you fear? I'm 14 and I've had my works performed by a college orchestra I am not in and have almost no affiliation to.

I've tried. Multiple times. And we're talking about an orchestra I was in all the way through college. But it may be because we shared an orchestra with a school that *did* have a music department with composition majors... and I was quietly told that performing a work by anyone from Caltech would be an insult to Occidental College's music program, whose composition majors rarely if ever got their stuff performed by the same orchestra.