And the Winner Is...

On November 1, 2017, the Mormon Arts Center issued a Call For Submissions to approximately 25 LDS composers. We invited them to create a proposal for a new work to be premiered at the Festival in June, 2018. Specifically for a family concert, we wanted a new piece for narrator and small ensemble, approximately 20-25 minutes, that would engage children in some way. Our examples were Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Poulenc's L'Histoire de Babar. The winning composer would receive a $3,000 prize and a travel stipend to attend the premiere.

Ten composers responded with their ideas. They described what their imagined work would be like. All of the proposals sounded exciting, but the six-member jury panel circled around three possibilities. This was tricky because they were each very different from the other. And to be honest, any of the proposals we received would have produced a wonderful work. 

As a jury we weighed a few things: how would the work play for our specific audience and event? Which work did we imagine to be the highest quality? And finally, which of the submissions did we feel like we could produce the best? That is, could we do it justice?

We were pleased to announce on November 17 that Andrew Maxfield was the winner of our first composer's commission. His source material is the 2017 Caldecott Honor book, They All Saw a Cat, by Brendan Wenzel. 

The world premiere will take place Saturday, June 30, at the Italian Academy in New York City.