First Year for DeBartolo Performing Arts Center Presenting Series Music Competition

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Sept. 22, 2014 - PRLog -- To mark the October 3 Presenting Series world premiere performance of Wild Sound by ensemble-in-residence Third Coast Percussion, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center Presenting Series announces its first contemporary music competition.

The #wildsound Contest accepts entries September 22 through November 17, 2014. Amateur and emerging songwriters should enter an original song using found sound at performingarts.nd.edu/wildsound. Composer Glenn Kotche’s use of “wild sound,” field recordings of everyday objects and places made during a recent Wilco world tour, inspired the competition. The contest connects the next generation to the creative process behind Wild Sound, while advancing contemporary classical music and the work of promising musicians.

Executive Director Anna M. Thompson applauded the competition. "One of the growing strengths of the Presenting Series is innovative collaborations between leading professional touring artists, Notre Dame students and our community. With our ensemble-in-residence, Third Coast Percussion, we are finding that contemporary music is an extremely powerful way of building and supporting that connection."

The #wildsound Contest is open to U.S. residents who must be 18 years old or older at the time they enter the competition. Finalists advance to compete for first and second place prizes in the final round. The nine members of the Executive Judging Panel include Kotche (http://glennkotche.com/), eighth blackbird’s Tim Munro (http://www.eighthblackbird.org/ensemble/), experimental bassist Darin Gray (http://www.darin-gray.com/), David Skidmore, Rob Dillon, Peter Martin and Sean Connors of Third Coast Percussion (http://www.thirdcoastpercussion.com/), Thompson (http://performingarts.nd.edu/about/thompson.aspx) and Jay Brockman (http://engineering.nd.edu/profiles/jbrockman) of the University of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering.

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center is the University of Notre Dame’s multi-venue performing arts facility. Celebrating its 10th anniversary year season, the Presenting Series consistently presents professional touring artists among the most acclaimed in music, contemporary dance and theater. As a lead and co-commissioner of novel works in the performing arts since 2008, under the leadership of Anna M. Thompson, the center’s Presenting Series leaves the University of Notre Dame a legacy of 28 new works toured in national and international presentations. During the 2014–2015 season an additional 10 commissions, one for each year, have their world premieres at Notre Dame.

In addition, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center recently endowed its on-going arts education programs. Workshops and residencies for K-12 youth, Notre Dame students and area educators are provided by the Presenting Series renowned artists, as well as through the Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program in partnership with the South Bend Community School Corporation.

The center also houses the Browning Cinema and supports the College of Arts & Letters (https://www.nd.edu/the-arts/academics/)’ teaching, scholarship and presentations in the performing arts and cinematic arts.

For additional information and rules for the #wildsound Contest or to submit an entry, go to performingarts.nd.edu/wildsound

Contact:
Leigh Hayden
DeBartolo Performing Arts Center
Director of External Relations
574.631.2726
hayden.22@nd.edu

Tweet about #wildsound Contest at https://twitter.com/DeBartoloArtsND

Wild Sound was commissioned by the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. Additional support provided by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series.

Third Coast Percussion with composer and special guest Glenn Kotche is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works. This presentation is supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, which is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from Indiana Arts Commission and General Mills Foundation.

The Presenting Series is supported by the Morris Inn, WSBT-TV and Express Press Incorporated.