Hildegard Competition

Competition Overview

The Hildegard Competition is National Sawdust’s premiere competition for emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers. After a successful inaugural year in the 2017–18 season, the second year of the competition digs deeper into its purpose: Uncovering how gender affects the lens through which music is perceived by providing a platform for composers whose voices are often underrepresented in the conversation. In addition to a $7,000 cash prize and a professional performance and recording with the National Sawdust Ensemble, the winners will receive one-on-one mentorship with the established figures in the field who also serve as judges for the competition: Paola Prestini (National Sawdust’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director), Angélica Negrón, Du Yun, Tania León, and Gavin Rayna Russom. For an overview of last year’s winners, see below.

2019 submissions are now closed.

Rules & Regulations

The Hildegard Competition is National Sawdust’s premiere competition for emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers. After a successful inaugural year in the 2017–18 season, the second year of the competition digs deeper into its purpose: Uncovering how gender affects the lens through which music is perceived by providing a platform for composers whose voices are often underrepresented in the conversation. In addition to a $7,000 cash prize and a professional performance and recording with the National Sawdust Ensemble, the winners will receive one-on-one mentorship with the established figures in the field who also serve as judges for the competition: Paola Prestini (National Sawdust’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director), Angélica Negrón, Du Yun, Tania León, and Gavin Rayna Russom. For application information and an overview of last year’s winners, see below.

While international applicants are encouraged to apply, please note that we do not have budget for travel or accommodations outside of the the winners fee. All winners must be available to be present at National Sawdust during the first week in June 2019, for both the rehearsals and the performance.

2019 Judges

Angélica Negrón

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”. Her music has been performed at the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Ecstatic Music Festival and the 2016 New York Philharmonic Biennial and she has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, loadbang, American Composers Orchestra and Face the Music, among others. Angélica is currently a doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studies composition with Tania León. She’s a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and Lincoln Center Education working with learners of all ages on creative composition projects. Angélica was the 2014-2015 Van Lier Fellow at American Composers Orchestra and was recently selected as one of the recipients for NYFA’s 2016 Artists’ Fellowship Program.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

Paola Prestini

Paola Prestini’s music has been commissioned by and performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, BAM, and Barbican Centre, by Brooklyn Rider, LA Philharmonic, NY Philharmonic, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and others. Her current commissions include a new opera with Robert Wilson and a new opera with Minnesota Opera. She is the founding Artistic Director and co-founder of National Sawdust.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

Gavin Rayna Russom

Gavin Rayna Russom is a New York based multimedia artist and composer of electronic music. Using the analog and digital synthesizer, she has produced a body of extremely influential art and music over the last 15 years. She is perhaps best known as the synthesist in the critically-acclaimed band LCD Soundsystem. Much of her work is informed by her deep relationship with the analog synthesizer, a tool she has applied herself to not only as a composer and player, but also as a designer and builder since 1999.

July 11, 2018/by becki

Tania León

Tania León is a Cuban-born composer, conductor, educator and advisor to arts organizations. In 1969 León became a founding member and the first musical director of Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem, establishing its music department, music school, and orchestra.

July 11, 2018/by becki

Du Yun

Born and raised in Shanghai, China, currently based in NYC, Du Yun * is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performance artist. Her music exists at an artistic crossroads of orchestral, chamber music, theatre, opera, orchestral, cabaret, storytelling, pop music, visual arts and noise.

Hailed by The New York Times as a leading figure in China’s new generation of composers, Du Yun’s music is championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, ensembles, orchestras and organizations. Selected commissions include the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, American Composers Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer/ Commissioning USA, Chamber Music America, and Shanghai Electronic Music Week. Du Yun’s music has also been presented by Festival d’Avignon (France), Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (The Netherlands), Musica Nova Helinski (Finland), Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music (Norway), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAMNextWave, violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Matt Haimovitz, and flutist Claire Chase, Trinity Wall Street, Festival of New Trumpet, Ecstatic Music Festival, 21c Liederabend, the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, and many more.

August 28, 2017/by Zan Emerson

2018 Winners

Emma O’Halloran

Emma O’Halloran is an Irish composer and musician whose work moves freely between acoustic and electronic forces. Currently at doctoral student at Princeton University, Emma has written for folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, and symphony orchestra, along with film and theatre. Her work has been performed at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and MATA Festival, and she has collaborated with artists such as Crash Ensemble, Contemporaneous, the Refugee Orchestra Project, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

An advocate for inclusivity in classical music, Emma is one of the founding members of the #HearAllComposers campaign, a social media campaign designed to bring attention to issues of gender, race and socio-economic discrimination in the music world by positively promoting an inclusive array of composers and their work. She is also a member of Kinds of Kings composer collective.

Emma is interested in exploring the human experience in her work, often trying to map real or imagined moments in time to capture complex and powerful emotions. Current and future projects include a song cycle for Iarla Ó Lionáird and Mobius Percussion, and a 30-minute vocal work for Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation.

When not composing, she can be found hiking, traveling, practicing yoga, and playing on aerial hoops and silks.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

X. Lee

X. Lee, based in Los Angeles, defines their voice by the integration of interaction, electronics, multimedia visuals, gesture/movement performance, spatial design, and the synthesis of acoustic and electronic elements. Their renowned background as a DJ and producer in the techno subculture, juxtaposed with their extensive education and training in classical composition, theory and practice, has given them a unique understanding of the relationship between music, technologies, and the human experience. The fully immersive energy and large-scaled audio-visual interactions of “raves” inspires them to take the abstract concepts and aesthetics of techno into their personal electro-acoustic works. They have participated in summer festivals such as the Conservatoire Americaine de Fontainebleau – under the mentorship of François Paris, Martin Matalon, and Allain Gaussin – and Contemporary Music Creation + Critique at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), which ran alongside ManiFESTE. Their audio-visual electronic works have won calls for scores both from Ensemble Mise-En for Bushwick Open Studios and from Listening to Ladies for Ensemble Ctrl-Z. Most recently, they were featured on the Eastman School of Music’s radio show featuring trans and gender non-binary contemporary composers. In fall 2018, X. Lee will continue their studies in the Cursus Program at IRCAM.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

Kayla Cashetta

Kayla Cashetta is a composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inspired by acoustics, new technologies, and the human experience, she strives to explore the intricacies of inner life and interpret them through sound. Past and current projects include concert works, electronic music, and collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, and songwriters. Her music has been performed at soundSCAPE, the Fontainebleau Summer Sessions, the Loretto Project, the Atlantic Music Festival, and the Center for New Music. Cashetta has worked with ensembles and soloists including the Eco Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, Soo Yeon Lyuh, Matt Ingalls, and Longleash. She is currently a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, where she is studying with Ken Ueno, Franck Bedrossian, Cindy Cox, Myra Melford, and Edmund Campion.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

2018 Judges & Mentors

Angélica Negrón

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”. Her music has been performed at the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Ecstatic Music Festival and the 2016 New York Philharmonic Biennial and she has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, loadbang, American Composers Orchestra and Face the Music, among others. Angélica is currently a doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studies composition with Tania León. She’s a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and Lincoln Center Education working with learners of all ages on creative composition projects. Angélica was the 2014-2015 Van Lier Fellow at American Composers Orchestra and was recently selected as one of the recipients for NYFA’s 2016 Artists’ Fellowship Program.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

Paola Prestini

Paola Prestini’s music has been commissioned by and performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, BAM, and Barbican Centre, by Brooklyn Rider, LA Philharmonic, NY Philharmonic, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and others. Her current commissions include a new opera with Robert Wilson and a new opera with Minnesota Opera. She is the founding Artistic Director and co-founder of National Sawdust.

September 21, 2018/by Zan Emerson

Du Yun

Born and raised in Shanghai, China, currently based in NYC, Du Yun * is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performance artist. Her music exists at an artistic crossroads of orchestral, chamber music, theatre, opera, orchestral, cabaret, storytelling, pop music, visual arts and noise.

Hailed by The New York Times as a leading figure in China’s new generation of composers, Du Yun’s music is championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, ensembles, orchestras and organizations. Selected commissions include the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, American Composers Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer/ Commissioning USA, Chamber Music America, and Shanghai Electronic Music Week. Du Yun’s music has also been presented by Festival d’Avignon (France), Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (The Netherlands), Musica Nova Helinski (Finland), Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music (Norway), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAMNextWave, violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Matt Haimovitz, and flutist Claire Chase, Trinity Wall Street, Festival of New Trumpet, Ecstatic Music Festival, 21c Liederabend, the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, and many more.

August 28, 2017/by Zan Emerson