[Mmmm...Take the Cake cupcakes..]
Today's my birthday. I'm 29. Big deal? Eh, not really, but I have one year until I'm 30.
Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out about getting older (really). I already found my first gray hair (it doesn't blend well, unfortunately) and I keep finding new sets of wrinkles. Also, I've also noticed that I have to start eating more greens and exercising. My student health insurance is so cheap that I really doubt my premium will go up when I hit my 4th decade, so I'm okay there, too. Sadly, this is the last year that I am labeled as a "young composer."
30 is the year when you are no longer a considered a young composer, which is ridiculous, in my opinion. I still think I'm young, but I will be banned from entering certain competitions unless I generate or obtain some sort of fake identification. So, let 2010 be the year where I'm going to apply to these competitions because it is the last time I can. Rejections will follow, I'm sure. Instead of scrapbooking them, I might as well create my own FAIL blog.
- The ASCAP Foundation / Morton Gould Young Composer Awards: These are for students who have not reached their 30th birthday by March 1. Therefore, I can't apply next year. I just want my share of the $30,000 pot.
- NY Youth Symphony's First Music: A $1000 and a performance in Carnegie Hall with the best youth orchestra in the country? Not bad. Considering that my birthday was so early in the year, I assumed the last time I could enter the competition was this past December. Out of panic I sent my symphonic wind ensemble piece with a MIDI mockup (yes, I know), then after I paid the $25 application fee, I realized that I still have until the end of this year to apply. Oops.
- Kronos Under 30: Um, who wouldn't want to write for the kick-ass Kronos Quartet? Problem is, their last press release was from 2007. Upon further review, I saw this small print: "The Kronos: Under 30 Project is not an annual program. Calls for Applications are announced irregularly. Prospective applicants are encouraged to join the Kronos Quartet’s mailing list, through which Calls for Applications are announced." Dear Kronos, please have a competition this year so I may submit my yet-to-be-finished kick-ass 9 violin OR viola piece to you guys, and you can commission me to write something for you. K, thx!
(Oh, by the way, my mother-in-law gave me blogging shoes for my birthday. They are pretty dang awesome.)
