Snowbird

For the first half of this week, I spent my time up at Snowbird for the Barlow Competition for Music Composition. I was an intern in charge of making sure the judging process ran smoothly, quickly and efficiently. I had done this internship once before. This year, the commissioned piece was for A Cappella Chorus. My experience this year was pretty much like the one I experienced two years ago (I covered it in detail in three installments here, here and here) but never really addressed the venue where the competition judging takes place.

Snowbird Resort is absolutely beautiful. Everyone is set up in their own private rooms, including the interns and all meals and snacks were taken care of by the Barlow. This is the view from my room on the top floor.

Our stay up at Snowbird isn't entirely about judging the entries that came in, but there is also quite a bit of leisure time to hike, swim, chat or whatever one would like to do. Meals are particularly great times for interns to rub shoulders with the judges. They offer helpful information about composing, how to market your music, places to apply for school, etc. They are also people just like anyone else and they have other interests outside of music. They like to have fun, joke around and laugh.

They have planned for us, on one of the days, to take a hike to Cecret Lake, which is a water shed up in the mountains. Depending on how the judging is progression determines whether there will be time for that or not. This year, there was plenty of time for the hike and for a tram ride to one of the mountain peaks near Snowbird.

 This is Cecret Lake. So clear and beautiful.

I know the sign said no swimming, but one of the judges couldn't resist taking a dip. 

There were some great skipping rocks.

This really was a great time to be in Snowbird. The weather was mild, thanks to afternoon showers and the wildflowers were going crazy. They were so pretty and they were everywhere.

Since the judging was moving along quickly and we finished ahead of schedule, we were able to take the tram ride to the mountain peak.

Barlow Endowment Day 3

I couldn't believe the last day arrived so quickly! On this final day, we all gathered together one last time to pick out our recipients of the general and lds commissions. The best part was that multiple winners could be chosen. That was also the worst part because we wanted them all to get something.

The process of elimination happened just like the day before for the prize. However, when we came down to a few, they were the recipients! No further weeding needed to happen. However, another factor was thrown into the equation. The Barlow Endowment only had so much money for these commissions. So, the judges began the process of 'who really deserves how much?'. It was interesting to see as some asking prices were left untouched and others were slashed significantly. By midday, the commissions were negotiated and everything calculated and was in harmony with what the Barlow was willing to award.

I had so much fun with this internship. It has been a remarkable opportunity for me. I learned so many valuable things in just 3 days and gained some new friendships. I'm all fired up to be a composer, especially after hearing what the winners were writing. I wanted to be one of them. I wanted to feel like I was being rewarded for my talent. Of course, I always feel rewarded by my talents, but it's also nice when the world recognizes these talents.

Sometimes, I think I'm crazy for pursuing a career in music. I wonder everyday about how I will support myself and my future family. One thing I do know is that I am definitely doing what I love. I have no regrets about doing it. There is nothing that a little hard work won't do for you. All of my hard work has been rewarded. If I do all I'm supposed to and put the rest into my Heavenly Father's hands, I know that He will take care of me. I love music. There is nothing that I would rather be doing.

Barlow Endowment Day 2

Let the final judging begin!

On the second day of my internship in the mountains, we all convened together with our 4-6 applications that we felt were the best from our rooms the previous day. After we had all gathered, us, the interns, presented the applicants to the judges. We played a sample of their music for them, similar to what we listened to in the individual rooms, while they took notes. Quietly, we moved onto the next application. We did this for all 20 applications that were brought to the table. After every application had been presented, there was discussion.

Discussion was rather interesting to me. It seemed that the best applications naturally rose to the top of the pack. The was something that distinguished them from all the other applicants. Quickly, all the applications were whittled down to a few. This is when I thought things would get ugly. I thought that one person was going to stick with one application to the very end and never be convinced that someone else was going to win. It started to look that way. We took another listen to the pieces. Listened to some additional things in more depth. This then led to more discussion. Surprisingly, all of the judges came to a consensus  rather fast. "What? That's it? No fighting? No yelling or screaming?"

The judges were very respectful of each other's opinions and rather than fighting, they presented their concerns and arguments and were completely open to what others had to say. It was quite remarkable and amazing.

Shortly after lunch, a winner had been decided for the prize.

After all this, we were given a little break. We then had the task of going through the general and lds applications. This process was much faster as there were fewer applications to sort through.

The general applications are different from the prize applications in a few ways. First of all, there is no set commission money. They can name their composer fee. As much or as little as they want. Second, they don't have to write for a specific ensemble. They can choose anything they want. The purpose of the general commission is to promote new music and to help young and old composers alike to actively create new music. Also, because this is an endowment from Brigham Young University, it has a special category for lds composers.

We chose the final applications, which were to be brought to the table the next morning.