Announcing the 10th Rivers Awards Composition Competition (RACC) 2021

The Shanghai Conservatory of Music has announced the 10th Rivers Awards Composition Competition (RACC). RACC aims to promote extensive exchange between Chinese and Western music, encouraging innovative and explorative composition for Chinese and Western musical instruments, and build a high-end platform to introduce outstanding original musical works to the public. A positive theme that embodies the spirit of the modern era is a basic requirement for the entries of this competition, which should be created with novel methods and rich in artistic appeal. The jury will consist of experts and professors from prestigious Chinese and international music institutions.

This competition is open to participants under the age of 45 (born after December 31st, 1976) regardless of their nationality, location, or profession. The participants may be professional composers or teachers and students specializing in composition. No entry fee will be required from the participants. Entries of the competition should be composed for the following designated Chinese and Western musical instruments, involving a total number of 3-9 performers: 1 Dizi-bamboo flute (doubling Xiao), 1 Pipa, 1 Erhu and 1 piano, 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass. (Further details about the Chinese instruments can be downloaded here.) Pre-recorded music or electronic music compositions will not be accepted. The duration of the music should be 5-8 minutes and be marked clearly on the first page of the score.

The compositions submitted for this competition should be of original music work composed by each participant him/herself that has not been officially published or received any official awards. Participants should provide a clean and clear score of his/her composition anonymously. Any sign or mark made to the score that has no relation to the composition itself he/she will be disqualified. Any composition that doesn’t meet the above requirements will be disqualified. Members of the Jury Panel and the Organizing Committee are not allowed to take part in the competition. All materials submitted will be kept on file by the Host and will not be returned. The decision on the result of the competition made by the Jury Panel shall be held as final and definitive.

All the materials required must be submitted by post (subject to postmark date) or by e-mail before 5:00pm, Monday, September 6th, 2021.

Application materials required include:

a) a tidy and clear score;
b) a registration form correctly filled and signed by the participant (download Microsoft Word file of the form here)
c) a recently-taken photo (33m*49mm);
d) a copy of the participant’s valid ID card or the biographical page of his/her passport (which contains picture and personal information)

Physical submissions should be mailed to the following address:

Organizing Committee of the 10th Rivers Awards Composition Competition
Composition and Conducting Department, Shanghai Conservatory of Music
Room 304, Teaching Building, No. 20 Fenyang Rd., Shanghai, China
Post Code: 200031
Contact: LIN Xuran

Electronic submissions of the four required documents (the score should be provided in pdf format) should be sent via email to the Organizing Committee at [email protected]

Participants may contact the Organizing Committee if they have any questions or enquires.

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 008621-64314220
Fax: 008621-64314220
Website: www.shcmusic.edu.cn/view_0.aspx?cid=3&id=509&navindex=0
(The website in Chinese, but files linked on the bottom of the index page are in Chinese and English.)

To ensure fairness of the competition, all the composition works will be numbered and sealed up before selection. The competition will be divided into two stages. The preliminary round will be based on the submitted scores and ten finalists will be selected. The finals will take place in the form of a final live performance, where the award-winning compositions will be selected and announced. In the light of the seriousness and authoritativeness of the competition, certain awards will be left vacant if no composition meets the criteria.

The awards for the competition are categorized as follows:

First Prize 1 ¥ 50,000
Second Prize 2 ¥ 30,000
Third Prize 3 ¥ 10,000
Finalist Prize 4 ¥ 5,000

The finalists should participate in the Final Live Concert and the Summit Forum of Rivers Awards-Winning Works, with their travel and accommodation expenses during the competition covered by the Host.

Time of the Final Live Concert: 7:15 p.m., Tuesday, October 12th, 2021
Venue: He Luting Concert Hall, Shanghai Conservatory of Music

The winners of the competition will be announced on site upon the completion of the concert, which will be followed by the awards ceremony.

The Composer Forum of Rivers Awards – Winning Works

Basic information:
i) Time: 9:00am -11:30am, Wednesday, October 13th, 2021
ii) Venue: Lecture Concert Hall of Shanghai Conservatory of Music
iii) Participants: competition finalists, jury members, performers, teachers and students of the Composition and Conducting Department of SHCM, and other conferees.

Summit agenda:
i) Speeches by the representative of the organizer and the chairman of the jury panel;
ii) Brief introduction of their works by prize winners (five minutes for each);
iii) Comments and discussions on prize-winning works by jury members;
iv) Comments and discussions on prize-winning works by performers;
v) Communication and exchange between conferees including the competition finalists, jury members, performers, teachers and students of the Composition Department of SHCM;
vi) Summary speech by the representative of the organizer, and release of the competition information.

Other Terms

Relevant rights:
i) The award winner holds the copyright of the winning composition.
ii) The award winner must agree to grant the following rights to the Host free of charge:
a) The organizer has the right to use the award-winning composition or any other forms of audio-visual products for non-commercial purpose.
b) The organizer has the right to premiere the award-winning composition and the priority to publish and perform the winning composition.
iii) Each award-winning composition, regardless of when and wherever it is performed, should be marked as a *** prize-winning composition of the 10th Rivers Awards Composition Competition 2021 on the cover of the score or the program list of a concert. For example, In English: (This is) A third prize-winning composition of the 10th Rivers Awards Composition Competition 2021.