No time like the present for a call for scores announcement!

As many of you know, Phantom recently wrapped our second call for scores. This time around, we separated the process into two parts: our initial judging and a finalist round,
in which we look at works from ten to fifteen composers and make our selections. In no particular order, our finalist composers for the Winter Call for Scores are:

• Joshua Carro, a CalArts (and ASU!) alum exploring the space between sound and music through a variety of projects, including his own compositional creations and his adventures with BLOOD OATH and Ehnahre.
• Stephen F. Lilly, a composer focused on the concert ritual, incidental noise, visual gesture, and nontraditional techniques.
• Charles Halka, a veteran of the Cabrillo Music Festival and a visiting lecturer at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose works often intersect with theatre and dance.
• Justin Merritt, an Associate Professor of Composition at St. Olaf College, whose oratorio, The Path, premieres this weekend in Minneapolis.
• Edward D. Wood IV, who is currently studying with Dr. Paul Dickinson at the University of Central Arkansas.
• Nathan Peace, a self-described amateur composer based in St. Louis who works in emergency medicine professionally and writes really fun music in his spare time.
• Björn Griesheimer, a German composer, conductor, and organist based in Lueneberg whose choral compositions have won awards internationally.
• Jon Corelis, whose love for literature and folk has sparked a recent collection of Celtic folk song arrangements.
• Sy Brandon, Professor Emeritus of Music at Millersville University, whose career spans six decades and countless works for instrumental ensembles.
• Jacob Elkin, an internationally performed composer and trombonist based in Brooklyn who frequently advocates for new music in his freelancing work.
• Greg Simon, a composer and jazz trumpeter whose works have been performed by Alarm Will Sound and the California All-State Symphonic Band, who also performs Balinese gamelan and holds a DMA from the University of Michigan.
• Marina Romani, an internationally-performed Italian composer whose work Haec nos oblatio was performed in St. Peter’s Basilica as part of Missa pro humilibus terrae, a collectively-composed mass dedicated to Pope Francis.
• Emiliano Manna, also hailing from Rome, is an IT engineer currently studying with Elisabetta Pacelli at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory.

We look forward to better getting to know these composers’ work as we complete the selection process. Stay tuned for our announcement on May 1 to find out who wins! ♦