Call for Compositions

The competition is open to composers aged 18 or older who are legal residents of a Creative Europe eligible country. There are no restrictions on nationality or citizenship. At least one commission will be awarded to a composer aged 35 or under.

Legal residency refers to your principal place of residence — the country where you are officially registered and actually live at the time of the submission deadline (31 July 2026). Citizenship or nationality alone is not sufficient. Financial or administrative ties to a country, such as a bank account, phone number, or family connections, do not constitute legal residency. Applicants must be able to demonstrate legal residency through official documentation showing their name and registered address in a Creative Europe eligible country — for example, a national ID card, official registration document, or equivalent issued by local authorities.

Unfortunately not. While a UK-based ensemble is indeed participating as part of the Europasinfonie orchestra, eligibility for the composition competition is governed by the Creative Europe programme’s list of eligible countries, as set out in Section 6.3 of the Call for Scores. The United Kingdom is not currently included in this list. Legal residency in one of the listed Creative Europe eligible countries at the time of the submission deadline (31 July 2026) is required.

You submit an excerpt of at least 2 minutes from your proposed work. If selected, you will develop this into a full commissioned work of 15 to 20 minutes.

No. The competition is open to individual composers only. Each submission must be the sole work of a single composer. Co-authored works are not eligible.

Yes. You may enter one or both categories, submitting one excerpt per category. The jury will commission two orchestral works and one orchestral work with choir.

Yes. All scores must be submitted without the composer’s name or any identifying information. Any submission containing such details will be disqualified. Composers should use only a code name or working title on their materials.

The participating ensembles are grouped into three latency zones – ranging from under 20 ms to around 35-40 ms. Composers are encouraged to treat these not as technical constraints but as creative material. Detailed technical information is available in the downloadable Call for Scores.

This is an important question. According to the current technical concept described in the Call for Scores (Annex: Technical Concept), all audio signals are routed through a central server in Frankfurt/Main in a star topology: each location transmits its signal to Frankfurt, which mixes and simultaneously relays it to all participants. Under this model, the latency between any two remote locations depends on the combined signal paths of both through Frankfurt.

The technical development of Europasinfonie is an ongoing process. Alternative network configurations are currently being discussed and tested in collaboration with the artistic and technical teams. Any updates to the technical parameters — including detailed inter-orchestra latency data — will be published on this website as the project develops. All values remain indicative at this stage.

Yes. The Europasinfonie orchestra is a distributed ensemble in which each partner organisation contributes a specific group of instruments. Composers are expected to write for the full instrumentation as set out in the Call for Scores. All instrumental groups — and therefore all partner locations — should have meaningful parts in the work.

No. Parts must be written for all three members of the percussion section: the timpanist (5 timpani) and both percussionists. However, the Call for Scores does not prescribe specific instruments for the two percussionists — composers are free to choose which percussion instruments they use, as long as all three players are actively engaged in the work.

The percussion section is contributed by the Brussels Philharmonic. All standard orchestral percussion instruments are available, including timpani, concert bass drums, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba (4⅓ octaves), glockenspiel, tubular bells, tam-tams, cymbals, snare drums, toms, crotales, temple blocks, woodblocks, congas, bongos, wind machine, thunder plate, lion’s roar, and a broad range of auxiliary instruments.

For non-standard or unusual instruments, requirements will be assessed individually. Commissioned composers will have the opportunity to clarify specific needs with the ensemble after the jury selection.

Basic use of electronics is possible. Composers wishing to incorporate electronic elements must bring their own technical equipment to Dresden and operate it themselves or with the assistance of a designated operator. Electronic signals can be fed to the front-of-house mixing desk via a stereo XLR input. Room-based or surround sound configurations are not possible within the performance setup.

Complex sensor-based systems — such as those involving body-worn sensors, EEG devices, or similar technologies — exceed the technical scope that the production can accommodate and are therefore not permitted.

Any use of electronic elements must be approved by the Sound Director of the performance. Specific technical requirements will be coordinated individually with commissioned composers after the jury selection.

Yes. 5 five-string double basses can be guaranteed.

Yes. The trombone and tuba section is contributed by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Tallinn. Their confirmed setup includes a tuba and up to three trombones, one of which may be a bass trombone.

There is no maximum page size. The competition submission consists of a PDF file only — no printed score is required at any stage of the application process, regardless of page format.

However, composers who choose to work in a format larger than A3 should be aware that if their work is selected, they will be responsible for providing a printed conducting score as part of the final delivery of the commissioned work. Printing and any associated costs are the responsibility of the composer.

Texts must be in a language of one of the Creative Europe eligible countries (see Section 6.3 of the Call for Scores for the full list). Multilingual texts are accepted. Latin is also permitted as an additional exception, given its longstanding tradition in choral music and its shared European cultural heritage.

Composers are responsible for securing all necessary rights to any text used. Confirmation of rights status will be required in the application form. For texts in less widely spoken languages, an English translation must be submitted alongside the score excerpt.