The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition is a scholarship established in September 1983 through the generosity of Milton A. and Gloria Barlow. Motivated by their love of music, the Barlows presented a substantial gift to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

, engendering and supporting excellence in musical composition through the university and the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications. The Barlow Endowment Board of Directors and Board of Advisors have subsequently been engaged in employing the proceeds of the Endowment to support four programs: The Barlow Prize, General Commissions, LDS Composer Commissions, and Education Grants.." Every year, the Endowment hosts an international composition competition. Applications from across the globe are accepted and reviewed by a panel of musicians. The winners are selected and commissioned to compose new works during the next year.

Barlow prize

Each year, the Barlow Endowment selects a genre for the Barlow Prize. Arrangements are made for a piece to be composed for and performed by ensembles who specialize in that genre. The 15- to 20-minute work is expected to meet the highest artistic requirements for the medium. Additional specifications for the work will be negotiated among the Barlow Endowment, the composer, and the performing consortium.

General commissions

Any composer, (or agent, artist or ensemble applying on behalf of a particular composer) may submit an application for a general commission. The only requirement is that all requested application materials be submitted together. Composers applying for a general commission are to submit a request as to how much funding their piece will require, and for whom it will be written. Composers seeking General or LDS commissions may not apply for both types of commissions during the same year and should submit no more than one proposal to any program.

LDS commissions

Composers who belong to

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS) or any composer willing to address LDS subject matter can apply for an LDS commission. LDS subject matter would include LDS standard scriptural works, such as the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

, the

Doctrine and Covenants The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...

, the Pearl of Great Price, and hymns from the LDS hymnbook. Other texts that address LDS theology would also be considered "LDS subject matter." Composers applying for an LDS commission are to submit a request as to how much funding their piece will require, and for whom it will be written. Composers seeking General or LDS commissions may not apply for both types of commissions during the same year and should submit no more than one proposal to any program.

Education grants

The Barlow Education Grants are monies allocated from the Barlow Endowment to the composition faculty of the BYU School of Music. Faculty members use some of those funds to promote and facilitate their own work (copying costs, recordings, travel to premieres or conferences, etc.) and the rest to support the students and their work (via scholarships, travel funds, visiting lecturers and so forth).

Notable past winners

* Samuel Adler * Matthew Barnson * Kurt Bestor * Judith Bingham *

William Bolcom William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He ...

Michael Colgrass Michael Charles Colgrass (April 22, 1932 – July 2, 2019) was an American and Canadian musician, composer, and educator. He was an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre. Early life and education Colgrass was born in Brookfield, I ...

* Robert Cundick * Brian Current *

Mario Davidovsky Mario Davidovsky (March 4, 1934 – August 23, 2019) was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions ca ...

* Stacy Garrop * Daniel E. Gawthrop * Henryk Gorecki *

Daron Hagen Daron Aric Hagen ( ; born November 4, 1961) is an American composer, writer, and filmmaker. Biography Early life Daron Hagen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in New Berlin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Hagen was the youngest of ...

Stephen Hartke Stephen Paul Hartke (born July 6, 1952) is an American composer. Hartke is best known as the composer of ''Meanwhile – Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays,'' winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2013 ...

Ted Hearne Ted Hearne (born 1982) is an American composer, singer and conductor. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Biography Ted Hearne was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where he was a member of the Chicago Children's Choir and gradu ...

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as direct ...

Lowell Liebermann Lowell Liebermann (born February 22, 1961, in New York City) is an American composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1. He studied at the Juilliar ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

* S. Andrew Lloyd * Dan Locklair * Harold Meltzer * Haruhito Miyagi see "2020" * Tawnie Olson * Forrest Pierce * Narong Prangcharoen *

Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for his opera ''The Hours (opera), The Hours'' and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera ''Silent Night (opera), Silent Night'' and a Grammy Award i ...

David Rakowski David Rakowski (born June 13, 1958, St. Albans, Vermont) is an American composer and typeface designer. He studied under such composers as Robert Ceely, John Heiss, Milton Babbitt, Peter Westergaard, Paul Lansky, and Luciano Berio. In 2006, he ...

Shulamit Ran Shulamit Ran (; born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize ...

Kurt Rohde Kurt is a male given name in Germanic languages. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Konrad/Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. Like Conrad, it can also a surname an ...

* Bekah Simms * Christopher Theofanidis *

Augusta Read Thomas Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. B ...

Joan Tower Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New Y ...

George Tsontakis George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor. Early life and education He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and ...

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. Early life Whitacre was born in Reno, Nevada, to Ross and Roxanne Whitacre. He studied piano intermittently as a child a ...

Mack Wilberg Mack J. Wilberg (born February 20, 1955) is an American composer, arranger, pianist, conductor, and choral clinician who has been the music director of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) since ...

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (, ; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, c ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Barlow Endowment web page
1983 establishments in Utah Brigham Young University Awards established in 1983