Call for Scores

Each year the Lake George Music Festival picks one or two chamber works from an open international call and programmes them into its upcoming summer season in Queensbury, New York. The point is a real performance by professional players, not a certificate — selected composers are invited up to work with the musicians during the rehearsal period, and may be asked to speak with the festival's Composers Institute if the scheduling works out.

Any composer can enter, at any age and from any country, students included. Past winners cannot re-enter, and you may submit only one piece per cycle. The work must be original chamber music written in the last five years, no longer than 25 minutes, scored for three to eight players drawn from a fixed instrument list, acoustic, with no more than two of any one instrument and no two-piano writing. Premieres are not required; previously performed and recorded pieces are fine. If you play an instrument outside the list, you can ask to perform in your own work, with no extra fee.

There is no application fee. You submit through an online form during the window, with a cleanly engraved score and a recording — live preferred, MIDI accepted — at a publicly accessible link; password-protected or broken links disqualify. Everything must be in English. Results come two to three months after the call closes. Winners get a $250 travel stipend, lodging and some meals, and must supply engraved score and parts as PDFs. Judges weigh artistic merit alongside how practical the piece is to rehearse in a short window, and the festival says it deliberately favours no single style.