LunART Festival — Call for Scores (2027)

LunART Festival's annual Call for Scores funds new concert works by women composers, cisgender and transgender alike, of any age, nationality, or career stage, including composer-performers. The piece itself must be under 15 minutes, written for one to six performers drawn from the festival's available instrumentation, and composed since January 2023. Rather than a direct grant, winners receive a $300 cash prize plus a professional live audio and video recording of the piece, a guaranteed performance at the Gala Concert during the 2027 festival (May 18–23), free admission to festival events, and free housing while there. Applying costs a $20 non-refundable fee and means submitting a PDF score, an audio recording, and program notes of no more than 200 words through the New Music Engine platform. Selection is unusually thorough for a call this size: panels of 25 to 30 judges from different musical backgrounds review submissions over three rounds, with three different judges scoring each piece per round, so finalists end up seen by at least nine judges in total, and the process is not anonymous. The call runs from September 1 to October 18, 2026.