SMU's Syrlane Albuquerque a winner
in the 2011 North Texas Young Composers Project

DALLAS (SMU) — Syrlane Albuquerque, a student in the master’s degree program in music composition at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, has been named one of two college winners of the 2011 North Texas Young Composers Project sponsored by Voices of Change and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Her composition “Rondo for Flute and Piano” won the top prize of $500 and will be performed, along with the other winners’ compositions, in a special concert in the Bob Hope Lobby on April 10.  Albuquerque, a native of Brazil, is a student of SMU composition faculty members Xi Wang and Simon Sargon.

Now in its 11th year, the North Texas Young Composers Project (NTYCP) is intended to identify and encourage exceptionally talented young composers in North Texas.  Regional high school, undergraduate, and graduate students aged 30 and younger are invited to submit original music compositions for evaluation. From these submissions, four promising young composers – two in high school, two in college – are selected to receive cash prizes, and have their work performed by professional musicians.

This year, students were invited to submit works for any combination of violin, cello, piano and flute.  Submissions could also include computer or pre-recorded sound sources.  Compositions were evaluated on the basis of artistic merit, technical mastery and originality. The judge this year was Dr. Martin Blessinger, music composition faculty at Texas Christian University.

In addition to Albuquerque, winners included Adam Giese of Baylor University, who received $150 for his composition “Fragments for Flute and Piano,”  and high school students Christopher Poovey of Plano and Chase Dobson of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The four winning composers will participate in several events on Sunday, April 10, at the Meadows School:

• They and the other competition entrants have been invited to attend a master class with nationally acclaimed composer Bruce Adolphe at 3 p.m. Adolphe, who is also a renowned educator and speaker, is the host of NPR’s Piano Puzzlers.
      
• At 5 p.m., the winning compositions will be performed by SMU musicians Jason Ballmann (piano), David Ngo (flute) and Maura Bellmio (violin) in the Bob Hope Lobby of the Owen Arts Center.
       
• At 7:30 p.m., the composers will attend a Voices of Change concert, featuring works by Bruce Adolphe; they will receive their awards and certificates in a ceremony during the concert and attend a reception afterwards. 

SMU students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the April 10 Voices of Change concert, “The Tiger’s Ear: Music of Bruce Adolphe,” at 7:30 p.m. in Caruth Auditorium. A pre-concert forum begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free with a valid SMU ID.

For more information, call the Voices of Change at 214-378-8670 or email info@voicesofchange.org.