What is Hey, Mozart! New Mexico
Hey, Mozart! New Mexico, is a creative and collaborative intergenerational music-making project centered on a children’s composition competition. Children aged 12 and under from throughout the state submit an original melody to the project either in music notation or in a recording of a performance. The emphasis is on the original melody, not the performance skills of the child.
From the pool of melodies, 16 are selected to become part of the original project. These children work with a professional or university student arranger, also from New Mexico, to create an orchestral version of the melody. In the fall, Hey, Mozart! New Mexico presents a concert with its partner, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, at which each child performs his/her melody and then hears for the first time a live orchestra perform it before a crowd of 600. A professionally produced DVD is made of the performance.
Children are encouraged to value individual creativity and they gain self-confidence as a collaborator with a more experienced musician. Student arrangers have a commission for their portfolio and professional arrangers say they enjoy setting aside their own ideas to reconnect with the innate creativity of children.
In addition to performing at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, many of the composers are interviewed by press and on radio or TV and enjoy other performance opportunities. Both the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra have included local child composers in their outreach to fourth and fifth graders. Child composers have also appeared with the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras, the San Juan College Community Orchestra, the Santa Fe Community Orchestra and in individual performances around the state.
In 2009 the project collaborated with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony to create a “Master Class” category for children who have already had the Hey, Mozart! experience as a selected composer. Arrangers associated with the AYS orchestrated the melodies for the youth orchestra skill level. The two organizations anticipate sharing this music by children and for children with other youth ensembles.1. Can children from other states submit applications?
The Hey, Mozart! New Mexico child composer project is only open to children resident in New Mexico. If someone is interested in starting the project in another area, they should contact its creator, Dr. Alejandro Rutty at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Here is a link to the website with information and Dr. Rutty’s contact information: www.uncg.edu/mus/composition/heymozart.html
2. How long should the melody be?
One minute or even less time will give a child the opportunity to communicate a melody.
3. Must the submission be only a bare melody?
Children who can are encouraged to present a more developed piece including harmonization or instrumentation. Each submission, however, will be judged on the originality and musicality of the underlying melody.
4. May a child submit more than one melody?
Yes, but each melody must be accompanied by a separate, signed application and release.
5. How do we know if a child has been selected?
The children who are selected to have their melodies arranged will be notified by email. In addition, they will be published in the Hey, Mozart! New Mexico newsletter and on the website in May 2011 for the 2011 competition.
6. How do I get more information on the project?
Go to our website at www.heymozartnm.org. We also encourage you to send us your email address so we can add you to the email list for the quarterly newsletter. Just send an email to us at heymozartnm@gmail.com asking to be on the email list.
7. Are composers provided with financial assistance to attend the concert in Albuquerque?
Composers living more than 60 miles from Albuquerque will be reimbursed for mileage under the State of New Mexico regular reimbursement rate which as of August 24, 2011 was $0.32 per mile. The project also has arranged a special room rate at a local hotel near the venue. Composer families are responsible for this cost
8. Why do you ask that parents sign a release?
We ask that parents confirm that the child’s melody has been developed by him/her without assistance from parent or teacher except for notating the melody. They also must agree to give the copyright for the orchestrated version to Hey, Mozart! New Mexico. Finally, parents agree to let us publish the name, city and school attended by the composer. We do not identify the kids pictured on our website, but we do use pictures with identification to send to local papers to make them aware of a composer in their area.
9. What is the deadline?
Melodies submitted to the project must be postmarked no later than March 31, 2011 and children must have been born on or after March 31, 1998.
10. Can my child copyright his/her melody?
The child as the creator of the original melody may copyright that melody, but he/she gives Hey, Mozart! New Mexico the right to have the melody arranged and then copyrighted by the project.
11. Are there performance opportunities for the composers other than the Albuquerque concert on November 4, 2011?
The project tries all year long to find performance opportunities in local communities for the composers. Certain composers from past competitions have performed with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, the San Juan College Community Orchestra, the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, the Santa Fe Community Orchestra and the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras. In addition some composers have performed at school board meetings, Culture Day at the State Capitol Building, and other events. We encourage parents and teachers to help us find more opportunities.
12. Who are the arrangers?
The arrangers are New Mexican music professionals or students attending New Mexico universities. As much as possible, we try to match a child with an arranger in his/her area to encourage communication between the two. While this is not always possible, the arrangers do speak with the children and solicit their ideas for further development of the melody.
13. If my child is selected, what is the schedule for the night of the concert?
We ask our young composers to be at the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Journal Theatre at 5:30 pm on the night of the concert scheduled for November 4, 2011. This enables them to get checked in, practice their piece on stage and generally get acquainted with the facility. Parents cannot go backstage with the children, but volunteers escort them to and from the backstage area.
Following the concert, we have a small reception where the composers can speak with the arrangers and musicians. It is a great photo op time.
Special seating is arranged down front in the theatre for immediate family. The concert is free to the public while tickets last. Families may tell us in advance how many tickets they will need.
14. What is the “Master Class” category?
Because the project offers such a unique opportunity, the Hey, Mozart! New Mexico board felt that it should go to the greatest number of children possible. Several children had been selected more than once so a rule was adopted that a child may be selected only once for the regular child composer project and concert. However, to encourage those children to keep composing, we added a “Master Class” category. Children who have already been selected as composers may apply again but only in the “Master Class” category. For this category we are collaborating with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony and hopefully youth orchestras in other areas of the state to have these works arranged for youth orchestras. At the youth symphony concert (dates determined by the symphonies) the child will perform his/her melody and then step back into the orchestra to perform the orchestrated version. We hope to make this music available to youth orchestras around the state. (Children who have received honorable mention previously may continue to submit to the original project.)
Goals of Hey, Mozart! New Mexico
- Provide New Mexico children an opportunity for individual creative expression
- Allow children to participate in a professional music enterprise culminating in a CD and one or more live performances
- Have children co-create a music repertoire for children
- Make possible a life transforming experience for children initiated by their own independent music composition
- Promote music appreciation in children, especially those limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability
- Advance statewide arts education and support music educators
