The Start:
 
The Alumni Association of Young Concert Artists established the YCA Composer Program in 1994. Originally a two-year Residency, the program is now extended to offer ongoing management and membership on the YCA roster.

The Program Offers:
 
During the first two Composer-in-residence years, two YCA commissions of $5,000 are awarded for works to be written for new YCA artists, to be premiered in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

YCA’s ongoing management services include the securing and contracting of commissions and performances, publicity, and promotion.

Application Requirements:
 
Composers who apply to the program must be recommended by a YCA Artist or YCA Alumnus/a, a member of YCA’s Composer Recommendation Panel, ASCAP or BMI.

The composer must be between 20 and 26 years old, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and provide scores and recordings of a minimum of two works: one for piano OR a solo instrument with piano, and one for a chamber group or voice with piano. An additional work of the composer’s choice is welcome.

Selection Panel and Procedure:
 
The scores and recordings will be listened to and discussed by a panel of distinguished YCA alumni. Composer Panel participants have included Anthony de Mare, Jeremy Denk, Eugene Drucker, Paul Dunkel, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Makoto Nakura, Christòpheren Nomura, Ursula Oppens, Todd Palmer, Susan Rotholz, Fred Sherry, Jeffrey Swann, Ilana Vered, Hiroko Yajima, and Chee-Yun.

Two or three composers are chosen by the Panel as Finalists. Their works are considered by one of the new YCA Artists, who makes the final choice, and will premiere the first work the following season.