Announcing the launch of the 2022 Orchestration Challenge! Featuring the music of Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinsky. We’ll all be orchestrating his 1908 Prelude in G major, which he composed at 20 years old with 4 other preludes of great beauty and imagination. The G major possesses the most enticements as an orchestration challenge subject, and I hope it will inspire you to greater heights of craft, inspiration, and ingenuity. I finished my own entry a few weeks ago, and I found the experience quite uplifting. I can’t wait to share it with you in six weeks on the 19th of August when the challenge closes. Click through above to go directly to the EVENTS page, where you’ll get full details about this year’s challenge along with templates and a new corrected PDF score – and view the video playlist linked below for some background on the music; a score+piano video featuring Ukrainian concert pianist Violina Petrychenko’s recording from her CD The Silenced Voice of Vasyl Barvinsky; a list of possible pitfalls to avoid in your orchestration; a new general step-by-step guide to entering these challenges; and an appeal to donate to the Lisa Batiashvili Special Fund for Ukrainian Musicians. Some of our colleagues and fellow members in the Orchestration Online community are now refugees, injured, homeless, in hiding, or worse. This fund will get assistance to them directly.

Anyway, visit the page linked above and view the videos linked below, and you’ll be off to a great start. Hope to see your entry soon!