National Sawdust announces twenty commissions, of $3,000 each, from its Digital Discovery Festival open call commission for emerging composers residing or working in the United States. The commissions include more than just financial support to compose new music — they include mentorship designed to cultivate the evolving entrepreneurial skills and new ways of thinking that artists must integrate into their livelihoods in these unprecedented times. The composers will be trained by National Sawdust staff to develop skills specific to sharing their work digitally such as working with film producers and sound designers.

The commissions will be premiered by either JACK Quartet or members of the National Sawdust Ensemble. Composers will receive a video of their composition’s performance to use when promoting their own work.

Winning composers met two of the following three criteria: they have received no prior commissions of $7,000 or more, they have no major commercially-released full album recordings, and there have been no prior major performances of their work by a professional ensemble in the United States, outside of multi-billed concerts and a university setting. 

The Digital Discovery Festival New Works Commissions are generously supported by the Alphadyne Foundation.