The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition is a scholarship established in September 1983 through the generosity of Milton A. and Gloria Barlow. Motivated by their love of music, the Barlows presented a substantial gift to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

, engendering and supporting excellence in musical composition through the university and the

BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications The BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications (CFAC) is one of nine colleges at Brigham Young University, a private university operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and located in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1925, the college ...

. The Barlow Endowment Board of Directors and Board of Advisors have subsequently been engaged in employing the proceeds of the Endowment to support four programs: The Barlow Prize, General Commissions, LDS Composer Commissions, and Education Grants.." Every year, the Endowment hosts an international composition competition. Applications from across the globe are accepted and reviewed by a panel of musicians. The winners are selected and commissioned to compose new works during the next year.

Barlow prize

Each year, the Barlow Endowment selects a genre for the Barlow Prize. Arrangements are made for a piece to be composed for and performed by ensembles who specialize in that genre. The 15- to 20-minute work is expected to meet the highest artistic requirements for the medium. Additional specifications for the work will be negotiated among the Barlow Endowment, the composer, and the performing consortium.

General commissions

Any composer, (or agent, artist or ensemble applying on behalf of a particular composer) may submit an application for a general commission. The only requirement is that all requested application materials be submitted together. Composers applying for a general commission are to submit a request as to how much funding their piece will require, and for whom it will be written. Composers seeking General or LDS commissions may not apply for both types of commissions during the same year and should submit no more than one proposal to any program.

LDS commissions

Composers who belong to

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS) or any composer willing to address LDS subject matter can apply for an LDS commission. LDS subject matter would include LDS standard scriptural works, such as the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

, the

Doctrine and Covenants The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...

, the Pearl of Great Price, and hymns from the LDS hymnbook. Other texts that address LDS theology would also be considered "LDS subject matter." Composers applying for an LDS commission are to submit a request as to how much funding their piece will require, and for whom it will be written. Composers seeking General or LDS commissions may not apply for both types of commissions during the same year and should submit no more than one proposal to any program.

Education grants

The Barlow Education Grants are monies allocated from the Barlow Endowment to the composition faculty of the

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

School of Music. Faculty members use some of those funds to promote and facilitate their own work (copying costs, recordings, travel to premieres or conferences, etc.) and the rest to support the students and their work (via scholarships, travel funds, visiting lecturers and so forth).

Notable past winners

* Samuel Adler *

Matthew Barnson Matthew Barnson (born 1979) is an American composer. Biography Barnson is a native of Utah and obtained his undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Universit ...

Kurt Bestor Kurt Bestor (born 1958) is an American keyboardist and composer specializing in new-age, film scores, and jazz. He is known for his instrumental Christmas arrangements. His best-known songs are "Prayer of the Children", "Mama Don't You Weep". He is ...

* Judith Bingham * William Bolcom *

Michael Colgrass Michael Charles Colgrass (April 22, 1932 – July 2, 2019) was an American-born Canada-based musician, composer, and educator. Life and career Colgrass was born in Brookfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His musical career began in Chicag ...

Robert Cundick Robert Milton Cundick Sr. (November 26, 1926 – January 7, 2016) was a Latter-day Saint composer. Cundick's interest in music started at a young age, and he studied under Mormon Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner and later under Leroy J. Rob ...

Brian Current Brian Current is a Canadian composer and conductor. He won the Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year The Juno Award for "Classical Composition of the Year" has been awarded since 1987, as recognition each year for the best classical mu ...

Mario Davidovsky Mario Davidovsky (March 4, 1934 – August 23, 2019) was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions ca ...

* Stacy Garrop *

Daniel E. Gawthrop Daniel E. Gawthrop (born 1949 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American composer, primarily of choral music. His output also includes a substantial body of works for the organ as well as orchestral and instrumental works. He has been the recipien ...

Henryk Gorecki Henryk may refer to: * Henryk (given name) * Henryk, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, a village in south-central Poland * Henryk Glacier, an Antarctic glacier See also * Henryk Batuta hoax, an internet hoax * Henrykian articles The Henrician Article ...

* Daron Hagen *

Stephen Hartke Stephen Paul Hartke (born July 6, 1952) is an American composer. Hartke is best known as the composer of ''Meanwhile – Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays,'' winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2013 ...

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Direct ...

Lowell Liebermann Lowell Liebermann (born February 22, 1961 in New York City) is an American composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1. He studied at the Juilliar ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...

* S. Andrew Lloyd *

Dan Locklair Dan Locklair (born 1949) is an American composer. He holds the position of Composer-in-Residence at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he is also a Professor of Music. Locklair has written numerous works ranging from or ...

Harold Meltzer Harold Meltzer (born 1966 in Brooklyn) is an American composer. Harold is inspired by a wide variety of stimuli, from architectural spaces to postmodern fairy tales and messages inscribed in fortune cookies. In ''Fanfare Magazine'', Robert Carl co ...

* Haruhito Miyagi see "2020" * Tawnie Olson * Forrest Pierce *

Narong Prangcharoen Narong Prangcharoen (born 23 July 1973) is a Thai composer of contemporary music. His compositions have won him the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize, and the Alexander Zemlinsky International Composition Competition Prize. He is the founde ...

* Kevin Puts * David Rakowski *

Shulamit Ran Shulamit Ran ( he, שולמית רן; born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her th ...

Kurt Rohde Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and i ...

* Christopher Theofanidis *

Augusta Read Thomas Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and professor. Biography Thomas studied composition with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood; Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University ...

Joan Tower Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New York ...

George Tsontakis George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor. Early life and education He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and ...

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. ...

Mack Wilberg Mack J. Wilberg (born February 20, 1955) is an American composer, Arrangement, arranger, Conducting, conductor, and choral clinician who has been the music director of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (Choir) since 2008. Early life and educ ...

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He performed his works and other 20th-century music as pianist and conductor. He composed more than ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Barlow Endowment web page
1983 establishments in Utah Brigham Young University