{"id":13,"date":"2008-11-27T16:59:50","date_gmt":"2008-11-28T00:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/wp\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2011-08-15T06:30:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T14:30:41","slug":"uncaged_toy_piano","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/bio\/uncaged_toy_piano\/","title":{"rendered":"UnCaged Toy Piano Composition Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 4th UnCaged Toy Piano Call for Submissions: Toy Toy Toy! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to everyone who submitted pieces.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Winner: <\/strong>Rusty Banks, Babbling Tower-to-Tower for toy piano and cell phones<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most Ingenious Combo Award: <\/strong>James Joslin, Fur Enola for toy piano and jack-in-the-box<\/em><\/p>\n

Honorable Mentions: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dante De Silva: <\/strong>Scratch Record for two toy pianos, toy glockenspiel and toy percussion<\/em><\/p>\n

Naftali Schindler: <\/strong>Norfolk in Summer for toy piano and melodica<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Please visit our new website, uncagedtoypiano.org<\/a>, for more details on the pieces and festival!
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deadline: July 15th 2011<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The UnCaged Toy Piano Composition Competition was founded in 2007 as a call-for-scores to expand the music for toy piano. This competition was formed to encourage composers to write for this unusual instrument that has rapidly gained attention and interest from many pianists, composers and artists in the last decade.\u00c2\u00a0 As an instrument with no set boundaries or pre-conceived ideas on how it should be played, the toy piano is an untapped musical medium for artists to explore new compositions and multi-media works without being tied to any set genre or tradition.
\nInvented in 1872, the toy piano was mostly considered an educational toy for children. It was not until John Cage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seminal work, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Suite For Toy Piano\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1947 that single-handedly turned the toy piano into a concert instrument. In recent decades, a growing number of musicians and audience members have embraced this instrument for its freshness, un-assuming yet quirky quality.
\nThe toy piano quickly became an instrument that saddled between many other instruments familiar to us\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit looks like a miniature full-sized \u00e2\u20ac\u0153string\u00e2\u20ac\u009d piano, and has the range of many new electronic midi keyboards. As an acoustic instrument, it is made of metal rods and reminds people of a glockenspiel, xylophone, gamelan, music box, a poor man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s celesta,harp, mbira, guitar, bells, and many others. Through time, the UnCaged Toy Piano hopes to develop idiomatic repertoire for the instrument so that it becomes its own artistic entity, giving attention to a relatively unknown instrument with a unique sound and voice.
\nThrough history, instruments have changed depending on the imagination of composers and the potential they found in them.\u00c2\u00a0 UnCaged Toy Piano hopes to create an opportunity for musicians, artists and composers to discover and develop its inherent language while promoting it in concerts, recordings, and festivals.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 By holding a call-for-scores annually, the UnCaged Toy Piano encourages composers and artists of any age, gender, ethnicity, and background to create works for this instrument.
\nOne of the most intriguing, puzzling and problematic issues many people have grappled with concerning the toy piano is the fact that it is called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153toy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 After reflecting upon the many kinds of toys there are from play dolls to board games, stuffed animals, bee bee guns, box cars, train sets and toy instruments, one may realize that there is a toy version of everything in life. In different cultures, toys are realized in different forms, sometimes in much more remedial ways than the mass-produced commercial colorful toys we have in this country.( Toys could be anything…I remember my nephew visiting a park and finding bark on trees to be the most interesting thing to play with.) Either way, toys are objects that then have another function; They become an invitation to a make-believe world, whether it be for children or adults. I have found that the toy piano has also inspired that level of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153play\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fantasy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for many musicians today.<\/p>\n

The theme for the 4th UnCaged Toy Piano is Toy Toy Toy! Music for Toy Piano and Toy Instrument(s)<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Here are the rules for this year’s competition:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Pieces written for toy piano and any toy instrument is strongly encouraged, but must be able to be played by a solo performer. Some of these toy instruments include (but are not limited to) melodica,toy drums, toy cymbals, toy gongs, two toy pianos, toy xylophone, or toy handbells.
\n2. Electronics is optional, but must work for a Mac OS X with an Intel processor
\n3. Pieces can be of any length
\n4. Pieces for solo toy piano are also acceptable<\/p>\n

The UnCaged Toy Piano is open to composers of all ages and nationalities.<\/p>\n

Judges:
\nPhyllis Chen, Margaret Leng Tan<\/a>, Angelica Negron<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike previous UnCaged Competition performances, the winning works this year will be performed at our 1st\u00c2\u00a0 UnCaged Toy Piano FESTIVAL scheduled to take place in the Fall of 2011, New York City. The top selection will be awarded an honorarium of $800. Aside from this top prize, other winning works will be chosen to be performed as part of the festival and each composer will receive a studio recording of his\/her piece. For the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival, other artists, musicians, composers, improvisers from New York and abroad will be joining in the Toy Toy Toy festivities!<\/p>\n

For all scores that are sent to UnCaged Toy Piano, a copy of your score will also be sent to the Toy Piano Collection located at UC San Diego Geisel Library. In May of 2001, the Library of Congress issued a subject heading and call number for toy piano scores because of the activities\u00c2\u00a0 at the library. Even if your piece is not chosen for the festival, we hope that your piece finds its rightful performer by being placed in an organized catalog of toy piano music.<\/p>\n

For your submission, you may either\u00c2\u00a0 EMAIL your score, mp3(if available), short bio, and contact information to chenphyllis@yahoo.com. Or MAIL to:<\/p>\n

PHYLLIS CHEN
\nP.O. BOX 2341
\nASTORIA, NY 11102<\/p>\n

Deadline: July 15, 2011 (results announced August 15)<\/p>\n

3rd UnCaged Toy Piano: Duo Edition<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am delighted and honored to be collaborating this season with the brilliant German-based cellist, Johannes Moser<\/a>. The two of us will be touring throughout the United States in January 2010 performing on piano, toy piano, cello, electric cello and electronics. We are looking for new works written specifically for us and our instrumentation. To find out more about our tour and collaboration, please view our short video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are the rules for the UnCaged Duo Edition:
\n1. Pieces must be under 7 minutes
\n2. Pieces must be written for toy piano and either cello or electric cello
\n3. Pieces can use the “regular” piano\/prepared piano along with the toy piano
\n4. We welcome the use of electronics<\/p>\n

Composers of any age or nationality are welcome to apply. There is no application fee.<\/p>\n

Materials:
\n1. Scores in pdf format
\n2. Mp3’s are not mandatory but helpful
\n3. Short composer biography<\/p>\n

Please submit these materials by EMAIL to phyllis@iceorg.org
\nFeel free to email me with any other questions.<\/p>\n

Deadline: December 1st, 2009
\n________________________________<\/p>\n

1st UnCaged Toy Piano Competition (2007-8)<\/a><\/p>\n

2nd UnCaged Toy Piano Competition (2009-10)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2011 4th UnCaged Toy Piano Call for Submissions: Toy Toy Toy! Thanks to everyone who submitted pieces. Winner: Rusty Banks, Babbling Tower-to-Tower for toy piano and cell phones Most Ingenious Combo Award: James Joslin, Fur Enola for toy piano and jack-in-the-box Honorable Mentions: Dante De Silva: Scratch Record for two toy pianos, toy glockenspiel and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/1593"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phyllischen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}