The Barto Prize

International Competition for Piano Solo Composition

Established in 2005 by the Lake Eustis Institute
in Florida, the Barto Prize is awarded biennially for an unpublished composition for piano solo based on a literary work.

Barto, created the Prize to foster and promote the composition and performance of new music, At the same time he is pleased to ‘give back’ to his Central Florida community where his roots lie, the small town of Eustis. The Barto Prize is announced globally in Music schools and on the internet. Participants from all over the world submitted near 150 compositions in 2008.

The distinguished international panel of judges for the third prize in 2010 are:

Professor Bright Sheng, www.brightsheng.com
Ms. Augusta Read Thomas, www.augustareadthomas.com
Professor Aribert Reimann, go to: Schott Music – Reimann Aribert - profile

As he did in 2006 and 2008, Barto will premier the winning composition in concert at the State Theatre in Eustis, Florida on March 20, 2010 and he will perform the winning piece in recitals throughout the following concert seasons. The prize is nominated with $5000.

The first Barto Prize was awarded to the American composer Professor Claude Baker in 2006 for “Flights of Passage,” a work based on four poems by Walt Whitman, some of them read during performances by author Irene Dische. Critics marveled at the composition as “melted clusters with sensible tone-scapes.”

Baker, a professor of composition at Indiana University in Bloomington at the time of the award and a former composer-in-residence of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, is a recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards (both American and European) for his works. The panel of judges who chose him for the Barto Prize included composers Bright Sheng, Wolfgang Rihm, Tobias Picker and Marc-Andre Dalbavie.

The winning composition of the second Barto Prize on March 15 and16, 2008, “Three Movements for Piano” by Patricio da Silva, was chosen by the same judges. During this 2009 season Barto continues to introduce the piece to audiences of several European cities which welcome the work as: ”a true fireworks of youth and strength” (Steinway Magazine, Austria). Patrício da Silva, who was born in Portugal in 1973, received formal musical training at the Lisbon College of Music (1992-95) where he studied piano and composition. Following his move to the USA, da Silva pursued his composition studies as a recipient of the Betty Freeman Foundation Scholarship in Composition with Morton Subotnick, Stephen L. Mosko, and the late Mel Powell at the California Institute of the Arts. With support from the Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento in Portugal, he completed the Ph.D. program in composition at the University of California in 2003, having studied composition with William Kraft, computer music with Curtis Roads, and algorithmic composition and music with Artificial Intelligence with David Cope.

The terms and conditions for participating in ‘The Barto Prize’ competition are available at www.lakeeustisinstitute.org, Barto Prize