50 composers participated in the Composer Quest Olympic Games, a series of six Olympics-themed composing challenges: National Anthems, Table Tennis, Weightlifting, Hurdles, Relay Race, and Composer's Choice. If you're in Minnesota, join us at the American Composers Forum on Monday to find out who won the gold, silver, and bronze medals, and stick around to hang out with some of the composers who participated.
Since I'll be on my Composer Quest World Tour this fall, I decided we had to do something worldly and big for the final composing quest. In the spirit of the 2016 Rio Olympics, I'll be hosting the official Composer Quest Olympic Games!
Since the recent episodes of Composer Quest have been about electronic and video game music, I thought we could do a composing quest related to it. So here's your challenge, should you choose to accept it: create a loop-able piece of music that's under 2 minutes, using MIDI. Send me your audio file and MIDI layers (charlie@composerquest.com) by May 25th.
Next, I'll send your MIDI layers to another random participant in this quest, and they will add their own sounds to your MIDI data, with no knowledge of the sounds you used. You will also receive someone else's MIDI file to do the same. When everyone's done with their remixes (June 3rd deadline), I'll reveal the original and remixed versions of each track. I think it will be a fun experiment!
I'm happy to announce that we're bringing back MNKINO Film Score Fest this year! If you haven't heard of it, it's an awesome challenge where filmmakers and composers are paired up to create short films, and the Composer Quest Orchestra plays the scores live at the screening.
I'm excited to announce our next composing quest, courtesy of Tim Cheesebrow and his forearm. Tim has been looking for a way to commemorate his family tree through music, and he's decided to leave it to Composer Quest listeners to write a "Cheesebrow family" melody. Tim will then choose his favorite composition, and TATTOO IT ON HIS ARM.
I'm excited to say that over 70 people have signed up for the "I Barely Survived That Game Jam" game jam. We have SIX CONTINENTS covered, including participants from Brazil, Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Macedonia, India, UK, Canada, and the US. After forming teams based on everyone's skill sets, it looks like we'll have 17 games in progress this week. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!
This fall, we'll be teaming up composers, game developers, artists, sound designers, etc. to create new video games from the prompt, "I Barely Survived That Game Jam."
100 years after the death of Alexander Scriabin, his music lives on in a form he would never have expected. A week ago, I announced the Patchwork Scriabin quest along with UniqueSound, and 49 people contributed to our Scriabin "sound quilt" by recording a measure of his Prelude in A minor, Op. 11 No. 2. I'm excited to present our final mashup, with 68 uniquely-produced measures. You'll hear trombones, bells, accordions, chiptune synths, wine glasses, dog barks, dance beats, and much more.
Film Score Fest is back in 2015! MNKINO and Composer Quest will be pairing up filmmakers and composers to create new short films, and the Composer Quest orchestra will perform the scores live at the screening on August 13th (7pm, Landmark Center in St. Paul, MN).
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Alexander Scriabin's death, Composer Quest and UniqueSound are teaming up to bring you a collaborative music production quest. We'll be creating an "audio quilt" based on Scriabin's Prelude in A minor, Op. 11 No. 2. Your goal is to record one measure from the score using whatever instruments or synthesizers you want. I'll unveil our stiched-together masterpiece on the Composer Quest podcast on April 27th.