2024-25 iQ Tests application info

icarus’ annual iQ Tests program gives two winning Scholars the opportunity to collaborate on a new piece with the Quartet and be featured in their live performances and studio produced music videos. icarus will take you through the detailed collaboration process behind all of our new works and embark on a professional relationship beginning with the cultivation, presentation, and documentation of your new work for pianos and percussion. We can’t wait to hear your music and work with you!

Eligibility

• Open to composers enrolled in any collegiate degree program during the year of residence with iQ
  
  

Submission materials

• Simple and FREE application

• 2 scores (pdf) of previously written chamber works (for 2 to 8 players)

  • Score files should be named as: “last name_first name_piece title”

  • Demonstration of percussion and piano writing in one or both pieces is preferred if possible

  • Score submissions are NOT limited to traditional Western notation; other visual representations are acceptable, and questions about this can be emailed to Matt Keown at matt@icarusquartet.org

• Link to private Soundcloud playlist of MIDI or recordings (preferred) of submitted scores

• 1-2 page resume

• Names and contact info for 2 references

• A brief (~2 min) “unlisted” YouTube video of the applicant addressing the following:

  • Tell us who you are! What is something about yourself that we won’t find in your other materials?

  • What kinds of music (or what about music) lights you up and has you inspired for your next creation?

  • What in particular excites you about a potential artistic collaboration with icarus Quartet?

• Application and submission portal for materials can be found HERE
  
  

What we are looking for

• Originality and craft

• Promise for a successful career in music

• Professionalism demonstrated through supplemental materials

• Personal and musical authenticity with an attitude geared towards collaboration
  
  

Prizes

• The two selected composers will each receive the following:

  • Two performances during our 2024-25 season

  • $1,000 honorarium

  • Workshops with iQ (in person if possible)

  • Up to $500 travel reimbursements for workshops and/or performances

  • Professionally produced video recording

    • Watch and listen to past Scholar works HERE

  • Mentorship from Chair of Composition at the Yale School of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the Aspen Music Festival, Christopher Theofanidis
    
    

Timeline

• 2024-25 iQ Test application portal opens on March 20, 2024 and closes on May 1, 2024 at 11:59pm EDT

• 2024-25 iQ Test Scholars announced on June 23, 2024 at the iQ Test Fest

• Residency with icarus:

  • Scholars’ sketches/motives/musical ideas due for discussion with iQ on September 1, 2024

  • Scholars’ first draft due for session #1 with mentor Chris Theofanidis by October 1, 2024

  • Updated drafts/sketches due to iQ by November 1, 2024

  • Complete drafts with finalized duration due for session #2 with mentor Chris Theofanidis by December 15, 2024

  • Updated complete drafts due to iQ by January 15, 2025

  • Workshops with icarus in late January/early February 2025

  • Final copies of score and parts due to iQ by February 15, 2025

  • Live premiere and subsequent performance(s) of 2024-25 iQ Test works in Spring 2025

  • Official music videos recorded and released during 2025-26 season

Questions?

• Contact Matt Keown at matt@icarusquartet.org for any clarifications regarding the iQ Tests program

meet the 2023-24 iQ Test Scholars…

Whether composing piano preludes inspired by mythical creatures, flute melodies that mimic the songs of endangered birds, or a string quartet that draws from the Iranian music of his ancestral heritage, composer Kian Ravaei (b. 1999) takes listeners on a spellbinding tour of humanity’s most deeply felt emotions.

Ravaei has collaborated with performers and ensembles such as Eliot Fisk, Bella Hristova, Salastina, and Juventas New Music Ensemble, and has served as a Copland House CULTIVATE Fellow and a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Composer Teaching Artist Fellow. In recent months, Ravaei was featured on an episode of Performance Today, America’s most popular classical music radio program. His string quartet Family Photos has garnered numerous awards, including First Prize in the Spectrum Chamber Music Composition Competition, Second Prize in the instrumental chamber music division of the American Prize, and Honorable Mention in the Tribeca New Music Young Composer Competition. DJs know Ravaei as the go-to person for creating orchestral versions of dance songs, including Wooli & Codeko’s “Crazy feat. Casey Cook (Orchestral).”

Ravaei counts celebrated composers Richard Danielpour, Derek Bermel, and Tarik O’Regan among his teachers. He is an alumnus of UCLA and the Curtis Institute of Music Young Artist Summer Program.

Learn more at https://kianravaei.com

Che Buford (he, they) is an NYC-based artist whose work explores creating new narratives within the world of music while engaging in themes of memory and place. 

Che performs as a violinist in various musical settings such as traditional orchestras, chamber music, solo, improvisational performance, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Their own work explores the possibilities of timbre and acoustical phenomena and connects them to elements of place, memory, poetry, and the quotidian. Che has had the privilege of creating with artists such as Longleash, The Rhythm Method, New York Philharmonic, Castle of our Skins, mal sounds, Steph Davis, Adama Delphine Fawundu, and Deborah Jack. Their work has been presented and performed in spaces that include Roulette, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Joe’s Pub, Antenna Cloud Farm, The DiMenna Center, and David Geffen Hall.

Che holds a degree from Boston Conservatory at Berklee as a presidential scholar in violin performance where he studied with Rictor Noren. In the fall, He will begin his DMA in composition at Columbia University. When Che isn’t interacting with music, he enjoys taking long walks, cooking vegan food, and thrifting.

Learn more at http://chebuford.com

meet the iQ Test Scholar alumni!
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