The Denison University New Music Festival was held this past week. Performing at the festival was the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra. Because Kalistos has performed my Elegy before, I submitted the Symphony for Strings — of which Elegy is the third movement — hoping they might program the entire work.

The symphony was chosen for the festival, but they opted to perform only the second and third movements, the Scherzo and the Elegy. I wasn’t thrilled with this, but dutifully had a new set of performance materials made and sent it off.

It’s important to note at this point that the following text was included in the festival’s call for scores:

Each composer may submit up to two works. There is no established limit on duration but feasibility of performance will be a consideration. Composers may provide their own performers and should indicate such with their submission. Attendance at the conference is required of all composers whose works will be performed. [emphasis added]

It was only after sending off the materials (without charging a rental fee) that I found out there would be absolutely no compensation for expenses. I paid not only the expense of the performance materials, but was going to have to pay my own airfare and hotel bill. Further, no honorarium was offered even though we were expected to speak about our music at the conference. At one point we were notified that as visiting composers we would not have to pay the attendance fee for the conference. That is as close to compensation as we ever got.

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About a month ago an important personal conflict arose with the date of the concert at Denison. I made some effort to rearrange things, but the more I thought about it, the more unfair this seemed. I notified the Festival that I would not be able to attend the concert itself, but offered to come during the week and speak about my music at the conference, if they wished. This was the response:

Thank you for your e-mail.  I'm sorry that you weren't able to work out your conflict to attend the festival.  As I'm sure you're aware, we stipulated in our call for scores and in our initial acceptance of your work that all composers need to attend in order to have their pieces played.  In talking it over with [the conductor of Kalistos] and with consideration of the other composers who are coming and our stipulation, I'm sorry that we won't be able to perform your work with Kalistos this year.  I hope that we'll have an opportunity to work together in the future.

Thanks for your understanding.

Yes, they actually withdrew my piece from the program. They required our attendance, but offered not one dime toward expenses. My reason for not going had little to do with the cost, but it is entirely possible that many hundreds of dollars in airfare and hotel bills was an enormous burden to one or more of the others. What on earth are these people at Denison thinking? How do you require attendance without at least contributing toward the expense of being there? Am I wrong to feel that pulling my piece from the program was punitive?

I will likely be accused of nastiness here — of simply being bitter that my piece did not get performed. I do have a bitter taste in my mouth over this. But I've already made clear my ambivalence about the programming of only the inner movements, and frankly, the entire Symphony has already received excellent performances in major venues. My main goal in submitting the score was to hear Kalistos perform the entire work. I didn't know at the time what I was getting myself into.

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As the financial situation worsens in the Arts, festivals, chamber ensembles and orchestras are all forced to cut back. But to be sure, the musicians are still being paid, as are the conductors, the stage hands, the administrative staff. Why is it that composers — the very people who provide the product these organizations are delivering to their audience: the music — are excluded, treated like toadies, and then expected to say "thank you" for it at the end of the day?

It's time to begin speaking out about the disgraceful way we as composers are treated by our colleagues, and to begin boycotting festivals and other events that lack respect for us and the work we do.

Easier said than done. The problem for composers is two-fold: 1) we risk alienating ourselves by speaking out, and doing more harm than good to our careers, and 2) as the president of a prestigious music publishing house once put it to me, "Most composers would serve up their own mother grilled and skewered if it would get them an orchestral performance." So the kind of appalling treatment suffered by myself and the other composers on the Denison Festival goes unconfronted.

I considered creating a forum, hosted by Wired Musician, where composers could offer their evaluation of various competitions, calls for scores, festivals and the like, and do so anonymously. I decided against it ultimately because the world of music we move in is so small that there really is no such thing as anonymity. It would not take much to figure out who was complaining about ill treatment at a particular festival or conference.

I have an advantage in that I do not move in the academic world anymore, and given that my composing activities are now winding down as I move on to other things, I can afford to be outspoken. So I’d like to offer to take the heat, and invite composers to write me with their horror stories. I can then post these here, of course properly edited so that names or even exact contexts are not identified. Also please share the positive experiences you've had, and we'll let the world know.