We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Fritz Stansell, founder and president emeritus of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Fritz Stansell was also one of the original founders of the Falcone Festival and had an incredible impact on the music world. Our most sincere condolences to the Stansell family and BLFAC community during these difficult times.Uncategorised
Although the COVID-19 coronavirus was first detected in 2019, it was not until the early months of 2020 that its impact on the world became evident. By mid-March, most U.S. grade schools, high schools, colleges, and universities dismissed their students from their campuses to stay at home and attend classes on-line. In what seemed a blink of an eye, life here turned upside down. Mothers, fathers, and students were working and studying at home.
This disruption to “normal” life had an impact on everything, including the Falcone Festival. Students lost the resources ordinarily available to them—no pianists to rehearse and record with, limited or no recording facilities outside their homes and, for some, loss of school-owned instruments. Add to that the difficulties of those in apartments who had to juggle times to rehearse while accommodating schedules of those in apartments around them, people who are working from home or perhaps working nights and needing to sleep during daylight hours. Certainly, a challenge!
The Falcone Festival Board’s first announcement regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic came on March 15, detailing changes to the preliminary application requirements for the 2020 Festival. The deadline was extended from March 31 to April 30, 2020, giving applicants an extra month to complete recordings and submit materials. In addition, the piano accompaniment requirement was waived; the required repertoire remained the same as originally posted for 2020 but allowed applicants to choose to submit with or without piano accompaniment.
On April 13, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp announced it was suspending all camp activities for 2020. This meant that the Festival could not be held there. The board considered options and decided they were unlikely to find another venue for August. Moving the Festival to a later date (December 2020 or January 2021) was problematic because of the uncertainties about contagion and peoples’ schedules.
That left the board to decide whether we could present a virtual festival up to our standards or whether we should simply cancel the 2020 Festival. We announced our compromise on April 24: we would hold a festival, even though we weren’t sure exactly what it might look like, and we would try to keep as many signature aspects of a “normal” festival as we could.
When we reached our (new) deadline for applications on April 30, we found ourselves with a robust pool of applicants in all four divisions. Our belief that players would remain interested in applying was justified! On May 15, the board announced that the 2020 Falcone Festival was going virtual. So...
Welcome to the 2020 Virtual Falcone Festival!
June 2020
Throughout our 35 years of existence, the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival has sought to be an inclusive organization, open to low brass performers of any race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and nationality. The Board of Directors of the Falcone Festival believes that Black Lives Matter, and we stand with the Black musicians in our tuba/euphonium community. In light of recent events, we intend to make several changes to our Board and to the Festival that reflect our renewed commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and to dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our musical institutions.
1. We will be recruiting individuals from the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) low brass and educational communities to fill additional seats on the Falcone Festival Board of Directors to enhance BIPOC perspectives in the management of our organization.
2. Our repertoire selection committees will increase efforts to include a larger number of musical works by living composers who identify as a member of a marginalized group that is underrepresented in tuba/euphonium music such as women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ composers. Many tuba/euphonium competitions, teachers, and studios build their music selections from our repertoire lists, and we are committed to using our privilege as a respected international competition to promote the careers of composers from these underrepresented groups.
We condemn the horrific events of racial injustice that have transpired both recently, and in the past, and we acknowledge that we must act to make changes that are long overdue. We are only a tuba/euphonium festival, but with these changes, we hope to be an example to other music organizations as we continue our work with euphonium and tuba players all over the world. #BlackLivesMatter
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival, the Festival Board of Directors called for submission of new unaccompanied compositions for the Euphonium Student and Tuba Student division competitions.
One winner and two honorable mentions were selected in each category. Each winner received $1,000 in prize money and their piece appears on the required repertoire list for the 2021 Festival competition.
We had anticipated that the Festival Artists-Adjudicators would premiere the pieces during the 2020 Festival at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. However, because the Festival occurred virtually, each of the composers premiered their piece themselves during the shortened Festival August 8-9, 2020.
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Euphonium Category WINNER: “In Modo Humano” by Thomas Rüedi HONORABLE MENTIONS: “Modal Suite” by Kayla Danielle Roth “Subject to Change” by Andrew P. Markel |
Tuba Category WINNER: “Climate Strike” by Evan Zegiel HONORABLE MENTIONS: “The Mechanicals” by Edmund Joliffe “Whale Songs” by Lynn Blake John |
Congratulations to everyone who submitted a work for this competition; the level of work and dedication that was apparent in the entries made the selection process challenging. Thank you, to all of you, for your time and dedication to our instruments.
The Festival would also like to thank Jason Smith and Will Sutton for their tireless work behind the scenes. Additionally, thank you to Chris Combest who coordinated this entire effort, as well to the committee members listed below for evaluating the entries. Without everyone’s selfless offering of time and attention, we could not have held this event.
2020 Falcone Festival Solo Works Competition Committees
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Euphonium Committee Gail Robertson, chair Mark Cox Fernando Deddos Mai Kokubo Jamie Lipton Jerry Young |
Tuba Committee Chris Combest, chair Ben Miles Eduardo Nogueroles Philip Sinder Mark Tillinger Barbara York |
Read: Journey to the 2020 Virtual Festival
FALCONE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING THE COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS
May 15, 2020
2020 Falcone Festival Goes Virtual: The Falcone Festival is making plans to proceed with a virtual competition for 2020, where the semifinal and final rounds will be submitted via video from all named semifinal competitors. Required competition repertoire will remain the same as posted, with music for each round performed without accompaniment. The Festival will be conducted during the weekend of August 8-9, 2020. In the coming weeks, the Festival will announce further details regarding the competition and the Festival schedule. It is expected that all semifinal competitors will be announced following the preliminary round review process, by early June 2020. Thank you for your interest in the Festival, and we are delighted to be able to hold an alternative Festival in these challenging times!
April 13, 2020
March 15, 2020
During the past few days, the impact of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has altered and challenged most every aspect of normal functions. In the USA, as well as in many international locations, universities and public schools are now shut or in virtual instruction mode for the coming weeks, and the regular plans for student and professional musicians and teachers have been suspended for the time being. Access to facilities, lessons, pianists, and recording engineers have become challenging.
As a result, the Falcone Festival Board has today supported two changes to the preliminary application requirements for the 2020 Festival.
The Festival application deadline has been extended to April 30, 2020, giving an extra month to complete and submit materials.
The requirement of submitting recordings of works with piano accompaniment has been waived. The required repertoire remains the same for 2020, but it is your choice whether to submit with or without piano accompaniment.
If you have already recorded and/or submitted a Falcone application for 2020, there is no need to alter your entry. If you opt to record without piano, please make every effort to observe notated rests of one measure or less, but to reduce any longer rests in the music.
The Falcone Festival looks forward to our 35th annual Festival and competition, taking place at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, Michigan, from August 7-10, 2020. We have every expectation that the Festival will occur as scheduled, and will continue to provide updates as the Coronavirus situation develops.
Read: Welcome to the 2021 Virtual Falcone Festival
FALCONE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING THE COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS
April 14, 2021: 2021 Falcone Festival will be Virtual
The Falcone Festival, following an April 12, 2021 meeting of the Board of Directors, has made the decision to hold the 2021 Festival in a full virtual setting as was done last year. The Festival Board considered several possible sites, including our normal host location of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, as destinations for a live festival. However, due to concerns of health, safety, access, travel, and programming related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board felt that the wise move was to conduct a virtual event.
The Falcone Festival will take place August 7-8, 2021. In addition to our semi-final and final rounds involving 32 competitors, the Festival will be planning additional performances, masterclasses, interviews, and historical events to be broadcast at that time.
We encourage you to submit a preliminary round application by the April 30th deadline. All application details may be found at our website.
The Falcone Festival intends to return to a live event in 2022, hosted by Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
March 18, 2021: Preliminary Round Application Deadline Extended
The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival will celebrate our thirty-sixth year in 2021, continuing our legacy of offering competitions, cash prizes, educational events, performances, music commissions, and outreach. Our plan has been to host this annual event in early August, as usual, and we have been working to cope with the continuing COVID pandemic to allow for a Festival that is accessible, safe, and uplifting for all involved.
To date, the Festival Board has not fully determined if it will hold a live and in-person event or a virtual event similar to our 2020 Festival experience. We expect that a final decision will be made in the next few weeks.
As a result of this extended and important decision, the Festival is electing to move the initial entry deadline for preliminary round applications one month later. The new official entry deadline is midnight on April 30, 2021.
The Festival will notify all entrants of the invited semi-finalists early June 2021.
Thank you for your interest in the Festival and best wishes with your preliminary round application/recording!
