The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium & Tuba Festival and Competition has gained worldwide recognition as the premier event of its kind. Founded in 1986, the Festival has reached the international level with offerings including lessons, ensembles, seminars, and clinics with many of the world’s most recognized euphonium and tuba artists.

To celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Falcone Festival, we are calling for submission of new unaccompanied compositions for our student level euphonium and student level tuba competitions. Two winners will be selected, one in each category, and each will receive a $500 US monetary award. Each of the two runners-up, one in each category, will receive a $250 prize. Each of the winning works will appear on the required repertoire list for the 2028 Festival competition with performances during the August 2027 Festival by the Festival Adjudicators in Twin Lake, Michigan. As such, winning compositions will involve partnering with a Festival-approved publisher to ensure proper availability for contestants.

*All runner-up and honorable mention works may also appear on future competition repertoire, and as such are subject to the same publishing and availability standards.

• $500 1st PRIZE and $250 RUNNER-UP PRIZE for each category (Unaccompanied Tuba and Unaccompanied Euphonium).
• Composers of all experience levels, ages, races, genders, and nationalities are eligible.
• Falcone Festival Board Members are not eligible to submit an entry.
• The work should be 5-8 minutes in length. Works shorter or longer than this duration will be disqualified.
• Submissions must be written specifically for unaccompanied solo euphonium or solo contrabass tuba tailored for intermediate to advanced student soloists under twenty years of age. No piano or electroacoustic accompaniment is permitted.
• Some examples include:
  • Euphonium – Clinard: Sonata for Euphonium; Falcone; Mazurka; Israel; Dance Suite
  • Tuba – Jacob: Tuba Suite; Grant: Stuff; Muczynski: Impromptus
• The work must not employ the use of performer-identifying extended techniques. (ex. multiphonics, singing, etc.)
• If submitting a work in each category, separate applications are required
• Only unpublished works for euphonium or tuba are acceptable.
• ·A work submitted for the euphonium competition should not be submitted (transcribed down one octave) for the tuba competition as well, or vice versa.
• All compositions must be original to the tuba/euphonium and may not be transcriptions or arrangements of other works for any other instruments.
• Winning work(s) will be included in a publishing partnership to allow for the production level and distribution necessary as a required competition piece. If the winner has a previous agreement with a publisher, then accommodations can be made, provided the Falcone Festival expectations for quality control, distribution, and availability are met.
• Adjudication personnel will be drawn from a variety of backgrounds including composition, teaching, and performance in the tuba/euphonium idiom.
• Adjudication is anonymous and therefore ALL identifying information (including composer name, contact information, and publisher markings) must be completely removed from scores prior to application submission.
• The adjudication panel reserves the right to declare no winner.
• Timing must be clearly indicated somewhere on the work.
• Clean, engraved PDF format created with standard notation software is required for scores.
• High-quality audio or MIDI recording in MP3 or WAV format is required for sound files.
• There is no fee for submissions and multiple submissions are allowed
• Deadline for application submission: MARCH 1, 2027, at 11:59pm

*Winning works will be included in a publishing partnership to allow for the production level and distribution necessary as a required competition piece. If the winning composer has a prior established publishing agreement with another entity then arrangements can be made to accept from that publisher provided that there is a demonstrated track record of a reasonable publishing and distribution capability to the volume and quality we require in addition to being widely available by the close of the August 2027 Festival. Otherwise, the winning compositions will be published and distributed by a Festival-approved company.

The application portal be open by November 1, 2026.

2027 Falcone Composition Committee

Previous composition competition winners:

EUPHONIUM

Clément Couty: Improvisations for Solo Euphonium (2024 Winner)
Thomas Rüedi: In Modo Humano (2020 Winner)
Kayla Roth: Modal Suite for Solo Euphonium
Andrew Markel: Subject to Change
Ian Lester: Reflect Refract
Dario Argentesi: Quadrille
Graham Boag: Partita for Solo Euphonium
Thomas Sullivan: Sonata for Unaccompanied Euphonium
Sy Brandon: Galactica
Allen Parrish: Michael for Unaccompanied Euphonium
Peter Felice: Lucidity in Confusion

TUBA

Kayla Holsopple: Tastebuds: Flavorful Vinaigrettes for Unaccompanied Tuba (2024 Winner)
Evan Zegiel: Climate Strike (2020 Winner)
Edmund Jolliffe: The Mechanicals
Lynn Blake John: Whale Songs
Howard J. Buss: Tubaisms
Cameron Lester: Into the Madhouse
Paul Dreblow: Resonance Structure