BÜHNE FREI A composition competition for children and youth musicals

Jetzt Werk einreichen und gewinnen!

The idea

The idea behind BÜHNE FREI is simple: challenging and age-appropriate music theatre for children and young people. The focus is on the idea of creating contemporary works with a practical approach to performance in order to expand the repertoire for educational institutions such as schools, music schools, youth centres, etc. The impulse for the competition came from the Ministry of Culture of Baden-Württemberg, which, together with the Landesakademie Baden-Württemberg (State Academy of Music and Performing Arts), has created a new repertoire.

This is how the impulse for the composition competition of the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs of Baden-Württemberg came about, which, together with the Landesakademie Ochsenhausen, wants to lay a foundation for the practicable musical realisation of high-quality pieces.

Prices

At BÜHNE FREI, the best three works in the competition will be awarded prize money. All submitted works are thoroughly reviewed by an independent jury of experts.

In addition to the prize money totalling € 4,000, the work with the first prize receives a world premiere at the Landesakademie as well as a possible publication by Carus-Verlag. The second prize is endowed with 2,500 €, the third prize with 1,000 €.

In addition, there is a special prize with a prize money of 2,000 € for the best libretto to emphasise the importance of a speaking theme and a good dramaturgical idea.

Was für ein Auftakt! Die erste Runde des BÜHNE FREI-Wettbewerbs ist abgeschlossen

Nach Sichtung von über 38 Musical-Einreichungen, 3 prall gefüllten Webinaren im November, Dezember und Januar und einem allgemein breiten Interesse ist die erste Runde des BÜHNE FREI-Wettbewerbs ein voller Erfolg. Projektverantwortlicher Dr. Klaus K. Weigele, Dozentin Barbara Comes und Projektmanagerin Brigitte Jäger zeigen sich sehr zufrieden über den Zulauf und konnten Dank der Rückmeldungen den Bewerbungsprozess an der ein oder anderen Stelle sogar noch verbessern.

Das Team von BÜHNE FREI freut sich sehr, HIER die Gewinner des ersten Wettbewerbs BÜHNE FREI präsentieren zu dürfen!

The competition

The composition competition BÜHNE FREI is aimed at composers and librettists who create ready-to-play music theatre for children or young adults.

The content of the work alternates each year. The competition has started and in the first year is aimed at primary school children between the ages of 6 and 12. Next year, the competition will be for young adults in lower secondary school between the ages of 9 and 15.

So: Observe the submission deadline and get your manuscript paper and notebook ready!

This is how it goes..

1

Conditions of participation

Before the competition really starts, all interested parties should familiarise themselves with the conditions of participation. These state, among other things, that all submitted works must not yet have been published in order to take part in the competition.

Conditions of participation
2

Requirements for the work

All content-related requirements for the work at BÜHNE FREI can be found in the requirements. Level of difficulty, duration of the work, main and secondary roles as well as instrumentation - most questions are clarified here!

View requirements
3

... and send it in!

A lot has happened up to this point: The musical for children or young people has been completed and will be uploaded as a single PDF. The closing date for entries is 01.02.2024.

The tension is rising!

Upload work
4

Procedure of the competition

After the closing date for entries, all works received will be reviewed by an independent and interdisciplinary jury.

The winners of the competition will be notified on 30.04.2025. In addition, the winning works will be published on the BÜHNE FREI website.

5

Premiere

The work that won first prize will be premiered at the Ochsenhausen Children's Singing Festival (Ox-Ki-Si for short) in the presence of the authors. For the year 2024, the work will be rehearsed from 3 - 8 September and premiered on 8 September 2024. The work, which will win the first prize 2025, will be premiered on September 2025.

6

Impoundment

After the successful premiere, there is an offer to publish the piece in cooperation with Carus-Verlag. The publishing house reserves the right to also publish second or third place works from BÜHNE FREI. The exact details will be discussed after the award ceremony.

Any questions left?

Up to two live webinars will be held between the competition kick-off and the registration deadline, giving you the opportunity to ask open questions about the competition, the work or the assessment.
To make sure you don't miss the webinars and all the important dates and information about the competition, simply register without obligation at our pre-registration.

Pre-registration

Interested, but didn't know how?

Interested parties can pre-register easily and without obligation at the following link. During the competition, reminders about the schedule, invitations to the webinars and general information about BÜHNE FREI will be sent out, among other things.

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Impressions

The first competition edition of BÜHNE FREI will take place in 2024. Take a look at past commissioned compositions and editions of Ox-Kis-Si here.

To our performances

Laureate

Curious? Information on all the award-winning works from BÜHNE FREI and the winners of previous years can be found here.

To the award winners