Immediate Pieces
CoMA is curating an anthology of scores, drawn from the CoMA Collection and beyond, that offers pieces suitable for immediate performance for musicians, educators, and community arts practitioners. Contemporary music can often be inaccessible to many ensembles, requiring a high number of performers, advanced techniques, or extensive rehearsal time to be performed.
This anthology aims to show that contemporary music can be easily accessible to a wider range of performers through a new collection of pieces that can be performance-ready in under an hour, for performers from a wide range of backgrounds. The anthology will present a range of work and be made available online for anyone interested in finding new ways to make music in groups. We encourage submissions for both instrumental and vocal ensembles.
In order to expand the range of work in the anthology and to focus on recent practice, we are seeking scores from composers working across diverse practices and backgrounds which are suitable for playing by CoMA ensembles and other similar groups (including education and community arts contexts).
We welcome submissions from composers at all career stages and from all communities, particularly those working outside traditional institutional frameworks. We are prioritising submissions by composers who are from the Global Majority, queer, gender-diverse, disabled, D/deaf, and/or neurodiverse. We value diverse perspectives on what constitutes experimental practice and welcome work that challenges conventional boundaries of the field.
Requirements
For this initial call, we are open to any pieces which might work with this aim, but in principle, submitted pieces should be:
- Scored for flexible ensembles, both in terms of numbers of performers and resources required
- Performance ready with a preparation time of up to one hour in a rehearsal/workshop
- Allow for mixed experience levels, from professional musicians to complete beginners
- Of flexible duration, but the preparation time should be as short as possible.
Submission Details
We ask that composers submit only one piece each. The anthology is aimed at sharing existing work as we are not able to commission new pieces.
Anthology
The aim is to create an online anthology of pieces which are available via the CoMA Collection. If your work is published or if you prefer not to share it directly in this way, please indicate this at the time of submission. Within the anthology, we aim to produce a list of other work that fulfils the same function, where we do not have permission to include them directly.
The anthology will be launched in March 2026 at the CoMA Festival.
Submission Process
To submit a piece for consideration, fill out the Google form linked here: Immediate Pieces submission form
The form will ask for the following:
- PDF of the score and/or other required materials as appropriate
- Brief description of the piece and its performance considerations
- Estimated timing
- Any recordings or documentation (optional but welcome)
- Short bio highlighting your compositional practice
- Contact details and demographic information
A Google sign-in is required to use the form; if you do not have one or cannot access it, please email music@coma.org and we will send it to you in a different format.
Deadline: Monday 1st December 2025
Please note: Any works published elsewhere will not be accepted without prior expressed written permission from the publisher.
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FAQs
For more details and FAQs, please read the document linked here.
Questions?
Please contact James Saunders (j.saunders@bathspa.ac.uk) or Emory Southwick (music@coma.org) with any questions about the call or performance context.