2022 PAS Composition Contest Results

PAS is proud to announce the winner and honorable mention of the 2022 PAS Composition Contest hosted by the Composition Committee.

The purpose of the PAS Composition Contest is to encourage and reward composers who write music for percussion instruments, and to increase the number of quality compositions written for percussion. The 2022 Composition Contest focused on solo percussion with chamber ensemble.

2022 Winner

Allan X. Chen, Rubiks: a Learning Curve

Allan X. Chen is a passionate award-winning South African-born and based composer constantly seeking to develop his knowledge, challenge his capabilities, and explore new possibilities. Recent 1st prize winner of the Percussive Arts Society 2022 International (Int.) Composition Contest, he is also the recipient of the Elgar Memorial Prize from the Royal College of Music; winner of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) Composer’s Hub Competition, and the Bowdoin International Int. Music Festival Composition Competition. Other special honors have been awarded to him by the Ise-Shime Int. Composition Competition, Tesselat Composers Collective, and Boston University for his orchestral composition, “a Night at Boulders Beach”, inspired by his love for South Africa’s Simon’s Town.

With a curiosity for learning and a positive attitude toward collaboration, Allan has had a diverse international career thus far, steering him through various genres and techniques. While primarily a contemporary classical composer, he also regularly scores music for films and build’s interactive art installations that combine physical form and experimental music. By exploring multiple avenues of expression, Allan has participated in truly fulfilling collaborations and projects, with his concert music performed at festivals across the globe, his films screened in festivals in the Americas, and his installations exhibited in the UK and South Africa.

Allan’s career highlight so far has been the premiere of his piece, “Semblance”, performed by the RSNO in a 2020 series of concerts around Scotland. These performances took place at Caird Hall, Dundee; Usher Hall, Edinburgh; and the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. Other collaborations have included artists and ensembles such as Ryan Bancroft, the JACK Quartet, ALEA III Ensemble, and Quartetto Indaco, at festivals such as the the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival, Cheltenham Int. Music Festival, and Bowdoin Int. Music Festival. Short films he has scored have been featured in the Nantucket Int. Film Festival, São Paulo Int. Film Festival, and Los Angeles Int. Shorts Festival.

Allan’s passion for the concert hall and entertainment screen is matched by his love for new music mediums. Hoping to develop in his audiences musical intuition through efficacy and the simple act of play, Allan also founded The Willow Room Collective. Their first installation piece was exhibited at the Arthill Gallery in London in 2019. Since then, they have received grants from Afrikaburn for their piece, Sonus Arbor, and the Spier Art Trust for, The Singing Tree, which exhibited at the 2021 Spier Light Art Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Allan received his BMus from Boston University and MMus from the Royal College of Music. Throughout his studies he has worked under the tutelage of composers Kenneth Hesketh, Samuel Headrick, Martin Amlin and Samuel Adler, also having participated in masterclasses with notable names as Tristan Murail. His current compositional focus is centered on colours and gestures. Having had a unique upbringing in South Africa with Chinese heritage, Allan comes to the table with a truly fresh perspective.

2022 Honorable Mention

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Eduardo Soutullo García, ZAPPADA

Eduardo’s orchestral works have been conducted by important figures such as Jacques Mercier, Hannu Lintu, Olli Mustonen, Adrian Leaper, Carlo Rizzi, Marco Angius, Pietro Rizzo, Tommy Andersson, Paul Daniel, Patrick Davin, Josep Caballé Domenech, Jose Miguel Perez Sierra, Jose Luis Temes, Josep Pons, Alexix Soriano, Victor Pablo Pérez, Antoni Ros-Marbá, Carlos Miguel Prieto,, etc, and performed by symphonic orchestras like Orchestre National de Lorraine (Francia), Orquesta Sinfónica de la Radio de Suecia, Orquesta Sinfónica de San Petersburgo, Orquesata Nacional de España, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta de Extremadura, Orquesta Real Filharmonía de Galicia, etc, and also by ensembles like Plural Ensemble, Cuarteto Breton, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza, Choeur L´Echelle, Orchestra da Camera di Matera, Taller Sonoro (Sevilla), Drumming (Oporto) , etc, and soloist like Ananda Sukarlan, Oleg Malov, Adam Levin, José Luis Estellés, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, Miquel Bernat, etc.

He has received commissions from Auditorio Nacional de España, Fundación Isaac Albéniz, Fundación Autor, XXVII Festival de Alicante, 51ª Semana de Música Religiosa de Cuenca, XII Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea Tres Cantos, XXVI Festival de Música Española de Leon, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Caixa Catalunya, Residencia de Estudiantes de Madrid, Festival Via Stellae, etc.

HIs works has been performaed at L´Arsenal (Metz, Francia), Berwaldhallen Concert Hall (Estocolmo), Glazunov Hall (San Petersburgo), Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall), New York (EEUU), Alto-Musiktheater Essen (Alemania), Auditorio NAcional de España, Palacio Euskalduna, Auditorio Ciudad de León, Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Instituto Cervantes (Hamburgo), L´Auditori, Barcelona, Palau de la Música de Valencia, Gran Auditorio del Centro Cultural de Belem (Lisboa), Auditorio Nacional de España, Auditorio Manuel de Falla (Granada), Teatro Monumental de Madrid, Gran Teatro de Cáceres, Auditori Camp de Mart (Tarragona), Palacio de Congresos de Badajoz, Teatro Gayarre (Pamplona), Auditorio de Galicia, Palacio de la Ópera (Coruña), Sala Sugia (Casa da Música / Oporto) etc.

He has been selected as guest composer in the workshop “Ateliers de composition acanthes” Metz (Concours de la Ville de Paris). The lecturers were Wolfgang Rihm, Pascal Dusapin, Tosio Hosokawa, Georges Aperghis, Gérard Pesson, Michael Jarrell and Yan Maresz