Well, I didn’t make it to Essex. In waiting for the hot water to come back on this morning so I could be clean for Essex, I got rather engrossed in some other stuff and by the time I came to there wasn’t really enough time to get there. *sigh*

But on the flip side, useful stuff has been achieved. I think the violin piece *gasp!* may be finished. But it’s been so antsy recently that I’ll have to let it lie overnight, I think, and work out tomorrow whether it’s really done. So many of the recent tweaks have been so minute that it barely seems worthwhile, and I still don’t think the first couple of bars are as good as the rest, but I’m beginning to feel that I need to move on to something else. I feel like I’m treading water from a compositional standpoint. Waiting for the violin piece to work out its niggles, waiting for TVU to get back to me to tell me when my next lesson is, waiting for someone to get back to me on a potentially very exciting project, waiting to hear about the progress of another project that’s stalled. I kind of feel like I’m stuck in a dead end. But I’ve decided enough’s enough. Task of the day was to see what composition opps are available and see if anything appeals. I think I don’t really want to write for strings because the last two pieces I’ve done have been a string quintet and a solo violin piece, and there’s the Yorkshire Late Starters Strings competition coming up later in the year, which I’m planning to write for (string orchestra). So what I’ve ended up with is:

• New York Virtuoso Singers Choral Composition Competition for choral scores (due 8 April)
• 3rd International Chamber Music Composition Contest in Seinäjoki, Finland for 7-instrument ensemble (end of March – this would be a huge challenge, I suspect, but could be really interesting)
• Left Coast Chamber Ensemble 2011 Composition Contest (due 13 April – really like the sound of this one – 1-7 instruments, including voice and can use tape too)
• A French composition contest for percussion ensembles (due end of March, but the entry fee is a whopping €50 per score. I think that might put it out of the running, which is a real shame)
• Counterpoint International Competition 2011 has a deadline that’s only two weeks away – eek! – but possibly I could rework something? But I think I really would like to create something new at the moment. Not entirely out of the running, but I think it’s on the edge
• University of Aberdeen Music Prize – Call For Scores for trumpet and string quartet – now that’s a bit different, eh? Not due till the end of May, so tons of time
• and finally, the Delta Omicron French Horn competition for French horn and piano, due at the end of March

So there’s loads of options out there. Now I just have to choose which one to play with…