Tokyo Opera City's contemporary music festival, called "Composium 2008," will be held in mid-May. The main feature of this festival is the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award competition, which has become world famous, both for its unusual system of leaving the judging to one composer alone and for the outstanding record of achievement that its winners have built up. For the tenth festival this year, the competition judge will be Steve Reich. Heretofore, Mr. Reich has refused all invitations to judge competitions, but he has accepted now for the first time, out of support for the principles on which this competition is based.

In accordance with Mr. Reich's request, for this year only, entries will be limited to pieces for ensembles. Mr. Reich will do the initial screening by reading the scores of 76 works submitted from 27 countries to select four works to be performed for the final judgement on May 25, when the winning composition will be announced. It will be a matter of great interest to see what kinds of musical talent the competition will bring to light.

"Composium 2008"
http://www.operacity.jp/concert/compo/2008/index.html(in Japanese version only)

The above is excerpted with permission from an article posted April 23, 2008 on the ClassicNEWS website (http://www.music.co.jp/classicnews/).