Young Creators Fellowship

~Nois’s Young Creators Fellowship is an opportunity for talented and creative high-school aged students to create a new collaborative work for saxophone quartet.

 

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The Fellowship:

Are you a creative high school-aged artist living near Chicago?

Do you have a cool idea for a new saxophone quartet?

Do you want to win $500?!

Well, you’ve come to the right place! Our Young Creators Fellowship will offer two creative local students an opportunity to collaborate with us on new works for saxophone quartet, which will be premiered on our DISCOVERY Series concert in Chicago on April 22nd, 2025. 


Haven’t written a saxophone quartet before? Fear not! Applicants only need to include 1-2 examples of their previous artistic work in their application to be considered. We will accept a wide range of artistic materials, including, but not limited to the following:

  • Incomplete sketches or completed scores for previously written works.

  • Audio tracks or beats.

  • An improvised piece of music either written or performed by you.

  • The sky’s the limit! If you have other musical work samples that demonstrate your creativity and would translate well to the creation of a new saxophone quartet, please reach out to our bari player János (janos@noissaxophone.com) to ask if it would be an appropriate fit for the Fellowship.

The two selected Fellows, accompanied by a parent or guardian, will each participate in two in-person collaborative workshops with ~Nois prior to the premiere performance. This will be our chance to not only work on the pieces, but also to get to know more about you as an individual and an artist!

Upon completion of the premiere performance, winners will each receive a $500 cash prize and a professional video recording of their piece.

Application due: December 9th, 2024

download the Application for the 2025 Young Creators Fellowship Here!

(Check out some music by our previous winners below!)

Creative Mentor Spotlight: Joey Meland

We are really excited to have Chicago artist Joey Meland (he/they) acting as the creative mentor for this project! Joey’s musical talents are numerous and multi-faceted, having performed as a keyboardist and singer with groups ranging from Spektral Quartet to Emily Blue. They have also produced music for many songwriters across the world (including Disney), and has had A/V collaborations shown on billboards throughout Tokyo. On top of being an award-winning classical composer, they are currently creating happy hyper bitpop-fusion style music under the moniker COCOJOEY.

In addition to being present at all of the workshops with ~Nois, Joey will be providing one-on-one composition lessons for the Fellows where they can ask any questions related to the creation and composition of their music.

Check out their latest album ‘COCOJOEY’S WORLD’

For those wondering what “happy hyper bitpop-fusion style music” is, try giving “Cocojoey’s Theme” a watch:

Joey does classical stuff too though; here’s a saxophone quartet they wrote a while back:

download the Application for the 2025 Young Creators Fellowship Here!

Application due: December 9th, 2024

All application materials must be submitted via email and sent to noisycf@gmail.com with the subject line: “[Your first and last name] Application”.

Required Materials:

  • Completed questionnaire

  • 1-2 artistic work sample(s) of your choosing

  • Optional letter of recommendation

For a more detailed list of instructions for the application, please click the download link above.

If you have any questions regarding the application, please submit them to our bari player János at janos@noissaxophone.com and he will get back to you as soon as he can!

 

The Young Creators Fellowship is made possible by generous support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.