Wildflower Lab is a space to…

collaborate with musicians
improvise
try new things
clarify compositional ideas
form connections with local peers and mentors
amplify the work of those in and around Philadelphia

What is the Wildflower Lab?

The Wildflower Lab is a true workshopping space for works-in-progress, sketches, ideas, and/or completed drafts of compositions. We partner with professional musicians and ensembles to provide local Philadelphian composers with two workshops to hear their music and receive feedback from musicians. The second workshop will be professionally recorded.

The 2025 Wildflower Lab: ReRoot with the Relâche Ensemble will take place on February 2 and 9 at Temple University. Four Philadelphia-area composers will be selected to participate.

This is a free opportunity. There is no cost to apply or participate.

Am I eligible?

Applicants to the 2025 Wildflower Lab: ReRoot with the Relâche Ensemble must meet the following requirements:

• Reside within a 30-mile radius of Philadelphia

• 18 years or older by February 1, 2025

• Would like to compose a new work for the Relâche instrumentation (below) or have a sketch, work-in-progress, or completed work for the Relâche instrumentation (below)

• Available February 2 and 9, 2025 for in-person workshops in Philadelphia at Temple University

• Identify as part of the female, transgender, nonbinary, and/or genderqueer population

We invite submissions or proposals that use at least three of the following instruments:

• Flute or piccolo

• Oboe or english horn

• Clarinet or saxophone

• Bassoon

• Viola

• Double bass

• Piano (without preparation)

• Percussion (vibraphone, 4.3 octave marimba, glockenspiel, toms (2), snare drum, bongos, crotales, bass drum, suspended and crash cymbals, small handheld percussion)

The Wildflower Lab is intended for early-career composers who are actively seeking feedback and advice on a recent piece, work-in-progress, or compositional idea. We are actively seeking applications from composers who do not have regular access to performer feedback, and who are female, transgender, nonbinary, and/or genderqueer in the early stages of their professional careers (defined as having not received a commission of more than $5,000). Although there is no maximum age to participate, we expect that the majority of participants will be between the ages of 18 and 35.

We invite submissions of works-in-progress, sketches, and/or completed pieces. Submissions must be clearly notated and copy-edited (see example works here). We ask that you submit a maximum of 10 minutes of music. If you would like to submit a longer piece, please specify an excerpt that you would like to focus on for this session.

About the Relâche Ensemble

Recognized for its world-class performances of works by leading contemporary composers, Relâche is an international leader in commissioning, presenting and performing the innovative music of our time. Founded as a composer's collective in 1977 and officially founded as an ensemble in 1979, Relâche is among the oldest continuously operating nonprofit chamber ensembles dedicated to contemporary music in the United States.

Relâche continues to invest in the future of new music through its commitment to the work of young and emerging composers. To date, Relâche has performed more than 550 concerts in and around its home city of Philadelphia as well as across the country and the globe, including residencies, festival and touring appearances in South America, Japan and Eastern and Western Europe. Relâche is one of the most stylistically flexible groups on the East Coast, and is equally at home playing everything from folk to jazz, and from rock to contemporary classical.

Learn more at www.relache.org.

Thank you to Susanna Payne-Passmore, James Diaz, and Erin Busch for providing example scores and to Phil O’Banion and Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance for donating the workshop space.