Application’s Open to New Jersey Symphony’s Composition Institute

Open to early-career composers, applications to the tuition-free program will close on February 16, 2025

The New Jersey Symphony is now accepting applications for its 11th annual Edward T. Cone Composition Institute from July 14–19, 2025 in Princeton, New Jersey, in partnership with EarShot, a program of the American Composers Orchestra.

Designed to promote contemporary orchestral music, the Cone Institute is a tuition-free program open to university composition students and composers in the early stages of their professional careers. 

Four selected candidates will have their music premiered by the New Jersey Symphony in a public concert on July 19, plus be part of in-depth career development sessions with industry leaders, including the Cone Institute’s director, composer Steven Mackey, a music professor and director of graduate studies in composition at Princeton University. 

Conductor and composer Christopher Rountree will also be returning as the Institute’s guest conductor. The winning composers will also participate in one-on-one and group coaching sessions with Mackey and Rountree.

Other activities throughout the week will include public speaking and feedback sessions with industry leaders, music editing and networking skills with New Jersey Symphony musicians and staff, as well as discussions on best practices for getting contemporary classical music funded and published. 

More benefits include housing and meals in Princeton. The New Jersey Symphony will also reimburse up to $250 of participants’ travel costs. To apply, applicants must submit an original composition that is no more than 13 minutes long. 

For information and to apply, click here. The deadline for applications is February 16, 2025. 

Presented in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot program, the Cone Institute grew out of bi-annual reading sessions the Symphony held with Princeton University graduate students, beginning in 2000. It celebrates its namesake, Edward T. Cone for his legacy as both a composer and a Princeton University professor.

A GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony is led by Music Director Xian Zhang. The orchestra performs more than 60 concerts at mainstage venues across the state, including Newark, Princeton, New Brunswick, Red Bank, and Morristown as well as schools and public spaces statewide.

(Image courtesy: New Jersey Symphony/Edward T. Cone Composition Institute)