MakeMusic has recently cosponsored several music composition contests—so many that it’s sometimes tough to keep track of them all. This week I’ll help sort them out AND share a great video.

Back in April MakeMusic announced the winners of the “Take Your Music Further with Garritan” music composition contest. Since then our blog has featured all three winners.

In December 2011 we announced the winners of the 2011 Finale National Composition Contest, sponsored in conjunction with the American Composers Forum and the Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird. Today I’m delighted to share the above video from the culminating three-day workshop and concert, held at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art in December. The video gives a great sense of the creative back-and-forth process at such a workshop and a deeper sense of the relationship between these composers and performers.

Those of you keeping score at home may recall that the 2012 Finale National Composition Contest is still underway, too. In February we announced the three finalists, whose pieces will be workshopped and performed by the JACK Quartet, in New York City, on Friday, September 14, 2012.

I hope to be able to introduce you to those finalists—Taylor Brook, Michelle Lou, and Nathan Shields—in the upcoming weeks.