Salastina Composer Collective

Over the past five years, Salastina’s tuition-free Composer Collective has armed over three dozen young composers with career-making recordings of their work. These recordings have already yielded results, including high-profile professional commissions.

Under the guidance of Composer Mentor Derrick Skye, Salastina Composer Collective participants write a world premiere for Salastina. Pieces are workshopped prior to being professionally recorded. Composers are free to use the finished audio/video recording for non-commercial purposes as they wish.

Because all aspects of this program — from lessons to workshopping and recording — can take place virtually, Salastina is pleased to continue providing the program to students ages 18-30 living anywhere. 

Reflecting our commitment to our Composer Collective participants as young colleagues (rather than “students”): 

• The program is completely free.
• There is no application fee and no tuition.
• Putting our actual money where our mouth is, we formally commission one of each year’s participants for a premiere the following concert season.
• True to the spirit of a collective, we strive to maintain the relationships we build beyond the program’s end.
• Submit our online application by November 30, 2025. The application form requires:
  • a brief (250 words or less) biography.
  • contact information for two references. Please ensure they are prepared to speak about you if asked.
  • links to three media samples — such as digital mockups, YouTube video links, or performance or studio recordings — best reflecting your compositional skill and style.
• Submit a link to a video recording answering the following questions: How will participating in Salastina's Composer Collective program benefit you? What do you hope to get out of the program? Why do you want to participate? Please keep your response to under 2 minutes.
• Make sure that your submitted links are 1) working, and 2) publicly accessible. Broken links, or links with any permissions required to access them, will disqualify your application from advancing to the next stage.
• While scores are not necessary, you may share them if you like.
• There is no application fee.

• We welcome applicants residing anywhere worldwide, as all aspects of the program take place via Zoom. 

  We will contact finalists for a brief, 15-minute interview via Zoom after January 2, 2026.