Polish Music Critic Competition "KROPKA"

Contemporary music culture provides various challenges associated with music: from amateur castings to phonography contests, as well as professional competitions for performers and composers. Why, then, shouldn’t we evaluate the work of those who judge the other people’s musical achievements in everyday life?

The general opinion is that everyone can criticize others. A deeper reflection and careful assessment of the music phenomenon is a rare ability. Yet much rarer is the ability to make original judgment in such a way that it attracts attention of casual readers. We believe that constructive music criticism should be considered as true art. Therefore, we announce the first nationwide competition for the Polish Music Critics “KROPKA” (“DOT”).

This event has an opportunity to contribute to an integration of artistic communities, which due to their great diversity and niche music genres, remain disunited.

The competition is open to all music genres and musical styles. Everyone is invited to participate in the contest: publicists raising various musical issues – both professionals, publishing their articles in printed or electronic media and amateurs, debutants, as well as bloggers. Any form of expression will be accepted – we are interested in reviews, essays, columns or blog entries. However, criteria that will be specifically taken into account when assessing include value of the work and the quality of writing. We are aware of difficulties that occur while describing sounds – therefore, factors such as vocabulary and writing style will be also evaluated.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories:

1. First Prize for the best text about music published in 2014 – three equivalent awards will be given in this category.

2. Distinctions:

• for a debutant, i..e., a person who has not completed studies related to music and does not work professionally in the field of journalism

• for a blogger or a person who maintains a Polish weblog about music

3. Special Award for a text on Polish music published outside the country.

Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS is the sponsor of the awards.

This year PWM’s Head Special Award will be given.

Please scroll down for Terms and Conditions and for Timetable!

The competition jury deliberations will take place in March 2015. Panel of judges includes 7 people: music critics, musicologists, artists representing different fields of art and different music institutions. Among them there are: Daniel Cichy (the head of the jury), Joanna Grotkowska, Anna Chęćka-Gotkowicz, Weronika Grozdew-Kołacińska, Piotr Metz, Miłosz Bembinow and Mariusz Herma.

The award ceremony will take place at 10^th of May 2015 in Polish Music Publishing House [PWM] on Fredry 8 Street, Warsaw. The event will accompany Warsaw Music Encounters [Warszawskie Spotkania Muzyczne].

Please send your papers to kropka@fundacjameakultura.pl

The deadline is 25^th of February 2015.

All active critics are welcome to participate in this project!

For more informations about the competition, please visit MEAKULTURA Foundation’s website: https://fundacjameakultura.pl/kropka or Foundation’s fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/FundacjaMEAKULTURA

 

 

POLISH MUSIC CRITIC COMPETITION “KROPKA”– TERMS AND CONDITIONS

 

§ 1 ORGANIZERS

The organizer of the competition is MEAKULTURA Foundation that will award the best music critics annually, starting in the year 2015.

§ 2 PURPOSES

The aim of the competition is to promote music criticism in both printed and electronic media as well as to support people debuting in this field. The competition is also supposed to encourage people to participate actively in the music culture and to shape a positive image of music criticism.

§ 3 AWARDS

1. The organizers will give:

   1. three equivalent First Prizes in the Competition for the best text about music, published in a given calendar year, in Polish language, by a Polish author.

   2. Special Award for the text about Polish music published outside the country in a given calendar year, in a language other than Polish. Texts may include single articles, reviews, blogs and music columns published regularly in printing or electronic press. An author cannot have Polish citizenship.

   3. Distinctions:

• For debutant (person without B.A. or M.A. in studies related to music, who does not work professionally in the field of journalism). The debutant category refers to any author writing in Polish, regardless of his/her age, place of residence, or membership in artistic associations. A limiting condition for the participation in the competition is the lack of participant’s publications on musical issues in magazines marked with ISSN or ISBN number. If the author doesn’t fulfill this requirement, the decision of prize awarded will be revoked. The author that has already published works unrelated to the music won’t be disqualified.
• For blogger, or a person who maintains a blog in Polish for minimum 12 months. The content of his/her weblog should refer to the music issues and consist of minimum 12 entries. In the case of a blog having more than one author, single author’s texts will be judged by the jury.

2. Statuettes and diplomas for successful participants were donated by Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS and will be the official awards of the contest. In particular cases, winners will be given money and non-cash prizes.

3. Another distinction in the competition will be reprint edition of selected articles in the journal MEAKULTURA (meakultura.pl) with the first publishers’ consent.

4. The editorial board and foundation’s management will contact particular winners in order to undertake further cooperation (research, journalism)

5. The name of the award, statuette and prize’s symbol, are protected by law as a trademark.

§ 4 APPLICATIONS

1. Candidates (only natural persons) should submit their entries via email to: kropka@fundacjameakultura.pl.The text should be attached to the mail.

2. Entries on behalf of another person will be accepted only if the author of the text was informed and gave his or her consent.

3. Only one text of a given author will be qualified for the competition

4. Members of MEAKULTURA Foundation management, members of organizational committee as well as editors of MEAKULTURA magazine may not enter the competition.

5. Each article should include: author’s name and surname, address, phone number, e-mail address and information of his/her first publication (if there is one).

6. All entries must be typed, written in Times New Roman in 12 or 14 point font, with line spacing of 1,5. The works must be submitted in .doc or PDF document format. The texts should contain at least 2400 and no more than 20,000 signs including spaces.

§ 5 JURY AND EVALUATION

1. Neither subject area of submissions nor genres of music are imposed by the organizers. The form of the paper is unrestricted (review, column, essay). Also, any music genre will be accepted (classical music, film music, folk music etc.). Criteria that will be taken into account in the process of selection include: original approach to a subject, erudition, reasoning skills, logical disquisition on the subject, comprehensibility, and literary merits of the text in terms of vocabulary and writing style.

2. The submissions will be pre-qualified by particular members of Organizational Committee of Polish Music Critics Competition KROPKA, who should be professionally trained in musicology or cultural studies. The committee should include at least two people holding Ph.D.

3. The best submissions (not less than 25% of the works submitted for the Awards and 5 works in each category for Distinctions) will be submitted to the Commission for evaluation.

4. Panel of judges, who are professionals in musicology, will include 7 people (musicologists, academic teachers, journalists, managers, etc.).

5. The decisions of the Commission shall be final and is not subject to appeal.

 

§ 6 FINAL INFORMATION

1. When registering, the Participant confirms that he/she meets all the conditions to participate in the Contest and accepts all the terms formulated in this statute.

2. Entrants agree to the processing of their personal data for the purposes connected with the participation in the Contest.

3. A timetable, determines deadline of closing date for entries, the committee’s work and the notifications of results (along with the award ceremony).

 

 

TIMETABLE

January 7, 2015: Call for papers

February 25, 2015: Closing date for entries

February 26–March 1, 2015: Selection process (selection of entries and nomination of papers to be entered for the competition)

March 9-31,2015: The competition jury deliberations (judging process)

April 9, 2015: Result notifications

May 10, 2015 at 4 pm: The award ceremony in Polish Music Publishing House [PWM] on Fredry 8 Street, Warsaw