Allegro Solo Competition

Open to all instruments, voice, & piano!

LINK: 2025 Allegro Solo Competition Application Form

Announcing the Inaugural Ventura College

The Second Annual Allegro Solo Competition is hosted and produced by the Performing Arts Department of Ventura College and the Miriam Schwab Academy of Music.  It is open to every instrument, piano, and voice category and there is no application fee to apply (See eligibility requirements below).  Up to two (2) Eligible winners will be selected to perform their chosen music selection accompanied by the Ventura College Symphony Orchestra (Ashley Walters, Music Director) in concert on March 8, 2025 at the Performing Arts Center at Ventura College.

Important Dates:

• Application deadline:  Monday, January 6, 2025 - Midnight
• Competition Date:  Tuesday, January 14, 2025 (arranged time-slots)
• Winners Performance:  Saturday, March 8, 2025 - 3:00 pm (entire period attendance required for winners)

Required Rehearsals for Winners:  

• Monday, February 24, 2025  (5:15pm - 9:00pm, entire attendance required)
• Monday, March 3, 2025  (5:15pm - 9:00pm, entire attendance required)
• Saturday, March 8, 2025  (morning or early afternoon Dress Rehearsal with Orchestra)

Eligibility Requirements:

The Allegro Competition is open to instrumental or vocal musicians of any age that meet the following eligibility requirements:

Applicant must be at least one of the following:

1. Current resident of Ventura County, OR;
2. Student currently enrolled at Ventura College, Moorpark College, or Oxnard College, OR;
3. Alumni of Ventura College, Moorpark College, or Oxnard College.

All applicants must perform their entire solo live for the Competition Judges at the Ventura College Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at a time between 3:00 - 9:00 PM.  Specific time slots will be determined and assigned to each applicant by the Competition Administrators ahead of time.

Winning applicants must be available to attend the entire winner’s performance on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 3:00pm and perform their same solo at a time on the Concert schedule to be determined by the Music Director.

Applicant must meet the following Repertoire requirements:

1. A work of any genre no more than 20 minutes in length, AND;
2. Selection must have appropriate orchestral accompaniment parts available.
3. Selection may be a complete piece, OR one or more movements of a multi-movement work.
4. Selection may be performed with or without accompaniment for the Competition Judges on January 14.

REGISTRATION

Registration for the Fall Semester is now open! Course titles listed above can be found in the Ventura College Course Catalog. The VC Registration Information Page will give students step-by-step instructions on registering for courses through The Ventura College Portal.

STEPS TO PARTICIPATE

• Visit z58k.theabsolutelongestwebdomainnameinthewholegoddamnfuckinguniverse.com/start to set up your Ventura College student portal.
• Once your student portal has been created, visit my.vcccd.edu and select Register for Classes. Search classes by selecting ‘Fall 2025’ and using the appropriate CRN#.
• Pay fees (approximately $75 per class). Fees includes: tuition, health fee, & student activity fees.
• Auditions (required for applied private lessons and most ensembles - See auditions tab for more information as available)

CLASSES

QUESTIONS?

Please visit the Music Department Page for Audition Information.

Please visit the Theatre Arts Department Page for the 2025 Fall Production Audition Information.

Artist Residency: Wadada Leo Smith

Wednesday, Feb 12 – Friday, Feb 14

Concert: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait

Friday, Feb 14, 3:00 PM

PURCHASE TICKETS

Pulitzer Prize finalist trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith comes to Ventura College for a three-day residency, culminating with a concert featuring VC's music students and ensembles.

The residency, designed to engage the student body and community at large through conversations, workshops, and concerts, includes both public events and special sessions for VC students and faculty, and is held in conjunction with events presented by LA’s Tuesdays @ Monk Space and the Ojai Music Festival.

Smith’s compositions use a remarkable musical notation of his own creation that incorporates a variety of mediums including pens, paints, metallics, and found objects. His genre-spanning work has earned him many accolades and his recent teaching positions include visiting lecturer at Harvard University. Smith lived in Ventura for 13 years and has deep ties to the city. The inspiration for some of his work comes from his daily walks on Ventura’s beaches.

CONCERT INFORMATION

Wadada Leo Smith’s three-day Ventura College residency will conclude with a concert at 3:00 PM on Friday, February 14, 2025 at Ventura College’s Yunker Auditorium in the VC Performing Arts Center. The program will showcase the composers incredible versatility, and will feature Ventura College’s talented student musicians. The program will start with Smith’s String Quartet No. 3, Black Church: A First World Gathering of the Spirit, featuring Carlos Ozuna and Liah Kraft (violin), Alex Fager (viola), and Ashley Walters (cello). The Ventura College Chamber Singers (Brent Wilson, director) will perform excerpts from Rosa Parks – Oratorio of Seven Songs and the VC Jazz Band (Fundi Legohn, director) will perform Mrs. Till and Emmett Till: Again: Can You See the Light. The VC Symphony Orchestra (Ashley Walters, conductor) will perform Smith’s Violin Concerto for LeRoy Jenkins (World Premiere), featuring VC student Carlos Ozuna as soloist. Students from various disciplines across the VC Campus will join the music department to perform Winter, one of Smith's ankhrasmation scores.

SCHEDULE & AFFILIATED EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS / OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Wednesday, Feb-12 / 1:00- 2:15 PM
Open Rehearsal: VC Chamber Singers (Dir: Brent Wilson)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139

Wednesday, Feb-12 / 2:30-3:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: String Quartet (Dir. Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139

Wednesday, Feb-12 / 6:30-9:00 PM
Open Rehearsal + Q&A: VC Symphony Orchestra (Dir: Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139

Thursday, Feb-13 / 7:30-8:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: Jazz Band (Dir: Fundi Legohn)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139

Friday, Feb-14 / 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Concert: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
Location: VC PAC, Yunker Auditorium 
Tickets: Pay What You Can, z58k.theabsolutelongestwebdomainnameinthewholegoddamnfuckinguniverse.com/performing-arts

CAMPUS EVENTS – OPEN TO VC STUDENTS, FACULTY & STAFF

Wednesday, Feb-12 / 10:00-11:15 AM
Opening Session: ‘Exploring Ankhrasmation’
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
This session explores Smith’s scores, and is an opportunity for spoken word artists, poets, fine artists, actors, dancers, or musicians to workshop Smith’s work as a pre-cursor to the Feb-14 concert.

Thursday, Feb-13 / 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Flex Day Faculty Event: Intro to Wadada Leo Smith
Location: VC PAC, Guthrie Hall
This Flex-day event is only open to Faculty. It will include a performance of 'String Quartet No. 3, Black Church: A First World Gathering of the Spirit.'

Thursday, Feb-13 / 1:45-3:00 PM
Session 2: A Discussion on Creativity and Inspiration
+ Q&A led by Vicki Ray
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
This Session includes a Q&A between Smith and pianist and scholar Vicki Ray.

Friday, Feb-14 / 11:30 - 2:00 PM
Dress Rehearsal: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
This rehearsal is for all the VC students, staff, and faculty who will perform in the concert.

RELATED EVENTS

Tuesday, Feb-11 / 8:00 PM
Tuesdays @ Monk Space presents Wadada Leo Smith and RedKoral
String Quartet No. 17
Location: Monk Space – Los Angeles / 4414 W. 2nd Street. Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tickets: $15-$25 (Limited free tickets available for VC students)
www.brightworknewmusic.com/tuesdays-at-monk-space

Saturday, Feb-15 / 7:30 PM
Ojai Music Festival presents Wadada Leo Smith and RedKoral
String Quartet No. 19 (World Premiere)
Location: The Red Canteen at Matilija / 703 El Paseo Road, Ojai, CA
Tickets: $25 suggested (Limited free tickets available for VC students)
www.ojaifestival.org/creative-lab-02-15-25

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Wadada Leo Smith (b. 1941) is a trumpet player and composer, originally from Leland, Mississippi. Smith’s early musical education was from his stepfather, Alex “Little Bill” Wallace, and through the U.S. Military band. He furthered his education at Sherwood School of Music and Wesleyan University where he studied Indonesian music performance, African and South Indian flute music, Anthropological study of American Indigenous music, and Japanese koto music.

Smith has held teaching positions at the University of New Haven, Bard College, the California Institute of the Arts, and most recently as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University.

Smith’s awards and accolades are numerous and include the awards of Artist, Trumpeter, and Album (America’s National Parks) of the year in DownBeat Magazine’s 65th Annual Critics Poll, Artist of the Year in the Jazz Times’ Critics Poll of 2016, and Musician of the Year in 2017 by the Jazz Journalists Association. In addition, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his work Ten Freedom Summers, was a Guggenheim fellow in 2009, received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Vision Festival in 2022, and was inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2023.

Over his lifetime, Smith has created own symbolic language score called Ankhrasmation. This guides his work as a composer, creator, performer, and educator. These scores are developed with a variety of mediums including pens, paints, metallics, and found objects. These pieces have been on exhibit in The Museum of Rhythm, Museum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland; The Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA; and the Renaissance Society, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Performing Arts Center

Helen Yunker Auditorium

4700 Loma Vista Rd. Ventura CA 93003