2026 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest

The sixteenth Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest is now open.

Our annual juried contest spotlights new musical talent from around the world, offering four cash prizes and opportunities to be heard and published. In 2025, we received 127 submissions from 17 countries, including Canada, the U.S. and U.K., Italy, France, Japan, and others.

First prize: $500, a composer profile in Musicworks in 2027, and the composition released on the accompanying Musicworks CD.

Second prize: $200 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027.

Third prize: $100 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027.

Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique: $300 and a composer profile in 2027. This prize is open to entrants who self-identify as female or non-binary. Learn about the prize HERE.

*Cash prizes and entry fees are listed in Canadian dollars.

REQUIREMENTS

Compose and submit an experimental piece in any electronic-music genre—acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, or video music. The contest is open to entries from anywhere in the world and from artists at any stage of their careers. Pieces must be previously unpublished (i.e. not released on a commercially available recording at the time of submission).

Maximum length: 10 minutes.

Accepted file types: MP3 or MP4 only.

Contest entry fee: $30 CAD. Unlimited additional entries are $5 CAD each.

All entrants receive a one-year print subscription to Musicworks ($44–$59 value).

Contest closes November 9, 2026

Prize details, eligibility, assessment criteria, rules and restrictions, and the entry portal can be found HERE.

Previous Electronic Music Composition Contest First-place Winners

• 2025 Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece/U.S.)

• 2024 Rocio Cano Valino (France/Argentina)

• 2023 Ningxin Zhang (China/USA)

• 2022 Leah Reid (U.S.A)

• 2021 Mariana Vieira (Portugal)

• 2020 Rocio Cano Valino (Argentina/France)

• 2019 Alex Buck (Brazil / California)

• 2018 Manuella Blackburn (Manchester, U.K.)

• 2017 Erik Ingalls (Windsor, Ontario)

• 2016 Craig Aalders (Vancouver, British Columbia)

• 2015 Juan Camilo Vásquez (Bogotá, Colombia)

• 2014 James O’Callaghan (Montreal, Quebec)

• 2013 Margaret Noble (San Diego, California)

• 2012 Bennett Jenisch (Los Angeles, California)

• 2011 Ian Battenfield Headley (NYC)