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Composers FORUM
OVERVIEW
The Composers Forum is geared towards individuals who are pursuing the craft of composition and receiving professional performances of their works, attending masterclasses, and immersing themselves in the compositional world of Vienna, Austria and all that it has to offer. Each admitted composer will receive a performance of their new work during the festival.
Previous editions: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 & 2021 (canceled) | 2022
INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITION
Dates: June 26 - July 10
A major highlight of this festival is our participants having their music performed by world class contemporary performers and ensembles such as PHACE, Irvine Arditti, Mivos Quartet, Transient Canvas, and Ensemble Dal Niente.
Composition students will take private composition lessons with Viennese and international composers and attend lectures/masterclasses on contemporary music and advanced theory topics.
Amongst the guest faculty, prominent composers such as Anthony Green, Pierluigi Billone, Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, Oliver Weber, Ulrich Drechsler, Reinhard Fuchs, Clemens Gadenstätter, and other visiting guests will join the festival.
Participants will be given a choice amongst our four guest ensembles, who will perform one piece. PHACE ensemble, a professional contemporary music ensemble residing in Vienna, offers any combination of instruments including: flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; Mivos Quartet consists of a regular string quartet; Transient Canvas is a marimba/bass clarinet duo; and Ensemble Dal Niente is sending two of their performers (guitar and soprano) to Vienna this year. All ensembles will perform the new pieces at the VSMF: Contemporary Music Concerts.
Students will also work with Irvine Arditti, from the Arditti Quartet, who will workshop and record selected student pieces for solo violin or string quartet.
TUITION: €3750
Includes: housing, private lessons, facilities, faculty, masterclasses, visiting guests, cultural excursions, ensemble hires
CURRICULUM
Private Lessons
Composition students will receive private composition lessons with prominent Viennese composers. All participants will work on a project that will be developed during their stay in Vienna and presented for a discussion amongst their peers and faculty.
Rehearsals
Composers are obliged to attend all rehearsals of their compositions and are expected to work closely with the ensemble and music director in order to ensure a successful performance of their work.
Masterclasses
Composers will have the opportunity to have their works critiqued by visiting guest artists. Master Classes will be conducted with visiting guest artists and are open to all festival participants to observe.
Seminars
Seminars will be given by our visiting guest faculty on their particular area of research and will consist of advanced topics in composition and compositional processes chosen by the professors.
PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES
VSMF Provides professional opportunities for all admitted participants
PHACE
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Participants of the Instrumental Composition Program will have their music performed by PHACE. PHACE is a premiere contemporary music ensemble who performs around the world and regularly commissions leading composers. You can learn more about PHACE here.
Mivos Quartet
Contemporary Music Ensemble
The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting diverse new music to international audiences. More here.
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Transient Canvas
Contemporary Music Duo
For over a decade Boston-based contemporary duo Transient Canvas has been thrilling audiences with their “engaging musicality and easy sense of ensemble" (Cleveland Classical) and “superb” performances (Boston Globe). More here.
Ensemble Dal Niente
Duo Soprano + Guitar
Ensemble Dal Niente presents and performs new and experimental music in ways that redefine the listening experience and advance the art form. The programming, brought to life by a flexible repertoire-based instrumentation, seeks to challenge convention and create engaging, inspiring, and immersive experiences which connect audiences with the music of today. More here.
Irvine Arditti
Work with the legendary Irvine Arditti of the Arditti Quartet
The VSMF is proud to have Irvine Arditti, founder of the contemporary string quartet Arditti Quartet join the faculty. Mr. Arditti will perform and record works for solo violin. Participants of the Instrumental Composition Program will have access to this opportunity. Please click here to watch Irvine Arditti's interview given during our 2018 edition.
Meet the VSMF Composition Faculty
Our world-class faculty have major careers working as composers and performers championing new music
Irvine Arditti
In addition to his legendary career as first violinist of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has also given life to many solo works. Born in London in 1953, Irvine Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left the orchestra in 1980 in order to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a student.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Anthony Green
The creative output of Anthony R. Green (composer, performer, social justice) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His compositions and projects have been presented in 20+ countries by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles, such as pianists Hayk Melikyan and Eunmi Ko, the American Composers Orchestra, the Keuris Saxophone Quartet, NOISE-BRIDGE, and Alarm Will Sound, to name a few. As a performer, he has appeared at venues across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, presenting piano and chamber music recitals, interdisciplinary and experimental performances, and lecture-recitals that fuse performance with research. Green’s most important social justice work has been with Castle of our Skins: celebrating Black Artistry through Music.
Simeon Pironkoff
From 1985 to 1989 continuation of his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (composition with Erich Urbanner, conducting with Karl Österreicher)
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin (*1968 in Mocsow) studied composition with Boguslaw Schaeffer and piano with Alfons Kontarsky, Dimo Dimov and Boyan Vodenitcharov at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and at the State Music Academy in Sofia.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
Paul Richards
Born in New York City in 1969 to a musical family, composer Paul Richards has been engaged with music since childhood, including forays into various popular styles, the Western canon, and Jewish sacred and secular music through his father, a cantor. All of these experiences inform his creative activities, which have included numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical works, including two full-length operas. Hailed in the press as a composer with “a strong, pure melodic gift, an ear for color, and an appreciation for contrast and variety,” and praised for his “fresh approach to movement and beautiful orchestral coloration,” his works have been heard in performance throughout the country and internationally on six continents.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Šimon Voseček
Šimon Voseček (13 April 1978) is an Austrian-Czech composer. He is known for his opera "Biedermann und die Brandstifter" ("Biedermann and the Arsonists", (2005-2007; 2013; 2015), which was premiered in Vienna by Neue Oper Wien in 2013).
Tina Tallon
Winner of a 2021-2022 Rome Prize, Tina Tallon (b. 1990) is a sound artist, creative technologist, vocalist, educator, and arts documentarian based in Rome. Her works have been performed by such esteemed musicians as Ensemble Intercontemporain, wild Up, Talea, and the LA Philharmonic New Music Group. She has received major grants and awards from organizations such as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the American Academy in Rome, ASCAP, the Barlow Endowment, and NewMusicUSA. Recent commissioners include the LA Philharmonic, Guerilla Opera, and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals, conferences, and workshops including IRCAM’s ManiFeste, the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, Iceland Airwaves, MIT-Grafenegg Forum, and many others. Dr. Tallon’s research interests include algorithmic justice, AI, voice technology, and digital humanities. She holds B.S. degrees in Biological Engineering and Music from MIT, an M.F.A in Composition and Music Theory from Brandeis, and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UC San Diego. Her primary composition teachers include Peter Child, David Rakowski, and Lei Liang, and she studied computer music with Tom Erbe and Miller Puckette. She is currently Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts at the University of Florida.
Damon Talley
Dr. Talley is a strong supporter and advocate of music in the public schools. He regularly serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances engagements in Germany, Switzerland, England, and Spain, among others.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Michael Slayton
Michael K. Slayton is an American composer and educator, currently serving as Associate Professor and Chair of Composition and Theory, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Clemens Gadenstätter
Clemens Gadenstätter, born in 1966, studied composition in Vienna and then Stuttgart under Helmut Lachenmann. He teaches at the University of Music Graz as a professor of Analysis, Music Theory, and Composition.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Oliver Weber
Oliver Weber studied musicology at the University of Zurich as well as organ with Janine Lehmann and private composition lessons with Rudolf Kelterborn in Basel. Following his completion of this program, he began instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Michael Jarrell, Dieter Kaufmann and Wolfgang Mitterer. Since 2004, Weber regularly performs as an interpreter of his own and electronic works as well as an improviser at home and abroad including: Wien Modern, SICMF South Korea, New Music Week Shanghai, Electronic Spring Vienna, Grabenfesttage Wien, Kulturfestival Origen, Ensemble Nikel, RSO Vienna, Ensemble Phace, and many others in Europe.Weber has been comminsioned by many prestiguos organizations including: Wien Modern, sirene Operntheater, progetto semiserio, Central European Chamber Orchestra MIKAMO, Kulturfestival Origen, Duo Iridolon, Kammertonquartett, The Black Page Orchestra, Soyuz21, Lars Mlekusch, Valentin Johannes Gloor and others.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
Brendan Sweeney (operations director]
Brendan Sweeney is an internationally performed composer whose music focuses on explorations of time, commentary, and examination of the medium itself. His work often employs acoustic rendering of electronic techniques, quotation, collage, and humor to explore idiosyncrasies of music throughout human history, as well as quirks unique to the sonic arts and their exhibition. Brendan’s musical inspirations show an enthusiastic curiosity for music that could only be created in the digital age, where effortless retrospect of centuries of musical history is at the push of a button. It’s from this place of authentic experience that his work takes shape.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
Diogo Carvalho
[program director]
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, composer Diogo Carvalho writes engaging concert music that communicates to contemporary audiences. Carvalho’s style was inspired by his electroacoustic music experience, Brazilian music background, and jazz. Carvalho has worked with the Unheard-of\\Ensemble, Bold City Contemporary Ensemble, Irvine Arditti, Boston String Quartet, Laurent Estoppey, Jeremy Huw Williams, Fonema Consort, Philipp Gerschlauer, Orquestra Jovem Tom Jobim, Hermeto Paschoal, Ulisses Rocha, César Camargo Mariano, and many others.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
Irvine Arditti
In addition to his legendary career as first violinist of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has also given life to many solo works. Born in London in 1953, Irvine Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left the orchestra in 1980 in order to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a student.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Anthony Green
The creative output of Anthony R. Green (composer, performer, social justice) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His compositions and projects have been presented in 20+ countries by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles, such as pianists Hayk Melikyan and Eunmi Ko, the American Composers Orchestra, the Keuris Saxophone Quartet, NOISE-BRIDGE, and Alarm Will Sound, to name a few. As a performer, he has appeared at venues across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, presenting piano and chamber music recitals, interdisciplinary and experimental performances, and lecture-recitals that fuse performance with research. Green’s most important social justice work has been with Castle of our Skins: celebrating Black Artistry through Music.
Simeon Pironkoff
From 1985 to 1989 continuation of his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (composition with Erich Urbanner, conducting with Karl Österreicher)
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin (*1968 in Mocsow) studied composition with Boguslaw Schaeffer and piano with Alfons Kontarsky, Dimo Dimov and Boyan Vodenitcharov at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and at the State Music Academy in Sofia.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
Paul Richards
Born in New York City in 1969 to a musical family, composer Paul Richards has been engaged with music since childhood, including forays into various popular styles, the Western canon, and Jewish sacred and secular music through his father, a cantor. All of these experiences inform his creative activities, which have included numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical works, including two full-length operas. Hailed in the press as a composer with “a strong, pure melodic gift, an ear for color, and an appreciation for contrast and variety,” and praised for his “fresh approach to movement and beautiful orchestral coloration,” his works have been heard in performance throughout the country and internationally on six continents.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Šimon Voseček
Šimon Voseček (13 April 1978) is an Austrian-Czech composer. He is known for his opera "Biedermann und die Brandstifter" ("Biedermann and the Arsonists", (2005-2007; 2013; 2015), which was premiered in Vienna by Neue Oper Wien in 2013).
Tina Tallon
Winner of a 2021-2022 Rome Prize, Tina Tallon (b. 1990) is a sound artist, creative technologist, vocalist, educator, and arts documentarian based in Rome. Her works have been performed by such esteemed musicians as Ensemble Intercontemporain, wild Up, Talea, and the LA Philharmonic New Music Group. She has received major grants and awards from organizations such as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the American Academy in Rome, ASCAP, the Barlow Endowment, and NewMusicUSA. Recent commissioners include the LA Philharmonic, Guerilla Opera, and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals, conferences, and workshops including IRCAM’s ManiFeste, the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, Iceland Airwaves, MIT-Grafenegg Forum, and many others. Dr. Tallon’s research interests include algorithmic justice, AI, voice technology, and digital humanities. She holds B.S. degrees in Biological Engineering and Music from MIT, an M.F.A in Composition and Music Theory from Brandeis, and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UC San Diego. Her primary composition teachers include Peter Child, David Rakowski, and Lei Liang, and she studied computer music with Tom Erbe and Miller Puckette. She is currently Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts at the University of Florida.
Damon Talley
Dr. Talley is a strong supporter and advocate of music in the public schools. He regularly serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances engagements in Germany, Switzerland, England, and Spain, among others.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Michael Slayton
Michael K. Slayton is an American composer and educator, currently serving as Associate Professor and Chair of Composition and Theory, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Clemens Gadenstätter
Clemens Gadenstätter, born in 1966, studied composition in Vienna and then Stuttgart under Helmut Lachenmann. He teaches at the University of Music Graz as a professor of Analysis, Music Theory, and Composition.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Oliver Weber
Oliver Weber studied musicology at the University of Zurich as well as organ with Janine Lehmann and private composition lessons with Rudolf Kelterborn in Basel. Following his completion of this program, he began instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Michael Jarrell, Dieter Kaufmann and Wolfgang Mitterer. Since 2004, Weber regularly performs as an interpreter of his own and electronic works as well as an improviser at home and abroad including: Wien Modern, SICMF South Korea, New Music Week Shanghai, Electronic Spring Vienna, Grabenfesttage Wien, Kulturfestival Origen, Ensemble Nikel, RSO Vienna, Ensemble Phace, and many others in Europe.Weber has been comminsioned by many prestiguos organizations including: Wien Modern, sirene Operntheater, progetto semiserio, Central European Chamber Orchestra MIKAMO, Kulturfestival Origen, Duo Iridolon, Kammertonquartett, The Black Page Orchestra, Soyuz21, Lars Mlekusch, Valentin Johannes Gloor and others.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
Brendan Sweeney (operations director]
Brendan Sweeney is an internationally performed composer whose music focuses on explorations of time, commentary, and examination of the medium itself. His work often employs acoustic rendering of electronic techniques, quotation, collage, and humor to explore idiosyncrasies of music throughout human history, as well as quirks unique to the sonic arts and their exhibition. Brendan’s musical inspirations show an enthusiastic curiosity for music that could only be created in the digital age, where effortless retrospect of centuries of musical history is at the push of a button. It’s from this place of authentic experience that his work takes shape.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
Diogo Carvalho
[program director]
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, composer Diogo Carvalho writes engaging concert music that communicates to contemporary audiences. Carvalho’s style was inspired by his electroacoustic music experience, Brazilian music background, and jazz. Carvalho has worked with the Unheard-of\\Ensemble, Bold City Contemporary Ensemble, Irvine Arditti, Boston String Quartet, Laurent Estoppey, Jeremy Huw Williams, Fonema Consort, Philipp Gerschlauer, Orquestra Jovem Tom Jobim, Hermeto Paschoal, Ulisses Rocha, César Camargo Mariano, and many others.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
Irvine Arditti
In addition to his legendary career as first violinist of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has also given life to many solo works. Born in London in 1953, Irvine Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left the orchestra in 1980 in order to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a student.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Irvine Arditti has given the world premières of a plethora of large scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough's Terrain, Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon's Vernal Showers and Harvey's Scena, Paredes Señales, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds Aspiration and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.
He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Asko Ensemble, Avanti, Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Ensemble Contrechamps, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Philharmonia orchestra, Schoenberg Ensemble, Ensemble Signal. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 200 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono's La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage's Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine recorded the violin sequenza won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis in 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by Swedish label Bis. Recently released on the Mode label was Paredes Señales with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman.
In November 2017 Irvine was presented in Paris with Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, a lifetime achievement award recognizing the sum total of his career and his exceptional role in the service of music. The prize was also for his latest solo recital CD release called Caprices with music by Boulez, Carter, Nunes and Sciarrino on the Aeon label. A double CD of the music of Roger Reynolds has just been released on the Kairos label.
Irvine Arditti's arrangement for Quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House can be found on Mode Records and is published by Edition Peters in New York.
On 7th October as part of an Arditti feature at the Festival D'Automne in the Maison de la Radio in Paris there was a performance of Ferneyhough's Unsichtbare Farben for solo violin and Terrain for violin and ensemble with Ensemble Modern under Brad Lubman.
On 8th Novemberat the University of Buffalo there was the first complete performance of Felder's Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Linea under Jean-Paul Wurtz.
On 22nd November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Irvine performed Paredes's Violin concerto Señales with the London Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins.
On 8th February 2018, there was a performance of Cattaneo's violin concerto in an early evening concert (18.00) at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. Also Sciarrino's 6 Caprici for solo violin was performed.
In early June Irvine returned again to the Festival June in Buffalo, where he was in residence for one week. He performed a recital with the pre-premiere of Thomalla's Air. Solo pieces by Nunes and Paredes were also heard, as well as a performance of Reynolds Shifting/Drifting with computer musician Paul Hembree
On 9th June there was a performance of Felder's recent violin concerto Jeu de Tarot with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman.
Thomalla's Air was heard again in Darmstadt on22nd July.
On29th July there was a performance of Nono's La Lontananza at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena
On10th August there was a performance of Xenakis's Dikhthas in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with the pianist Nicolas Hodges.
On 13th October there was a performance at the Open Music Festival in Forli, Italy with Nunes Einspielung and Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices.
On 22nd October at the Dialog series in the Gare du Nord in Basle there will be a concert with music by Dillon, Nunes, Thomalla and Xenakis.
On 23rd November in the Konzerthaus in Vienna there will be a late night recital containing Sciarrino’s 6 Caprices and a new work by James Clarke called 2017-V
In July 2013, The Techniques of Violin Playing, a book by Arditti and the composer Robert Platz was released by Barenreiter Edition.
Anthony Green
The creative output of Anthony R. Green (composer, performer, social justice) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His compositions and projects have been presented in 20+ countries by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles, such as pianists Hayk Melikyan and Eunmi Ko, the American Composers Orchestra, the Keuris Saxophone Quartet, NOISE-BRIDGE, and Alarm Will Sound, to name a few. As a performer, he has appeared at venues across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, presenting piano and chamber music recitals, interdisciplinary and experimental performances, and lecture-recitals that fuse performance with research. Green’s most important social justice work has been with Castle of our Skins: celebrating Black Artistry through Music.
Simeon Pironkoff
From 1985 to 1989 continuation of his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (composition with Erich Urbanner, conducting with Karl Österreicher)
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
From 1989 to 1992 freelance activities as conductor of numerous opera productions and collaborartion with several european operas, contemporary music ensembles and independent stages, as well as many orchestras and young symphony orchestras in Europe (performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria a.o.)
In 1992 he founded PHACE | contemporary music (former ensemble on_line vienna) wich became in his position as artistic director and first conductor one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music in Austria today.
From 2000 to 2003 board member of the Austrian section of ISCM. During this time he established and curated the chamber music series “FOKUS” at the Alte Schmiede – Hall in Vienna. Numerous world premieres and Austrian premieres of the most important composers of the international contemporary scene had taken place during this time.
Since 1992 he is appointed to professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna at the conducting department. Since 2002 Professor in conducting.
He was present at many major festivals and venues in Austria, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan (a.o. in tge frame of “generator – series” at Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse Festival, Klangbogen, Sofia Music Weeks, Musica Nova Sofia, March Music Days (Rousse, Bulgaria), ZeitTon Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Musikforum Viktring/Carinthia, Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Rome), Salzburg Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin, Monmartre en Europe (Paris, France), bludenzer tage zeitgemaesser musik (Bludenz, Austria), pianissimo (Sofia), WDR (Essen Philharmonie), INMM Darmstadt, ISCM World Music Days (Tokio, Hong Kong, Vienna) and many more.
As composer and as conductor he collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien , die reihe, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Newton ensemble, ensemble recherche (Freiburg, Germany), ensemble 2r2m (Paris), Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian Radio, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava, Symphonic Orchestra of the City of Gdansk/Poland, Orchestre Symphonique Pro Arte de Paris, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico Città di Vicenza, Orchestra of the APA, Hong Kong, Wiener Taschenoper, among many others.
For his work he received several scholarships, promotions and prizes such as the Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis , Richard Wagner scholarship, the scholarship of the Alban Berg Foundation, the Working – Scholarship of the City of Vienna, the mention prize of the Ministry of Cultural Affaires of Austria, the Promotion Award of the City of Vienna, the Government Sholarship a.o.
He released (as composer and conductor) several CD’s with works of the XXth and XXIth century and realised many broadcast transmissions and productions for the Austrian Radio Broadcasting ORF, the Bulgarian National Radio Broadcasting, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires…
He gave many guest lectures at the Institute of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and the Conservatorio Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Sofia State Academy of Music and INMM Darmstadt.
He published several texts in the music magazines “TON” of the Austria ISCM Section and in the editions of the Society oof Music & aesthetics (Freiburg i. d. Br.)
He is very active as a pedagogue and gives master classes in conducting in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Colombia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy. A large number of his students won several competitions and are nowadays active (also in leading positions) at various orchestral and opera stages in Europe and USA.
For his last CD – Production as composer skin.double he received the publicity award of SKE austro mechana.
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin (*1968 in Mocsow) studied composition with Boguslaw Schaeffer and piano with Alfons Kontarsky, Dimo Dimov and Boyan Vodenitcharov at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and at the State Music Academy in Sofia.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
In 2007, her violin concerto “Mahagony”, written during the stay at the artist residency MacDowell Colony, was premiered by David Bowlin in the Carnegie Hall. The Bowlin´s latest CD (2019 New York) includes two of her works.
Her orchestra piece „Annäherung“, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg was recorded by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke and presented in the “Viva!Mozart” exhibition in Salzburg celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. Her latest orchestra piece "TARSIS" (2019) was nominated for the Rychenberg Competition and recorded by the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Pierre-Alain Monot.
Performances of Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s works have been held in the Musikverein, ACFNY, “Chamber Series” of the CSO, Merkin Concert Hall, Nordic House Torshavn, State Opera Donetsk, Parliament of Canada, Palácio da Justiça Manaus, Flagey Brussels, Megaron Athene as well as in the festivals Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren, Warsaw Autumn, Kyiv Music Fest. Her compositions have been interpreted by Oswald Sallaberger, David Fulmer, Nacho de Paz, Lars Mlekusch, David Bowlin, Katinka Kleijn, Jonathan Vinocour, Artem Nyzhnyk, Hayk Melikyan as well as by many ensembles including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble New York, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, PHACE, oenm Salzburg, Stadler Quartett, Wiener Collage, die Reihe, Da Capo Chamber Players.
Ms. Karastoyanova-Hermentin has received commissions from Konzerthaus Vienna, WDR, Siemens Music Foundation, ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting, Aspekte Festival. Her music has been recognized with the Austrian State Prize “Outstanding Artist Award 2013 Musik”, the State Composers Grant (2001,2006, 2010), the Promotion Prize of the City Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Grant, the Composers Grant of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Annual Grant of the Government of Salzburg, Theodor-Körner Award for Art and Science. She is recipient of the "Aaron Copland" fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in the USA and winner of the Young Composers Project of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her music appears on CD labels - Capriccio, Gramola, New Focus Recordings, Austrian Broadcasting.
She has performed as a pianist both in the field of classical and contemporary music, a.o. as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, in festivals such as Aspekte Salzburg, Hörgänge Wien (Konzerthaus Vienna), Sofia summer, Skopsko leto.
Paul Richards
Born in New York City in 1969 to a musical family, composer Paul Richards has been engaged with music since childhood, including forays into various popular styles, the Western canon, and Jewish sacred and secular music through his father, a cantor. All of these experiences inform his creative activities, which have included numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical works, including two full-length operas. Hailed in the press as a composer with “a strong, pure melodic gift, an ear for color, and an appreciation for contrast and variety,” and praised for his “fresh approach to movement and beautiful orchestral coloration,” his works have been heard in performance throughout the country and internationally on six continents.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Commissions have come from organizations including the Florida Orchestra, the Boston Brass, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, White Snake Projects, Partners for the Arts Abroad, Florida State Music Teachers’ Association and Music Teacher’s National Association, Duo 46, Sonoran Consort, Meet the Composer-Arizona, Arizona Repertory Singers, Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. In addition, many of the top university wind programs in the country have commissioned Richards’ work, and his theatrical work has included music for dance, plays, film, and three full-length operas.
He has been recognized in numerous competitions, winning the St. Mary’s College/Kaplan Foundation Commission Competition, the Columbia Summer Winds Outdoor Composition Contest, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the International Section of the New Music for Sligo/IMRO Composition Award and the Truman State University/M.A.C.R.O. Composition Competitions. Other honors and awards include Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Prize, Finalist in the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker Reading Sessions, Second Prize in the International Horn Society Composition Competition, First Place in the Voices of Change Composers Competition, two First Place prizes in the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, and many others.
Music by Paul Richards is recorded on the Meyer Media, Capstone, Mark, Summit, MMC, Raven, and Pavane labels, and his works are published by Carl Fischer Music, TrevCo Music, Jéanne Inc., the International Horn Society Press, and Margalit Music. Currently Research Foundation Professor of Music and head of composition and theory at the University of Florida, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, he served as Visiting Professor at Florida State University in 2016, and previously taught at Baylor University. Richards earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Theory and Composition at the University of Arizona.
Šimon Voseček
Šimon Voseček (13 April 1978) is an Austrian-Czech composer. He is known for his opera "Biedermann und die Brandstifter" ("Biedermann and the Arsonists", (2005-2007; 2013; 2015), which was premiered in Vienna by Neue Oper Wien in 2013).
Tina Tallon
Winner of a 2021-2022 Rome Prize, Tina Tallon (b. 1990) is a sound artist, creative technologist, vocalist, educator, and arts documentarian based in Rome. Her works have been performed by such esteemed musicians as Ensemble Intercontemporain, wild Up, Talea, and the LA Philharmonic New Music Group. She has received major grants and awards from organizations such as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the American Academy in Rome, ASCAP, the Barlow Endowment, and NewMusicUSA. Recent commissioners include the LA Philharmonic, Guerilla Opera, and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals, conferences, and workshops including IRCAM’s ManiFeste, the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, Iceland Airwaves, MIT-Grafenegg Forum, and many others. Dr. Tallon’s research interests include algorithmic justice, AI, voice technology, and digital humanities. She holds B.S. degrees in Biological Engineering and Music from MIT, an M.F.A in Composition and Music Theory from Brandeis, and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UC San Diego. Her primary composition teachers include Peter Child, David Rakowski, and Lei Liang, and she studied computer music with Tom Erbe and Miller Puckette. She is currently Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts at the University of Florida.
Damon Talley
Dr. Talley is a strong supporter and advocate of music in the public schools. He regularly serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances engagements in Germany, Switzerland, England, and Spain, among others.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Prior to his appointment at LSU, Dr. Talley held the position of Director of Bands at Shenandoah Conservatory, where he was responsible for guiding the wind band program, conducting the EDGE New Music Ensemble, and teaching graduate conducting. He has also taught on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. He has recorded on Best Classical Records, and received favorable reviews from publications including Gramophone magazine and the American Record Guide. He has also served as producer or associate producer on commercial recordings by the Naxos, Klavier, and Equilibrium, record labels, and is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, distributed by GIA Publications.
As an avid supporter of new music for the wind medium, Dr. Talley has conducted numerous world premier performances and has commissioned composers to write for the wind band. He has won praise for his work by composers such as William Bolcom, Steven Mackey, Kevin Puts, Joseph Schwantner, David Maslanka, Donald Grantham, and Michael Daugherty, among others. He regularly hosts visiting composers of national and international status on the campus of LSU, and is a strong advocate for young composers, often premiering pieces by student composers.
Michael Slayton
Michael K. Slayton is an American composer and educator, currently serving as Associate Professor and Chair of Composition and Theory, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to write for distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.
Since moving to Nashville in 1999, Slayton has received numerous commissions for choral, solo, orchestral and chamber works, including two pieces for the Nashville Ballet. During his M.M. and D.M.A. studies at the Moore’s School of Music (Houston, TX), Slayton was under the tutelage of composers Michael Horvit and David Ashley White, and distinguished musicologist and author Howard Pollack.
Slayton is author/editor-in-chief of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music (Scarecrow Press, 2011), a book detailing the lives and music of several of America’s notable women in composition, including Elizabeth R. Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, Judith Shatin. Women of Influence was the winner of the 2013 Pauline Alderman Award, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in MusicFor more information, click here.
A member of the American Composer’s Alliance, Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society, Connecticut Composers, Inc., and Broadcast Music, Inc., Michael Slayton continues to be an active participant in the national and international music community.
Clemens Gadenstätter
Clemens Gadenstätter, born in 1966, studied composition in Vienna and then Stuttgart under Helmut Lachenmann. He teaches at the University of Music Graz as a professor of Analysis, Music Theory, and Composition.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings (in the series E.P.O.S.: les premiers cris, les cris des lumières, les derniers cris for different ensemble arrangements); the notion of the banal (in the pieces Semantical Investigations 1&2, as well as the essay "Was heißt hier banal" [What do we mean banal?]); the poly-modality of listening (in häuten, schlitzen for string quartet 1&2, ES for voice and ensemble); as well as musical iconography (in the series ICONOSONICS 1 – 3). His larger works thematize these ideas in multimedia form, such as daily transformations for voice, ensemble, electronics, text, and film, with Lisa Spalt (text) and Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (film).
Gadenstätter"s work has been commissioned by:
The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte - Stuttgart, WDR - Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, ORF/RSO (The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Musikbiennale Salzburg, Steirischer Herbst, Ultima - Oslo, and more.
Oliver Weber
Oliver Weber studied musicology at the University of Zurich as well as organ with Janine Lehmann and private composition lessons with Rudolf Kelterborn in Basel. Following his completion of this program, he began instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Michael Jarrell, Dieter Kaufmann and Wolfgang Mitterer. Since 2004, Weber regularly performs as an interpreter of his own and electronic works as well as an improviser at home and abroad including: Wien Modern, SICMF South Korea, New Music Week Shanghai, Electronic Spring Vienna, Grabenfesttage Wien, Kulturfestival Origen, Ensemble Nikel, RSO Vienna, Ensemble Phace, and many others in Europe.Weber has been comminsioned by many prestiguos organizations including: Wien Modern, sirene Operntheater, progetto semiserio, Central European Chamber Orchestra MIKAMO, Kulturfestival Origen, Duo Iridolon, Kammertonquartett, The Black Page Orchestra, Soyuz21, Lars Mlekusch, Valentin Johannes Gloor and others.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
As a collaborative artist, he has work with the Aargau Kuratorium, Theodor Körner Prize, state scholarships for the composition of the Republic of Austria, several work grants from the BUKK Österreich and others. Participation in the International Young Composers Forum Brussels. 2013 Artist in Residence at the ICST in Zurich Oliver Weber lives and works professional as a composer, musician, and scholar in Vienna.
Brendan Sweeney (operations director]
Brendan Sweeney is an internationally performed composer whose music focuses on explorations of time, commentary, and examination of the medium itself. His work often employs acoustic rendering of electronic techniques, quotation, collage, and humor to explore idiosyncrasies of music throughout human history, as well as quirks unique to the sonic arts and their exhibition. Brendan’s musical inspirations show an enthusiastic curiosity for music that could only be created in the digital age, where effortless retrospect of centuries of musical history is at the push of a button. It’s from this place of authentic experience that his work takes shape.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
As a past fellow of the Composition Forum, Brendan is excited to step into the role of Operations Director for the festival, and take an active role in the day to day logistics of a meaningful and artistically fulfilling experience that he has first hand knowledge of.
Diogo Carvalho
[program director]
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, composer Diogo Carvalho writes engaging concert music that communicates to contemporary audiences. Carvalho’s style was inspired by his electroacoustic music experience, Brazilian music background, and jazz. Carvalho has worked with the Unheard-of\\Ensemble, Bold City Contemporary Ensemble, Irvine Arditti, Boston String Quartet, Laurent Estoppey, Jeremy Huw Williams, Fonema Consort, Philipp Gerschlauer, Orquestra Jovem Tom Jobim, Hermeto Paschoal, Ulisses Rocha, César Camargo Mariano, and many others.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
Notable honors include an Honorable Mention at the Juried Arts Exhibition for the University of Florida College of the Arts, a Certificate of Recognition for Advocacy in the Arts from the Florida Higher Education Arts Network, and a College Music Society’s David Kushner Student Paper Award. His album “Impressionism – Acoustic Guitar Solo”, was praised as “highly recommended” by the Classical Guitar Magazine. Carvalho was the Composer-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art for the 2018-2019 year.
Carvalho presented his current research on Steve Reich and narratives of identity at musicology conferences in Europe, Asia, and in the US. As a guitarist, Carvalho has presented his work in four continents and recorded three albums.
Carvalho serves the international composer’s community as the Director of the Composers Forum at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Artistic Director for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Furthermore, with a strong knowledge of both organizational behavior and arts administration, Carvalho has been responsible for the facilitation of over $200,000 for student arts programs in the state of Florida, which brought in over 120 visiting guest artists for art, music, and dance programs.
Active as a music educator, Carvalho is currently Assistant Professor at Marywood University’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. Carvalho’s experience educator includes a four-year appointment at the Municipal School of São Paulo and several courses taught at the University of Florida, including community outreach and upper-division classes. Carvalho earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Florida and his Masters and Bachelor of Music at the University of São Paulo.
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APPLICATION INSTRUTIONS
Applicants for the Composers Forum should submit two original scores that best represent their skill as a composer; there are no stylistic restrictions.
All application materials including YouTube links, audio files, and scores should be submitted via a single link to an approved file sharing site such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud, or by mail to info@viennasummermusic.com. For questions regarding submitting via file sharing visit the application section of the FAQ page.
Scores should be submitted in PDF format, and recordings of these works should be submitted in MP3 or MIDI files. Files names should include the applicant’s first and last name, program of interest, and the creation date of the score and recording.(Example: Emily Brown_Composition Forum_08/18.MP3)
All applicants should receive an initial response in 3-5 business days.
An application fee of $35 is required for submission.
Scholarships
Scholarships are available, and will be awarded up to €1,500 to select applicants. For those applicants that are interested in applying for scholarship, a brief scholarship application essay of no more than 500 words answering the question, “What are your career goals, and how would a scholarship to the Vienna Summer Music Festival help you achieve those goals?”, and a list of references should be sent in addition to application materials. The subject line should contain the applicant’s first and last name, program of interest, and the text “Scholarship Essay.” Interested applicants will receive scholarship funds based upon their submitted audition materials and essay.
Scholarship Application Requirements:
1) 500 word Scholarship Essay answering, “What are your career goals, and how would a scholarship to the Vienna Summer Music Festival help you achieve those goals?”
2) A list of two to three references (please include contact information)
All scholarship application materials should be emailed to info@viennasummermusic.com.
Instrumental Composition Deadline: March 15, 2023
