Open call: Akademie Zweite Moderne Global Platform of Women Composers

On the programme, Wiener Festwochen will work with the Arnold Schönberg Center to welcome contemporary women composers from the whole world in accordance with the number of Schönberg’s female students – 10 per year over the course of five years, starting from 2024.

Invited composers will develop strategies of visibility, form networks and present their own pieces as instigators of the music and theatre landscape of the future. The pieces will be performed by Austrian chamber orchestra Klangforum Wien (see video below).

The aim of Akademie Zweite Moderne (Academy of Second Modernism) is to have cultural institutions, festivals and ensembles involved in making concerts and scenic and performative arts commit themselves to increase the proportion of music that is composed by women in a significant way.

“The Wiener Festwochen and its patron Nuria Schoenberg-Nono, in collaboration with Arnold Schönberg Center, is globalising modernism, making it more female,” a statement reads.

The open call is directed at women composers who:

• Have experience composing for ensembles, orchestras or music theatre and wish to present themselves with a piece for a maximum of 12 musicians or artists.
• Are concerned with current developments and tendencies that are socially relevant.
• See themselves as instigators of new, innovative forms of concert and music theatre.
• Engage in a crossover of genres and/or arts (such as performance, visual art, installation and new media) with their works.
• Want to develop strategies of visibility together with the other invited composers during a two-day workshop.

Criteria for the performance of the submitted piece

• The piece that is to be performed within the framework of Akademie Zweite Moderne can be an existing work, a premiere or an extract from a longer work. 
• The piece that is put forward for performance should not be longer than 20 minutes in duration.
• In the case of a composition for ensemble and voice, the maximum number of vocalists is five.
• The maximum number of persons performing the work is 12 artists.

Klangforum Wien will be available for the performance, as well as specific additional instrumentalists as required.

Specific technical equipment can be hired through the Wiener Festwochen technical department and, if necessary, with the support of the composer.

The selection will be made by an external jury in cooperation with the Wiener Festwochen. 

The application deadline is 12 December 2023.

Before beginning application process here, ensure you have:

• A short video portrait as an introduction on your motivation (informal, with phone camera or similar). The recording is only for the selection process and will not be made public.
• CV, contact details and link to website.
• At least three compelling audio sample links to recordings from concerts or performances.
• Details of the piece that is to be performed as part of Akademie Aktuelle Moderne for maximum 12 musicians/artists – instrumentation, duration, audio and sheet music material, if available, information on the piece and any special requirements.

Travel and accommodation costs, as well as an honorarium for participation in Akademie Zweite Moderne will be covered.

Akademie Zweite Moderne will take place from 7 to 9 June 2024.

For more enquiries, contact Jana Beckmann at j.beckmann@festwochen.at.

View the original call here.