Open call: Biennale College Musica 2024

The programme will see five composers and six performers under 30 from around the world selected for an eight-week residency dedicated to research and production of new creations and performances that will premiere as part of the 68th International Festival of Contemporary Music of La Biennale di Venezia, titled Absolute Music, from 26 September to 10 October 2024.

The application deadline is 27 January 2024.

Composers

Five calls are dedicated to the submission of five new compositions for string quartet, piano, viola, electronics and percussion. At the conclusion of the Biennale College study and development process, the new scores will be performed by musicians for their debut at the 68th festival. The musicians are: the Quatuor Béla string quartet, pianist Bertrand Chamayou, violist Hannah Levinson, and percussionists Brian Archinal and Federico Tramontana, in addition to a third percussionist who will be selected from the call for performers.

Composers can apply for the available calls using the links below:

• String quartet
• Solo piano
• Solo viola
• Electronic music
• Percussion

Performers

There are three calls in this category. The first is dedicated to the formation of a string quartet called upon to perform works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann and Georg Friedrich Haas. The second is dedicated to the selection of a violist da gamba who will perform works by Benedetto Marcello and Isabel Mundry together with Cristiano Contadin on the viola da gamba and Massimo Raccanelli on the cello. The third call is for the selection of a percussionist who will perform Le noir de l’étoile by Gérard Grisey accompanied by the Ensemble This Ensemble That and Federico Tramontana.

Performers can apply for the available calls using the links below:

• String quartet
• Viola da gamba
• Percussion

Research programme

All the selected musicians – composers and performers – will participate in a programme of exploration, research, creation and production lasting eight weeks, structured into four residency sessions in Venice lasting two weeks each. During the residency, each of them will develop their own conception and/or interpretation of the work, in an ongoing discussion with the team of Biennale College Musica tutors each in their own specific area of interest, analysing the instrumental dramaturgy, experimenting with the various techniques and the new performative practices, looking also to past and recent literature on their area of choice.

Internationally renowned musicians and experts will serve as mentors for the Biennale College Musica 2024. They are Luca Francesconi and David Lang for composition, Eva Böcker and Megumi Kasakawa of the Ensemble Modern, respectively for the viola and cello, Brian Archinal and Ensemble This Ensemble That, Federico Tramontana for percussion, Bertrand Chamayou for the piano, Thierry Coduys for electronics, and Hervé Boutry for instrumental dramaturgy.

View the original call here.