Biennale College Musica 2024: call for applications for composers or performers

The internationally renowned musicians and experts who will serve as mentors for the Biennale College Musica 2024 are: Luca Francesconi and David Lang for composition; Eva Bocker 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 (CIMM); and Hervé Boutry for the instrumental dramaturgy.

Starting Tuesday December 5th (through January 27th 2024), the new international calls for Biennale College Musica for the year 2024 are online on the website www.labiennale.org, in accordance with the project developed by Director Lucia Ronchetti in close connection to the theme of the next Festival, absolute music.

Five composers and six performers under 30 from around the world will be selected for a programme of residency, 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, to be held from September 26th to October 11th 2024.

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

Call for applications:

Composers for string quartet
Composers for solo piano
Composers for solo viola
Composers of electronic music
Composers for percussion

There are three calls: the first dedicated to the formation of a string quartet called upon to perform string quartets by Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann and Georg Friederich Haas; the second 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.

Call for applications:

Performers - string quartet
Performers - viola da gamba
Performers - percussion

All the selected musicians – composers and performers – will participate in a programme of exploration, research, creation and production lasting 8 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.

The internationally renowned musicians and experts who will serve as mentors for the Biennale College Musica 2024 are: Luca Francesconi and David Lang for composition; Eva Bocker 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 (CIMM); and Hervé Boutry for the instrumental dramaturgy.