Call For Scores Winners
2021: Solo Bass & Solo Cello
WINNER: Victor Baez
Coatlicue barria la escalera del templo & Una corda
Born in Mexico City, Víctor Báez obtained his bachelor’s- and master’s Degrees in Composition (both thesis with Honours) at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. While honing his craft in master classes with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Lang, Raphaël Cendo, and others, he obtained his doctoral degree at Manhattan School of Music.
A Fulbright Scholar, his awards include 6 consecutive yearly Composition Grants from the Austrian Ministry of Arts, an Austrian START Grant for Young Artists, the “Musik im Bild” prize for a symphonic orchestra work, and a Grant for Artistic Studies Abroad from the Mexican National Arts Fund (Fonca).
His music is published by Just a Theory Press and New Music Shelf in the USA, and Metropolis Music Publishers in Europe. As an educator, he maintains an ongoing relationship as Visiting Professor with the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, Palestine.
His music has been performed across North and South America and Europe, in festivals such as Wien Modern, Klangspuren Schwaz, Komponisten Marathon Vienna, OME Phoenix, Crosstown Arts Memphis, and the International Forum for New Music in Mexico City, and it has been performed by ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, Ekmeles, Contemporaneous, Blueshift, the Webern Symphony Orchestra, and others. His works are broadcasted regularly by the Mexican and Austrian radio (Ö1), and his film music has been heard by international audiences in film festivals across the globe.
Professionally, his main interest is to collaborate with musicians and other artists towards the realization of creative projects that will pose an interesting question or challenge – both to the artists and the audience involved.
2020: Electronic Music
WINNER: Leah Reid - Sk(etch)
Leah Reid is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Her primary research interests involve the perception, modeling, and compositional applications of timbre. In her works, timbre acts as a catalyst for exploring new soundscapes, time, space, perception, and color. In recent reviews, Reid’s works have been described as “immersive,” “haunting,” and “shimmering.” She has won numerous awards, including IAWM’s Pauline Oliveros Prize for her piece Pressure, a Second Prize in the 13th International Destellos Competition for Reverie, the Film Score Award for Ring, Resonate, Resound in Frame Dance Productions’ Music Composition Competition, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her compositions have been presented at festivals, conferences, and in major venues throughout the world, including Aveiro_Síntese (Portugal), BEAST FEaST (England), EviMus (Germany), Forgotten Spaces: EuroMicrofest (Germany), ICMC (USA), IRCAM’s ManiFeste (France), LA Philharmonic's Noon to Midnight (USA), Série de Música de Câmara (Brazil), SMC (Germany), the Tilde New Music Festival (Australia), TIES (Canada), and WOCMAT (Taiwan), among many others. Reid received her D.M.A. and M.A. in music composition from Stanford University and her B.Mus from McGill University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia. www.leahreidmusic.com
RUNNER-UP: Kosmas Giannoutakis and the CECIA team - CECIA
CECIA (Collaborative Electroacoustic Composition with Intelligent Agents) is an innovative music project that integrates the creative agency of 5 composers and Machine Learning algorithms, leading to the creation of a unique composition of electroacoustic music. The project explores collaborative music creation, harnessing the creativity of electroacoustic music composers and Intelligent Agents through an online platform. The collaborative process was conducted remotely in an iterative fashion, in which the composers anonymously submitted and evaluated sound material/ideas/suggestions. These data were used for the training of the machine learning algorithms, which generated new sonic structures, which in turn were fed back to the composers as suggestive material. The project implements a synergistic framework between human and algorithms, introducing a novel experimental sound practice for the creation of electroacoustic music. The CECIA team is composed of internationally active composers, sound artists and researchers who remotely worked on the project in 2019. The project was organized by ZKM within the framework of the »Interfaces« project with the support of the Creative Europe program of the European Union.
Composers:
Panayiotis Kokoras - www.panayiotiskokoras.com
Mariam Gviniashvili – www . mariamgviniashvili.com
Juan Carlos Vasquez - www.jcvasquez.com
Martyna Kosecka - www.martynakosecka.com
Erik Nyström - www.eriknystrom.com
Machine learning algorithms:
Artemi – Maria Gioti - www.artemigioti.com
Project coordinator:
Kosmas Giannoutakis - www.kosmasgiannoutakis.eu
HONOURABLE MENTION: Stylianos Dimou - L’Osmose
Stylianos Dimou is a Greek composer of acoustic, mixed, and acousmatic music. Recipient of numerous International Awards and Grants, his music has been premiered and commissioned by Festivals and Institutions in Europe and the USA. His academic and artistic activities have been supported by organizations such as the Fulbright, IRCAM, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Herrenhaus Edenkoben, Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative, etc. Dimou’s music has been presented in and commissioned by Festivals such as the Mixtur 2020, impuls 2019, ISACM/IKI Hamburg 2019, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival 2019, IRCAM/manifeste 2014, 2016 & 2018, Gaudeamus Music Week 2018 – 2015, International Ensemble Modern Academy 2015-2020, ICMC 2016-2019, etc. Some of his awards include the Charles S. Miller Prize (2019) (graduate) from the GSAS of the Columbia University, his selection as a promising young Composer from the European-wide Ulysses Network/IRCAM 2018-2019, 1st Prize at the 2nd International Composition Competition “Amici della Musica di Cagliari“, 1st Prize at the International Prize for Composition “Luigi Nono”, etc. Dimou is an alumnus of the prestigious professional training program, Cursus, at IRCAM in Paris, and he holds a Doctoral Degree from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University.
HONOURABLE MENTION: Allan X. Chen -Watch and In Time
Allan X. Chen is a passionate award-winning South African-born composer, constantly seeking to challenge his capabilities. His curiosity for learning has steered him through various genres and diverse projects. Such includes collaborations with notable names as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, JACK Quartet, and ALEA III Ensemble, which have lead to performances at the Bowdoin Music Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival etc. In February 2020, Allan’s piece for orchestra, Semblance, was premiered by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with performances at Caird Hall (Dundee), Usher Hall (Edinburgh), and The Royal Concert Hall (Glasgow). His current compositional interests focus on musical colour, exploring sonorities and a stream of consciousness flow. Beyond instrumental music, Allan has composed works for electronics, films, and has delved into the realm of interactive installation artwork. His installation, The Willow Room, was exhibited at the Arthill Gallery in London and his team, The Willow Room Collective, received a Creative Projects Grant to bring a new work, Sonus Arbor, to the Afrikaburn Festival in South Africa. Allan currently holds a Bachelors degree from Boston University, and a Masters degree from the Royal College of Music where he was the recipient of the Elgar Memorial Prize for Composition.
HONOURABLE MENTION: Rodrigo Pascale - Discontinuous Mediation I
Rodrigo Pascale (1996) is a Brazilian composer based on Michigan. Pascale graduated in composition at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2018. During his stay in Brazil, he had some works selected to several regional recitals and national events. Among them, the XXIX Panorama da Música Brasileira Atual stands out. He also had works performed by other important Brazilian ensembles, such as UFRJ Sax Ensemble, UFRJ Brass Quintet and Duo Adour (Soprano and Guitar). Nowadays, he is pursuing his master’s degree in Composition at WMU. In 2020, he had some of his works selected for 2020 MUSLAB Exhibition (Mexico) and for Espacios Sonoros 2020 (Argentina). One of the marks of his last works is the use of antagonistic approaches to convey conceptual ideas through his music.
2019 : Djordje Markovic
His work "Phonemes" was performed by flutist Phoebe Robertson on December 5th at Kresge Theatre, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh).
2018 : Ermir Bejo
Winner of our Call for Scores 2018 for solo piano (Yumi Suehiro)