Second Chinese Composers Competition

The Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam organizes their Second Competition for Chinese Composers. Participants are requested to write a work for the Nieuw Ensemble and send in their score before October 31, 2009. The winning works will be premièred during the Europalia Festival in Belgium, a unique and prestigious event that will take place in from October 2009 to February 2010. The winning composers will be invited to attend rehearsals and performances by the Nieuw Ensemble in January 2010 in Brussels and in Gent and possibly in Amsterdam.

The Nieuw Ensemble – one of Europe’s top ensembles for new music – is renowned for its fruitful collaboration with Chinese composers, such as Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong, Jia Daqun, Xu Shuya, Chen Qigang and Guo Wenjing. The Chinese repertoire of the Nieuw Ensemble consists of more than 70 works especially written for the group. In 1997 the ensemble toured China with concerts in Shanghai and Beijing; in 2008 the Nieuw Ensemble with great success performed two concerts in the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing.

Rules & Regulations
- Entries for the Nieuw Ensemble’s Second Chinese Composers Competition should be received before October 31, 2009.
- Composers born after 1975 may enter works.
- The available instrumentation is: the 12 musicians of the Nieuw Ensemble – flute(s), oboe, (bass)clarinet, mandolin, guitar, harp, piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass – plus 4 Chinese guest musicians: sheng, pipa, zheng and erhu.
The maximum instrumentation is 16 players, the minimum amount is 8 players. A soprano may be added. The use of electronics is possible within limits. The duration of the work should be between 5 and 15 minutes.
- An international committee consisting of Fabio Nieder, Ed Spanjaard, Richard Ayres, Seung-Ah Oh and Joël Bons will select the winning works.
- The composer's name, his/her correspondence address, and the title of the work must be written on the score. A biography of the composer is requested (in English or Dutch preferably sent by email as well). A commentary on the work would be helpful.
- If the work is selected for performance the composer should provide the performance material before 1 Devcember, 2009, if possible by email (either in Finale, Sibelius or in PFD format). The performance may not result in charges, such as rental fees, for the Nieuw Ensemble, the radio, or cd-producer.
- The Nieuw Ensemble will have the exclusive performance rights during 2 years after the première.
- The composers whose works have been selected will be hosted by the Nieuw Ensemble. Travel, accommodation and a daily food-allowance will be provided.
- The entered works may be kept in the library of the Nieuw Ensemble.
- All works received before the deadline on our address below, will be judged by the selection committee.
- By entering his/her work(s), the participant indicates his/her acceptance of these conditions and the decisions of the selection committee.

For further information please contact
Nieuw Ensemble
Piet Heinkade 5
1019 BR Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: 00 31 20 51 91 880
fax: 00 31 20 51 91 881
email: china@nieuw-ensemble.nl or info@nieuw-ensemble.nl

Brazilian Composers’ Competition 2009

download the jury's report >

The Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam in collaboration with the BAMdialogue organizes a competition for Brazilian composers. Participants are requested to write a work for the Nieuw Ensemble and send their scores before March 1st , 2009. The winning works will be premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble during the Gaudeamus Music Week in September, 2009. The selected composers will be invited to attend rehearsals and performance at Amsterdam’s spectacular new Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ.

In preparation to the world premiere concert performed by the Nieuw Ensemble, BAMdialogue will create a concert series presenting Brazilian contemporary music.


A musical challenge
How can Brazilian composers contribute to contemporary concert music? This is the challenge that this competition proposes.

The Nieuw Ensemble – one of Europe’s top ensembles for new music – is renowned for its collaboration with composers from other musical cultures such as China and Middle Eastern countries. The inspiring results of these interactions led to the idea of expanding the ensemble’s activities to Latin America and, more specifically, to Brazil.
The ensemble was founded in 1980. It has a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as mandolin, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion. The lack of literature for this line up led the NE to build its own repertoire, encouraged by continuous contact with composers from different cultures, countries and generations. Programmes featuring new works written especially for the ensemble by Chinese composers such as Tan Dun and Guo Wenjing have attracted wide attention. More than four hundred pieces have been written for the ensemble, including works by well-known masters such as Franco Donatoni, Elliott Carter and Brian Ferneyhough. NE is conducted by Ed Spanjaard.

The Brazilian Composers’ Competition is organized by BAMdialogue, an initiative dedicated to promote musical interaction between Brazil and Amsterdam. The idea of this competition is to discover music of living Brazilian composers and to put their work in the international spotlight. Amsterdam is a worldwide known center of contemporary music, offering a perfect opportunity for that. The selected works will be performed during the Gaudeamus Music Week, which is a unique international event dedicated to contemporary music and organized by the renowned Music Center the Netherlands (former Gaudeamus Foundation).
The Nieuw Ensemble and BAMdialogue intend to open a two way portal between Brazil and the Netherlands, hoping that the result of this exchange be fertile for the composition and performance of new music.

Rules & Regulations

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Entries for the Brazilian Composers’ Competition should be received before March 1st 2009.
All participants must have Brazilian origin or be a Brazilian resident.
The duration of the work should be between 5 and 15 minutes.
The available instrumentation is: flute(s), oboe, (bass)clarinet, mandolin, guitar, harp, piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass. A soprano may be added. The use of up to 2 Brazilian instruments is possible as long as the composer can offer realistic possibilities for performance. Maximum instrumentation is 14 players and the minimum 8 players.
Entries must be original and unpublished works.
Participants are encouraged to send in a maximum of two other works for ensemble or solo instruments, which may be selected for performance in the concerts series that prepares the event.
An international committee consisting of Ed Spanjaard, Joël Bons, Mayke Nas and Richard Ayres will select the winning works.
Scores must be sent by March 1st, 2009 by mail or, preferably, by email (PDF format). The composer's name, his/her correspondence address, and the title of the work must be written on the score. A biography of the composer is requested (in English sent by email as well). A commentary on the work would be helpful.
If the work is selected for performance the composer should provide the performance material before June 1st 2009, if possible by email (either in Finale, Sibelius or in PFD format).
The performance may not result in charges, such as rental fees, for the Nieuw Ensemble, the radio, or CD producer. The Nieuw Ensemble will have the exclusive performance rights during 3 years after the première.
The Nieuw Ensemble will host the composers whose works have been selected. Travel, accommodation and a daily food-allowance will be provided.
The entered works will be kept in the library of Music Center the Netherlands.
The selection committee will judge all works received before the deadline on our address below.
By entering his/her work(s), the participant indicates his/her acceptance of these conditions and the decisions of the selection committee.

Scores and questions should be addressed to:

Brazilian Composers’ Competition
Nieuw Ensemble
Piet Heinkade 5

1019 BR Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: 00 31 20 51 91 880
fax: 00 31 20 51 91 881
info@nieuw-ensemble.nl

BAMdialogue >
Gaudeamus Music Week >
Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ >



Brazil: possibilities for contemporary music

Integration of cultures
Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and extremely rich in its culture. Its people and cultural manifestations are the result of varied people’s interactions all over its history: native South-American, Portuguese, African, Italian, German, Japanese, Dutch… they all blended together to give birth to a Brazilian identity.
The same blending happened and still happens with Brazilian music. Even though the incredible diversity of musical practices makes it difficult to talk about one music, they all share a common element: they’re the result of creative processes of assimilation and transformation.

An example of such a process can be found in the genesis of the virtuosistic instrumental music called Choro. It developed from the special way in which musicians from Rio de Janeiro would play European dances such as waltzes and polkas. The Iberian plucked string ensemble (including a seven string guitar and a sort of mandolin shaped like a small guitar called cavaquinho) and the syncopated rhythms inherited from Africa combined to found a new genre. Up to our days Choro is developing its language incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.

Nowadays, contemporary music owes much of its development to such processes of interaction and integration of different musical cultures. Music from South India, Africa, Middle East, China and Japan inspire composers to develop new techniques and to incorporate new sounds into their pieces. I believe Brazilian music can contribute largely to this international musical dialogue.

Brazilian music richness
Brazilian culture offers a rich source for inspiration regarding every musical parameter: pitch, rhythm, instruments and musical practices.

Although Brazilian music is worldwide known by its syncopations and original rhythms, its melodies have interesting musical features. Modal music is very present in native Indian music and Mixolydian and Lydian modes give a special color to Northeastern music. In singing practices of the North and Northeast like the Aboio, the use of microtonal ornamentation is abundant and shows a delicate art of melodic variation.
Several instruments that are unusual to western Europe play an important role in shaping the sound of Brazilian music. Instruments like the cuíca (friction drum used in samba music), berimbau (musical bow used in capoeira) bring with their unique sonorities ways of phrasing and musical gestures based on fixed musical traditions. The same goes for the uses of voice and a wide variety of other instruments such as the seven-string guitar (used in Choro), viola caipira (steel string folk guitar), pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine), all sorts of native Indian flutes, etc. Instruments from all over the world found in Brazil new ensemble combinations and creative sonorities.

Every region of Brazil has its own inbred musical practices musical practices that redefine the possible roles of music. In capoeira (a practice in between a dance, a game and a martial art), music uses tempo, melody and lyrics to control the intensity of the play/fight. Desafio is a kind of contest of Northeastern Brazil in which musicians improvise melodies and lyrics as they sing. Contenders are judged by the creativity of their melodies and their ability to play with the meaning of words.

The goal of BAMdialogue is to propose a musical challenge. Events such as the Brazilian Composers’ Competition are attempts to direct composers and performers efforts in the same direction and answer: how Brazilian sounds, instruments, rhythms, musical practices or other aspects of Brazilian culture can contribute to contemporary music?

Caio Amon,
Artistic director of BAMdialogue

Further information:
BAMdialogue
(Brazil-Amsterdam Musical Dialogue)
BAM.dialogue@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/bamdialogue