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Epoche_f masterclass

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Master classes

The master course offers an opportunity for more than 20 young musicians aged 14 to 20 to try their hand at works of the 21st and 20th centuries, guided by five Ensemble Modern members as docents and a renowned guest conductor. Together, they decipher unknown scores, practice playing techniques typical of new music, and gradually shaping a new sound experience in individual, group and tutti rehearsals.

The master course Epoche_f is organised by the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) on behalf of the Foundation “Jugend musiziert Niedersachsen” in cooperation with EMCY and made possible by the Lower Saxony Foundation in cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung. The course is one of the training programmes of the Federal competition “Jugend musiziert”.


© Foppe Schut

2022

The EMCY prize winners that participated in the master course were:

Cello – Konstancja Śmietańska, winner of Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians Concertino Praga
Oboe – Rodrigo Sarabando, winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Viola – Klara Kotarsky,  winner of Øresund Soloist
Percussion – Alexandre Silva, winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
French horn – Estevão Neves, winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Bassoon – Maria Azevedo Martins, winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Trombone – Jovaras Šiekštelė, winner of National Lithuanian Balys Dvarionas Competition
Clarinet – Sofia Rocha, winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Violin – Jisu Son, winner of the competition prima la musica

The musicians performed three concerts at the end of the masterclass in Wolfenbüttel, Hannover and Berlin on the following dates:
– on Thursday, 6th October 2022, which was streamed live from the Landesmusikakademie Wolfenbüttel
– on Friday, 7th October 2022, 19 o’clock, at the Christuskirche Hannover (Conrad-Wilhelm-Hase-Platz 1, 30167 Hannover)
– on Saturday 8th October 2022, 19 o’clock at the Atrium der Vertretung des Landes Niedersachsen beim Bund (In den Ministergärten 10, 10117 Berlin)

2021

The Epoche_f masterclass was held between the 19th and the 26th of November 2021 in Wolfenbüttel. The master course offered to 21 young musicians aged 14 to 21 to try their hand at works of the 21st and 20th centuries, guided by five Ensemble Modern members as docents and Peter Tilling as guest conductor.

They performed the first concert in the Landesmusikakademie Niedersachsen (Wolfenbüttel) that was live-streamed and the second concert was open to public at the Christuskirche (Hannover). Unfortunately, the third concert programmed in Prague had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 regulations.

The master course Epoche_f was organised by the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) on behalf of the Foundation “Jugend musiziert Niedersachsen” in cooperation with EMCY.


The EMCY prize winners that participated in the master course were:

Emma Staňová (bassoon) winner of EMCY Slovakia
Tekla Nielsson (clarinet) winner of Polstjärnepriset
Deva Mira Sperandio (piano) winner of International piano competition of Orléans for youth ‘Brin d’herbe’
Anna Suváková (oboe) winner of EMCY Slovakia
Elias Schäfer (trombone) winner of Schweizerischer Jugendmusikwettbewerb (SJMW) CLASSICA
Ana Clara Sousa (flute) winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Paulo Amendoeira (percussion) winner of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Mateusz Woch (trumpet) winner of International Competition for Young Musicians ‘Ohrid Pearls’
David Pěruška (cello) winner of Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians Concertino Praga

The musical program
Markus Hechtle : Empty Quarter (short version)
Benjamin Britten : Sinfonietta Op. 1 (sentences only)
Arnold Schönberg : Five Orchestral Pieces op.16 (parts of them)
George Benjamin: Octet
John Cage: Variations VIII
Michael Gordon: Confetti
Catherine Milliken: Fast Forward
Fred Frith: Dancing in Place

2020

Last year between 23rd and 30th of October, the epoche_f master class took place. Together with the lecturers of the Ensemble Modern and a guest conductor, Lucas Vis, 17 young musicians deciphered unknown scores, practised playing techniques typical of new music, and gradually shaped a new sound experience in individual or group rehearsals at the Landesmusikakademie Niedersachsen in Germany.

Unfortunately, both the guest performance in Prague and the concert in Hanover had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the final concert was live-streamed from the orchestra hall of the Landesmusikakademie.

The EMCY prize winners that participated in the master course were:

Dorothea Tatalidis (LU-Trumpet), winner of the Concours Luxembourgois pour le jeun solists
Klara Borgqvist (SE-Oboe), winner of the Polstjärnepriset Vänersborg
Tom Eichenberger (SW-Percussion), winner of SJMW Classica
Konstancja Smietanska (PL-Cello), winner of the Concertino Praga
Paul Moosbrugger (AU-Clarinet), winner of the competition Prima la musica
Michael Lewin (DE- Violin), winner of the Jugend Musiziert competition

The program included chamber music compositions as well as larger ensemble works:

Corné Jan Roos: Veil (2020 – world premiere)
John Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony (2007)
Anton Webern: Symphony op.21 (1928)
František Chaloupka: Stockhausen On Sirius (2015)
Xiaogang YE: Yangzhuoyong Cuo (2010)
Earle Brown: Event: Synergy II – Variant B

2019

Epoche_f 2019 took place from the 5th to 16th December 2019.

The Masterclass started in Ensemble Modern headquarters in Frankfurt and then moved to Kloster Frenswegen. Like in 2017 Epoche_f was special because it went Europe and all participants played 2 concerts abroad:

Half of the participants were winners of Jugend Musiziert and the other half EMCY prize winners. The conductor this year was Vimbayi Kaziboni, a Zimbabwean-born conductor which has led many orchestras around the world.

The EMCY prize winners were: Skage Rollheim Larsen, Emilie Ravn Jensen, Mikkel Brekke Krossli, Dagny Mehus (Norway) from Ungdommens MusikkmesterskapTure Herrgardh (Sweden) from Polstjärnepriset Vänersborg, Luna de Mol (Belgium) from Netherlands Violin Competition, Viola Asoskova (Estonia) from International piano competition of Orléans for youth ‘Brin d’herbe’, Rikardo Huna (North Macedonia) from International Competition for Young Musicians ‘Ohrid Pearls’, Margarida Martins (Portugal) from Prémio Joven Músicos, Syon Najman (Bulgaria) from Concertino PragaMila Gafner and Matthieu Grandola (Switzerland) from SJMW Classica.

Program 2019:

Hanns Eisler: Kammer-Symphonie op. 69 (1940)
Earle Brown: Novara (1962)
Anestis Logothetis: Styx (1968)
John Adams: Shaker Loops (1978)
Anton Webern: Konzert op. 24 – for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola and Piano (1934)
Nikos Skalkottas: Octet – or Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Stringquartet (1931)

2018

Epoche_f 2018 took place from 6th to 15th July 2018, in Niedersachsen, Germany. This year two young EMCY prize winners participated at the master class: Martin Pavlík, prize winner of EMCY Slovakia and Valeriya Kurylchuk, prize winner of Schweizerischer Jugendmusikwettbewerb (SJMW).

Programm 2018: 

Hans Abrahamsen: Aarhus Ragtime (1991)
Benjamin Britten: Sinfonietta Op. 1 (1932)
Magnus Lindberg: Bubo Bubo (2002)
Mayke Nas: No Reason to Panic (2016)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Webern: Fuga (2. Ricercata) aus “Das musikalische Opfer” (BWV 1079/5) (1747)
Johannes Schöllhorn: sous-bois – Sextett (2014)
Michael Maierhof: shopping 2.1 for 16 Musicians (2004)

The first concert was on 13.07.2018, at 19.00 in Kloster Frenswegen, Nordhorn and the second concert was on 14.07.2018, at 19.00 in Garnisonkirche, Oldenburg.

2017

During the master course Epoche_f 2017, winners of national and international music competitions for young musicians, rehearsed 21st and 20th-century works in individual, group and tutti sessions, working with the internationally renowned musicians of Ensemble Modern and the conductor Lucas Vis. EMCY partners in this project send 10 EMCY Prize winners with a full scholarship to Epoche_f goes Europe: Frida Juul Lunde (Denmark), Sebastian Breit (Austria), Peter Martin Kappel (Denmark), Dominika Gúberová (Slovakia), Miguel Barros (Portugal), Adam Druga (Slovakia), Gustav Piekut (Denmark) Martin Pavlík (Slovakia), Lia Yeranosyan (Portugal).

2017 Epoche_f was special because it went Europe and all participants played 2 concerts:

The musicians performed the following musical programme:
Martin Stauning, Verdorrte Räume (2015)
Xiaogang YE, Nine Horses (1993)
Samuel Hvozdík, Regerna Symbio Irbis (2016/2017)
Ľubica Čekovská, Interrupted Line – für 11 Musiker (2006, rev. 2008)
Magnus Lindberg, Bubo Bubo (2002)
Matej Bonin, Kaleidoscope – for Ensemble (2012)

Partners for Epoche f goes Europe are the EMCY members Aarhus International Piano Competition and EMCY Slovakia.

2016

For the third year in a row, with the support of the Stiftung Niedersachsen, EMCY could offer to 7 Prize Winners the opportunity to attend the prestigious international master class on contemporary music epoche_f.

The participants were Luka Mitev (bassoon) and Maria Filippova (flute), laureates of the International Radio Competition for Young Musicians ‘Concertino Praga’, Stefan Iliev (trumpet), winner of the Competition of the United Music and Dance Teachers of Macedonia , Marlene Gomes (oboe) and Cristiana Neves Brandão Custódio (horn), winners of Prémio Jovens Músicos, Montserrat Egea Tapetado (cello) laureate of the Concurso Permanente de Jóvenes Intérpretes and Izabel Merkova(viola) winner of the Internation Competition ‘Young Virtuosos’.

This year the master class took place in the city of Wolfenbüttel (Germany), from 15th to 23rd October and featured two prestigious concerts.

‘We had a really great time in Wolfenbüttel! Due to the excellent professors coaching us for the whole week it helped us to learn all the difficult pieces and how to play contemporary music. A very important thing was rhythm. Every day, we started with a Rhythm workshop, which was fundamental of our further work. Last two days we performed two wonderful concerts, the second one was in Göttingen.’ Luka Mitev

‘In October 2016 I was lucky to take part in the epoche_f master class. I really enjoyed it because I had and incredible experience there. All the rehearsals were very interesting, instructive and the atmosphere was friendly. Our conductor Lukas Vis made a lot for everyone in the orchestra. Also we had rhythm workshops with the amazing percussionist Rainer Römer. These classes were helpful for us, our experience was unique. During our week we were preparing great moderations with Anne Kussmaul. So we learnt more about pieces we played and about speaking on stage. And I want to say thank you for the opportunity to participate. The course was absolutely free for me and it’s very important for young musicians who need a support.’ Maria Filippova

2015

“I really don’t know how to thank you properly for making possible my experience in this master course with the Ensemble Modern.” Miguel Erlich, violin, participant 2015.

The second year now EMCY, with the support of the Stiftung Niedersachsen, could propose a full scholarship to 4 prizewinners from member competitions for the renowned international master class for contemporary music with the famous Ensemble Modern from 31.10. to 7.11.2015 in Hannover (Germany).

The musicians were:

Miguel Erlich (violin) prize winners of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Sofia Sousa (viola) prize winners of Prémio Jovens Músicos
Dorotė Vdovinskytė prize winner of the Concours pour Jeunes Solistes & European Competition for Young Soloists
Deividas Dumcius prize winner of the National Lithuanian Balys Dvarionas Piano & String Competition.

The master class was concluded by two prestigious concerts at Hannover and Wolfenbüttel. The scholarship included travel, accommodation and registration fee and EMCY thanks the Stiftung Nidersachsen for the support.

 

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