Composers' Workshop

Fondation Royaumont, France

Since 1990 the Fondation Royaumont Composition Workshop has made it possible for an annual 15 aspiring composers to write pieces for vocal and/or instrumental ensembles over a 3-week period at Royaumont Abbey. Each student will have to write a 10-minute piece, the first part of which will have to be delivered before the beginning of the Composition Workshop, the second part being written in the Royaumont Abbey with the help of the teachers, during the Composition Workshop. With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation the Composition Workshop will enable 15 young composers, selected on the basis of scores, recordings and portfolio, to write for a very particular, tradition-laden musical form, the quartet. The young composers will have to write for string quartet; its derivative the saxophone quartet which, like its counterpart, goes beyond the notion of instrumental combination to become a musical “genre”; the two-piano/two-percussion ensemble, invented by Bartok and which has since inspired numerous composers; and finally the vocal quartet, timeless ensemble of polyphony, the madrigal and the lied. 

3-22nd of September 2012
Royaumont Abbey, Val d’Oise

Further Information:
www.royaumont.com