Bilkent Composition Academy 2019

Bilkent Saygun Center for Music Education and Research, Ankara, Turkey


Bilkent Composition Academy (BCA) is an international summer academy in Ankara, which addresses emerging composers and offers them professionalization possibilities as well as publication of their music in digital platforms. Mark Andre is the artistic director. The first edition of the workshops took place in 2017, and the successful model is to be continued at the biennial pace. In addition to the one-week training of the participants, the aim of the academy is to enable multi-layered networks in Turkey and its surrounding, Europe- and worldwide.

Bilkent Composition Academy 2019 (BCA19) consists of three modules: Module 1 "Ensemble", Module 2 "String Quartet" and Module 3 "Forum New Music". The latter is a research module, led by Mahir Cetiz, composer, pianist and conductor (University of Columbia, New York, USA), Michael Ellison, composer and ethnomusicologist (University of Bristol, United Kingdom) and Ali Ergur, sociologist (Université Galatasaray, Istanbul, Turkey) with the participation of all tutors of the Modules 1 and 2. Module 3 offers a theoretical discussion through seminars and panels. Module 1 "Ensemble" is led by composer and writer Eivind Buene and the ensemble Cikada from Oslo. In his music works, the Norwegian composer produces dialogues between past and present, historical and actual, composed and improvised. Founded in 1989, Cikada with conductor Christian Eggen has earned a highly acclaimed profile in the international music scene that, with the term “Oslo Sound”, stands for lively and virtuoso interpretations of a contemporary repertoire. In Module 2, Mark Andre embodies the composition professorship. In his music, the German-French composer creates existential, extremely subtle spaces of experience. With him the legendary Arditti Quartet from London trains the active participants of Module 2. Complementary seminars, talks, masterclasses and workshops, panel discussions, interviews, pre-concert talks and post-concert debriefings, etc. are organized to enrich the practical and theoretical contents. The beginning and the end of the BCA19 training week are enframed by concerts. The first concerts open the respective module with the musical portraits of composition professors and/or a stylistic domain, while the final concerts present the results of the academy through the reworked works by active participants.


June 24–30, 2019
Bilkent University Campus, Ankara, Turkey
Bilkent Concert Hall, Ankara, Turkey


Further information:
bsc.bilkent.edu.tr