- read the full jury report
- listen to the recordings
- meet the participants of the sessions in Nova Gorica
In 2017, Tenso decided to organize an “extra” edition of Tenso Young Composers Workshop, connected to the 2017 Spotlight on Central Europe which was part of the long-term project Tenso 14-18 : from poetry to music. Rather than opening a new call for composers, we decided to work with four composers that had participated in earlier workshops. Two composers – Jug Marković and David Veber – had been part of workshops in Ljubljana in April 2017; the other two – Maria Rostovtseva and Sofia Borges – participated in workshops in 2016, in Amsterdam and Marseille respectively.
The seventh edition of the workshop took place during Tenso Days Nova Gorica in September 2017, where the composers worked with the singers of Latvijas Radio Koris and coaches Leo Samama and James Wood. The Slovenian composer Uroš Rojko and French singer Laurent Slaars acted as additional jury members.
All music brought to the workshop was extremely interesting and on average of a very high quality. The jury members found things to like – and dislike – in the work of all four candidates, and a long and lively discussion did not yield an easy, unanimous decision. In the end, the vote of the choir (Latvijas Radio Koris) was crucial in granting the award.
The prize commission was awarded to Jug Marković. The jury felt that not only did he show that he can write well and precisely for singers; they were also favourably impressed by the self-critique he had shown in the first session, and how he used this to his benefit. They are confident that he will again learn from this workshop experience. They advise him to choose and then limit his musical ideas carefully, and deal with them in a more substantial manner, trusting his sound musical instincts.