2014 Award
The jury decided to award the commission to the composer who showed the most progress in the workshop sessions, and who may profit most from the coaching and the ideas developed during the sessions. It is with great pleasure that the commission has been awarded to Georgi Sztojanov. Read more.
Second round
Copenhagen, 27 and 28 November 2014, with DR Vokalensemblet and workshop leaders composer/conductor James Wood (UK/DE) and composer Hans Koolmees (NL).
Selected composers for the second round:
- Francesca Le Lohé (UK, 1990 – lives in the UK)
- Nuno Da Rocha (Portugal, 1986 – lives in Portugal)
- Georgi Sztojanov (Bulgaria/Hungary, 1985 – lives in the Netherlands)
First round
Mechelen, 16-18 May 2014, with DR Vokalensemblet and workshop leaders composer/conductor James Wood (UK/DE) and composer Leo Samama (NL).
Selected composers for the first round (bios and pics below):
- Gregory Emfietzis (Greece, 1980 – lives in the UK)
- Ana Gnjatović (Serbia, 1984 – lives in Serbia)
- Francesca Le Lohé
- Alejandro Mata (Mexico, 1990 – lives in France)
- Nuno Da Rocha
- Georgi Sztojanov
Listen to recordings of first run-throughs of the first round at the Tenso Soundcloud page.
Biographies
Gregory Emfietzis (Greece, 1980) was born in Thessaloniki, Greece and studied at Macedonia, Huddersfield and Brunel Universities. His music explores the drama, psychology and ritualism of public performance. Reaching far beyond sound alone it embraces staging, lighting, dramaturgy, costume design and more. Recent performances include, the quintet Fear (not) premiered by members of the Berlin at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the opera The Darkness of Mistico staged at the Greek National Opera House (Athens), the cello solo -commissioned by the London Sinfonietta- The Dark Art of Obscurantism performed by Olly Coates, and Sisyphus Victimised premiered by musicians of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Ana Gnjatović (Serbia, 1984) is a composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, collecting and combining found items, works, concepts, and ideas that lend themselves to generalization, translation, interpretation, and sonorization. She graduated from the Department of Composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where she now attends Ph.D. studies.
She has attended various composition masterclasses, working with composers Georges Aperghis, Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Louis Andriessen, G.F. Haas, and Ivan Fedele, among others. Her pieces have been performed throughout Europe, in USA and Japan, and have been programmed at festivals such as the International Review of Composers, ‘Harpsichord – Living Art’, Wratislavia cantans, Espressivo, Festival de Wallonie, Biennale of Contemporary Music Koper, Ankara Music Festival.
www.anagnjatovic.com
Francesca Le Lohé (United Kingdom, 1990) graduated with a MMus Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013 where she studied with David Fennessy, Rory Boyle and Alistair MacDonald, generously supported by the RVW Trust, RCS Trust and the Lionel Bart Foundation. She has had instrumental and electroacoustic works work-shopped and performed by ensembles including Manchester Camerata, Psappha ensemble, Red Note, New Dots and Edit-Point ensemble. Francesca has also had work featured at ‘Noise Floor’ Festival 2012 and Sonorities Festival (SARC) 2013.
https://soundcloud.com/francescalelohe
Alejandro Mata (Mexico, 1990) began studying composition in the Conservatorio de las Rosas (Morelia, México) in 2008, where he graduated in 2011. Since 2012, he studies with Mme. Edith Lejet in the École Normale de Musique de Paris. In Europe his music has been played by the Ensemble Alternance, Darío Portillo and Askar Ishangaliyev. He held a scholarship of the State System of Creators in México, and of the Elliot Carter and Nadia Boulanger Foundation for Young Composers in Paris.
https://soundcloud.com/alejandromata
Nuno da Rocha (Portugal, 1986) studied composition with Vasco Mendonça, Carlos Marecos, Luís Tinoco, Carlos Caires and António Pinho Vargas. During the summer of 2009 he participated in the “19 internationale Sommerakademie” in Austria, where he worked with the composer Nigel Osborne, the maestro Michael Wendeberg and the widely recognized contemporary musical group Klangforum Wien. He is one of the selected composers to the ENOA Workshop 2014 – Composing for Voice (solo Voice and Orchestra), with Magnus Lindberg and Barbara Hannigan.
He is currently working towards his Master degree in Music (Composition) in Lisbon. Lately, he is concerned about musical gesture and the relationship with the choreographic point of view.
www.nunodarocha.com
Georgi Sztojanov (Bulgaria/Hungary, 1985) is a composer, singer, improviser. He obtained two master diplomas in composition, first from the Liszt Academy, Budapest (2009) followed by the Royal Conservatory, Den Haag (2012), where he currently studies classical singing.
His works exhibit a wide spectrum of genres and styles: from opera to oratorio, vocal to instrumental, songs, choir works, ensembles and solos, music theatre pieces, applied music for theatre and film. His opera Sinking was premiered last year by the Dutch National Opera Academy.
As a singer his experience is also diverse: from bel canto to alternative, from early music to modern premieres, from baritone and tenor to countertenor and sopranist, as soloist and in ensembles and choirs. He is also a vocal and instrumental improviser (violin, keyboards, flute, percussion).
Georgi has also been selected to join this year’s Tenso Europe Chamber Choir as a singer.