Five composers were selected for the first round of sessions in Amsterdam, 25 and 26 November 2016, working with coaches Ensemble Aedes, James Wood and Leo Samama. Three composers: Miguel Bastos, Lillie Harris and Sarah Lianne Lewis were invited to come to Mechelen, 12-14 May 2017, for a second round working with Helsingin kamarikuoro.
Listen to the run-throughs of the pieces of Miguel, Lillie and Sarah Lianne in May 2017.
Miguel Bastos
After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Composition at ESMAE-IPP in Porto, Portugal, Miguel Bastos (PT, 1995) also followed conducting classes at the same institute. He is currently enrolled in the Erasmus+ program at JAMU in Brno, Czech Republic, studying with Ivo Medek and Jan Kavan. He performs regularly as singer at Coral de Letras da Universidade do Porto, an amateur academic choir with some professional characteristics, and as a flutist at Instant Ensemble, a Real-Time Composition Ensemble comprised of musicians coming from contemporary and classical music, jazz, and rock.
He is a founding member of Interferéncia – Associaçào de Intervençào na Prática Artística, an organization that creates workshops, lectures, forums, concerts, etc. Its main focus is new music and how it connects with the Portuguese society and artistic world, trying to make a difference in how new music is perceived and taught in Portuguese Schools and Conservatories.
Lillie Harris
Lillie Harris (UK, 1994) graduated in 2016 with a First Class degree from the Royal College of Music, studying with Haris Kittos and winning the Elgar Memorial Prize for her final portfolio.
Dormientes Bestia for paetzold and tape was in the winning programme in the RCM Contemporary Competition 2016, and she has been selected by the National Centre of Early Music’s Composer Competition Final in York in 2013 and 2014, and the International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition 2016. She was in the Royal National Scottish Orchestra’s Composers Hub this year, from which her orchestral work remiscipate was chosen to be performed in the RSNO’s Season Finale concerts. In July 2016 she attended a masterclass week with Tristan Murail and Ensemble Recherche. Her commission for the Gaudier Ensemble, to write a work commemorating the centenary of the death of sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, was performed at the 25th Anniversary Cerne Abbas Festival in July 2015.
Patiparn Jaikampan
Thai composer Patiparn Jaikampan (Thailand, 1991) studied composition, jazz composition and film scoring at the College of Music of Payap University. He is the recipient of the Einojuhani Rautavaara Prize 2016, Young Thai Artist Award 2012 – 2015 and Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra Composition Competition 2014. As a collaborator, he composed music for dance, film, performance art, painting, poetry, puppet, theater and visual art. His works have been performed in Australia, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. He is also a member of Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI) which is an organization dedicated to new music exchange between Asia and North America.
Sarah Lianne Lewis
Sarah Lianne Lewis (UK, 1988) is a Welsh composer whose music often explores instrumental textures and the aural architecture of performance spaces. She studied at Cardiff University between 2006 and 2011, receiving a BA 2:1 (Hons) in Music and History, and an MMus in Composition. Since graduating, she has received several commissions and performances from UK and European festivals, and has enjoyed working with a variety of performers, leading educational workshops, recording sessions and rehearsals, and holding public masterclasses discussing her music.
The beginning of 2016 saw her new work for symphony orchestra, Is there no seeker of dreams that were?, premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in March, and subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Wales.
She attended the Heidelberg Music Festival as a Composition Fellow in April 2016, and is currently writing a work for Piano 4-Hands, based on the 62 moons of Saturn, extracts from which were premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July 2016 by Mantras Piano Duo.
Maria Rostovtseva
Maria Rostovtseva (EE, 1988) studied music education (master of arts) at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and composition at Tallinn Music School of Georg Ots with Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes. She now studies composition at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague (NL) with Calliope Tsoupaki, Peter Adriaansz and Yannis Kyriakides.