Call for participants – Luxembourg Composition Academy 2023

The Luxembourg Composition Academy offers young composers the opportunity to spend one week working in an inspiring and creative environment in the heart of Luxembourg. Undergraduate and (post)graduate composers are invited to apply for the Luxembourg Composition Academy, held from November 20 to 25, 2023 at neimënster (historic Abbaye de Neumünster) in Luxembourg with the faculty consisting of composers Ed Bennett and Annea Lockwood as well as the Luxembourgish ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin.

The program consists of lectures, one-to-one lessons with Ed Bennett and Annea Lockwood, workshops with the musicians of the ensemble as well as a workshop on «How to present my music to the public». All selected composers are invited to write a new piece for United Instruments of Lucilin. These new compositions will be premiered in the Academy’s final concert on November 25, 2023 as part of the rainy days festival, Philharmonie Luxembourg’s international festival for contemporary music.

The academy will be taught in English. The participation fee is 450€ and includes accommodation at neimënster. Attendance to the rainy days festival (November 16 to 19) can be organised as well.

To apply for the academy, please submit a recent C.V., 2 scores (in .pdf format) and recordings (if available) by filling in the application form by June 15th: https://forms.gle/npGzcuaaZ9WheqFS7
For further inquiries, please contact us at hello@lucilin.lu.
The selected composers will be notified on July 3rd.

The Luxembourg Composition Academy is a cooperation between neimënster – Cultural Center Neumünster Abbey, United Instruments of Lucilin and Philharmonie Luxembourg.

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United Instruments of Lucilin
The ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin was founded in 1999 by a group of passionate and committed musicians and is the only Luxembourgish chamber music ensemble specialised in contemporary music. Dedicated exclusively to promoting and commissioning works of the 20th and 21st century, United Instruments of Lucilin is now known for its outstanding programs around the world.
In about 40 concerts a year, Lucilin presents a broad scope of musical events, ranging from “traditional” concerts to music theatre productions, children projects and improvisation sessions. United Instruments of Lucilin has recently commissioned works by James Dillon, Fatima Fonte, Giulia Lorusso, Philippe Manoury, Sonja Mutić, François Sarhan, Alexander Schubert, Igor Silva and Stefan Prins.

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Ed Bennett
For the last 25 years, Irish composer Ed Bennett has focused on composing works for a variety of contexts including those for the concert hall, dance, installations and film. His music is regularly performed and broadcast in over 30 countries in venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Barbican and South Bank Centres and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Recent highlights include ‘Psychedelia’ for the RTE NSO and Thomas Adès, ‘Ausland’ for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Reinbert de Leeuw, ‘Song of the Books’ for the Crash Ensemble and four critically-acclaimed portrait discs of his work. He performs with his 10-piece ensemble Decibel who were described in the Quietus as ‘blending the coiled concentration of the best post-minimalism with the ferocity and dynamic range of thrash metal’ and plays live electronics both solo and in a duo with pianist Xenia Pestova. In 2012 Ed Bennett was awarded the Leverhulme Prize for the Performing Arts and was recently awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Major Individual Artist Award, the highest honour awarded to an artist from the region, his work has been twice shortlisted for the Ivor Novello awards. His latest portrait CD ‘Psychedelia’ (2020) was described in the Sunday Times as ‘Ebullient, deeply compelling music’ and featured in the New York Times as one of their recommended releases of 2020. Ed is also Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music in London where he directs the Masters programme in Composition.

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Annea Lockwood
New Zealand-born American composer Annea Lockwood (b. 1939) brings vibrant energy, ceaseless curiosity, and a profound sense of openness to her music. Lockwood’s lifelong fascination with the visceral effects of sound in our environments and through our bodies—the way sounds unfold and their myriad “life spans”—serves as the focal point for works ranging from concert music to performance art to multimedia installations.
In recent years Lockwood and her music have received widespread attention, including a Columbia University Miller Theatre Composer Portrait concert, a feature article in The New York Times, a SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award, a documentary film by director Sam Green, and most recently, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her recent collaborative works Into the Vanishing Point with the ensemble Yarn/Wire and Becoming Air with avant-garde trumpeter Nate Wooley were released on Black Truffle Records to great acclaim.

Photos: © / Julia Dratel