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2016-17 Commissioning Prize Winners
[Switch~ Ensemble]
January 2017
2016-17 International Commissioning Prize Winners
After ten weeks of listening, discussing, questioning, and voting, we are very pleased to announce the [Switch~ Ensemble]’s 2016-17 International Commissioning Prize Winners. We thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the nearly 300 submissions from 42 countries, familiarizing ourselves with the work of many composers who were new to us. We were astounded at the quality of the work across the board, and as a result, have decided to award not one but TWO commissions for our coming seasons. Without further ado, congratulations to Adrien Trybucki and Esaias Järnegard, our commission prizewinners, who have been selected to write brand new works for the [Switch~ Ensemble] to be premiered next season in 2017-18!
Due to the overwhelming number of composers who we felt were deserving of recognition, we would also like to congratulate our runner-up, D. Edward Davis, and our finalists: Elvira Garifzyanova, Victor Ibarra, Emanuele Palumbo, Daniel Silliman, and Igor C. Silva. All of these composers are doing amazing work, and we invite you to please listen and read more about them and their music. There were many strong contenders for these prizes, and we look forward to hearing more from every one of you in the future. Our 10 member jury discovered many new pieces and composers whose work we believe in, and as an ensemble we are excited to begin considering possibilities for programming works by applicants, both the composers listed below and the many more who we couldn’t include here, in our coming seasons.
Thank you all for your submissions, and we look forward to hearing more of your incredible work in the future!
Winner: Esaias Järnegard
Esaias Järnegard (b.1983, Sweden) was born and raised in Stockholm, finished his bachelor studies in composition in 2008 and his master in 2013 under the guidance of mainly Ming Tsao and Ole Lützow-Holm in Gothenburg, Sweden. During the academy years he also took part in different international master classes and lessons with teachers such as Chaya Czernowin, Claus-Stephan Mannkopf, Isabel Soverall, Dmitri Kourliandski, Franck Bedrossian, and others, as well as private lessons with Pierluigi Billone.
What has been most defining artistically is the possibility during recent years to work closely with musicians throughout the composing process. As a result, I mainly write chamber music with an increasingly phenomenological approach- to try to emphasize the relation between body and instrument, not just the physicality of sound, but also the magic of it- to be in touch with sound.
His music has been performed and broadcasted throughout Europe, North America and Asia at by ensembles and soloists such as Richard Craig, Peter Veale, Seth Josel, Hugo Ticciati, Karin Hellqvist, Emma Richards, Weston Olencki, Christian Smith, Gageego!, MDI, SurPlus, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Asamisimasa, Vertixe Sonora, Handwerk, VocalLab Nederland and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne a.o.
Winner: Adrien Trybucki
Adrien Trybucki (b. 1993, France) is a composer dedicated to acoustic, electroacoustic, and electronic music. His works, marked by an impulsive and obsessive energy, have been performed in France, Italy, Korea and the United States, and radio broadcast (France Musique). Finalist of several international competitions, he is the laureate of Île de créations in 2014 for his orchestral work Cinq Visions. From 2004 to 2014, Trybucki studied at the Conservatory of Toulouse, in the classes of cello, harmony, counterpoint, music theory, conducting, and composition with Bertrand Dubedout and Guy-Olivier Ferla. Since 2014, he studies at the National Superior Conservatory (CNSMD) of Lyon under the direction of Philippe Hurel. He also has been influenced by his meetings with Philippe Leroux, Ivan Fedele, Raphaël Cendo, Michael Jarrell, Frédéric Durieux, Pierluigi Bilone and Joshua Fineberg during different festivals and summer courses, including Manifeste (IRCAM), Voix Nouvelle (Royaumont), Impuls, Opus XXI and Composit. Trybucki has collaborated with numerous performers, including Jean Deroyer, Lucas Vis, Sandro Gorli, Fabrice Pierre, the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Talea Ensemble, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Divertimento ensemble, the Maîtrise de Toulouse and the Nebula ensemble. Published by Durand-Universal and BabelScores, he has received commissions from Radio France, Musique Nouvelle en Liberté, Toulouse Mélodie Française, the Italian Pavillion of the universal exhibition Milano-2015 and the Festival Occitania.
Runner Up: D. Edward Davis
D. Edward Davis (b. 1980, USA) is a composer whose work engages with the sounds of the environment, exploring processes, patterns, and systems inspired by nature. His pieces have recently been presented at Slow SD in San Diego (2017), the Bang on a Can Summer Festival (2016), Interlude AVL in Asheville, NC (2016), the New Music Gathering in Baltimore (2016), Something Said Only Once in Flagstaff, AZ (2015), the Brooklyn Acoustic Ecology Festival (2015), and the Under the Radar Festival in Omaha (2014). His work has been performed by the Witches Duo, Musica Nova (Israel), the Callithumpian Consort, Soundry Ensemble, yMusic, Da Capo Chamber Players, and many others. Davis holds degrees in composition from Duke University, Brooklyn College, and Northwestern University. His former teachers include Antoine Beuger, Scott Lindroth, John Supko, Amnon Wolman, David Grubbs, Amy Williams, and Michael Pisaro.
Finalists
Elvira Garifzyanova
Elvira Garifzyanova (b.1976, Russia) studied in Russia, Germany, and Switzerland with I.Dubinina (piano), A. Rudenko, G.Müller-Hornbach, I.Mundry, and M.Jarrell, and electronic music/informatics under G.Bennett, E.Daubresse and L.Naon. In 2012 she completed a year-long training course in computer music at IRCAM in Paris. She is the recipient of awards from numerous international competitions and scholarships, attending masterclasses led by B.Ferneyhough, H. Lachenmann, H.Zender, A.Richard, M.Lanza, D.Smalley, G.Apergis, C.Czernowin, G.F.Haas, B.Furrer, R.Saunders and P.Leroux. She has collaborated with C.Levine, P.Veale, and P.Gallois at the first Aeolian Academy Jeunesses Musicales (DE); with Hilliard-Ensemble (UK), Homme Armé (IT), Prime (CH), Vortex (CH), Meitar (Israel), SurPlus (DE), Reconsil (AT), ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, DissonArt (GR), Mircea Ardeleanu, C.Schlüter, J.N.Attard and Lyon contemporary dance, the South West German Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Berner Symphonieorchestra (CH), Musikkollegium Winterthur (CH), musicians of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and Les Cornets Noirs. Festival performances include the 20th Intn’l New Music Festival Sound Ways in St.-Petersburg (RU), Antifonia-40 Festival (Cluj-Napoca, RO), Next generation 4.0 Kommunikation Festival ZKM (Karlsruhe, DE), the Archipel Festival (Geneva, CH), Inaudita Early Music Tuscan Festival Pisa (IT), CEME Festival (Israel), Mixtur-Festival (SP), Music Biennale Zagreb (Croatia). She is included in the Swiss Music Edition’s (SME/EMS).
Victor Ibarra
Victor Ibarra (b.1978, Mexico) has had a rich training in his own country as well as in France and Switzerland, with musicians such as Hebert Vázquez, José Luis Castillo, Edith Lejet, Daniel D’Adamo and Michael Jarrell. Honors include first place in the Alea III competition (USA), first place in Auditorio Nacional de Música de España competition, first prize in the Mauricio Kagel competition, the Zeitklang Award (Austria), among other international recognitions. Ibarra was recently selected in the Ensemble Aleph’s 7th International Forum for Young Composers, and as a member of the Casa de Velazquez – French Academy in Madrid. He has completed his Masters in Composition from the National Music and Dance Conservatory of Lyon, unanimously winning first prize and recognition by the Salabert Foundation. From 2014 he is named a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte from the National Fund for Culture and Arts of Mexico. Ibarra’s style draws on the most varied resources that outline a genuine language. Every part is immersed in micro-tonality, with a precise harmonic structure that becomes, many times intertwined and obsessive. Accented by the rhythmic energy that becomes an essential component of his speech or use of instrumental virtuosity, as a tool to create spaces and dimensions. The influence of French-spectralism helps him to work with a coloristic and timbral intention, although not exclusively, and a dialogue interdisciplinary which, usually set with the plastic arts, prints a personal mark on his work that is approached from clarity, in compositional instincts and ideals.
Emanuele Palumbo
Emanuele Palumbo (b.1987, Italy) lives in Paris. His first musical experiences came from playing in rock groups. He studied composition with Gabriele Manca in Milan, Gérard Pesson at CNSM in Paris, and computer music at IRCAM, cursus 1 & 2 with Hèctor Parra. Palumbo’s music has been performed by Ensemble Multilatérale, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Talea, MDI Ensemble, and soloists such as Maria Grazia Bellocchio, Christophe Mathias, Josephine Besançon and Domenico Melchiorre. He attended masterclasses by Francesco Filidei, Franck Bedrossian, Pierluigi Billone and Raphaël Cendo. His works have been performed in venues and festivals as varied as the Manifeste Festival, the Royaumont Voix Nouvelles and Festival Pontino, and has been broadcast on Radio France. In his music he creates musical temporal structures based on sounds derived from an instrumental research, with an objective of achieving a strength and uniqueness of sound. Sometimes using accessories, he creates unusual modes of playing to obtain new sounds. The instrumental ensemble is charged in this with a new aura. He is currently working on a piece for piano and transducers, and he is starting a project of biophysiological music with dancers, performers and musician, in particular he is developing a device for physiological and emotional recognition (LISTEN).
Daniel Silliman
Daniel Silliman (b.1993, USA) is an American composer whose work has been commissioned and performed throughout the US by various ensembles including the New York Youth Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, SAKURA Cello Quintet, Music from Copland House, and others. His work has been recognized with various awards and honors, including the 2015 William Schuman Prize from the BMI Foundation, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, (winner 2015, finalist 2012) with additional support from Copland House, the American Festival for the Arts, and Access Contemporary Music Chicago.
Born in upstate New York, Daniel grew up near Houston and is a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, and in 2015 joined the Department of Music at Princeton University to begin work on his PhD.
Igor C. Silva
Igor C. Silva (b.1989, Portugal) is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects where performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience. Silva works regularly with ensembles, performers and orchestras, receiving many commissions from festivals, and publishing several recordings of his music.
Igor C Silva also works regularly with soloists, ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools. Silva was the Resident Young Composer at Casa da Música for 2012 and received several commissions and worked with Orchestra Sinfónica do Porto, Remix Ensemble, among others. He was also the Composer in Residence at Miso Music Studios in 2015, were he started to develop a new multimedia work that will be premiered in 2017. Honors include 1st Prize at the “2nd Composition Competition Casa da Música/ESMAE” with Terminus, for viola, live-electronics and lighting, 1st Prize at the “5th Intn’l Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim” with Flipbook, for quintet and electronics, and the 1st Prize at the “Concurso Internacional de Composição GMCL/Jorge Peixinho” with Blood Ink, for small ensemble and electronics. Igor C Silva graduated in composition at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in 2011, and finished a Master degree in Composition and Music Theory in 2013. He is currently finishing a Master Degree in live-electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam.