FENIARCO

in collaboration with
EUROPA CANTAT
ARCOVA
REGIONE AUTONOMA DELLA VALLE D'AOSTA
Assessorato all'Istruzione e alla Cultura
COMUNE DI AOSTA
FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO MUSICALE DELLA VALLE D'AOSTA

EUROPEAN SEMINAR FOR YOUNG COMPOSERS

Choral Composers Today

AOSTA
July 18th - 24th 2010

The European Seminar for Young Composers is part of Uniting Youth in Song, a project coordinated by Länsmusiken in Örebro (Sweden) in cooperation with FENIARCO (Italy), SCIC (Catalonia, Spain), the KÓTA (Hungary), the Festival Europa Cantat Utrecht (the Netherlands) and Europa Cantat in Bonn (Germany). This project has been selected under the European Union programme “Culture 2007-2013”.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Feniarco has identified for years the production of new compositions for choiras one of the crucial elements to enhance the amateur choral world. Enrichingthe historically consolidated repertoire with new productions able to meet the tastes and the possibilities of choral groups today is one of the strategic aims to be pursued. The success of Feniarco Editions demonstrates the validity of this intuition: the new compositions, from those contained in Melos and dedicated to every kind of choir, through those published in Giro Giro Canto for children choirs, to Teenc@nta for youth choirs, and to the booklets coming from commissions for the Italian Youth Choir, have met with great favor, showing that they respond to a need of our choirs. Another important step in this path is to educate composers vocated to choral music: coming from this world, they know not only the aspects related to composition, but also all the dynamics of a choir. The European Seminar for Young Composers, in its Sixth Edition fits perfectly into the international scenario,offering three workshops as answer to these needs: choral composition for children’s choirs, one of the most popular choral field of the recent year sand significant news for this edition; composition; arranging and composing for vocal jazz/pop. There will be also an experimentation-performing collective workshop in which the prepared scores will be studied and performed thanks to the presence of the choir-in-residence.

FENIARCO’s President
Sante Fornasier

ARCOVA’s President
Marinella Viola

The Seminar is reserved to composers, aspiring composers interested in choral music and choral conductors with composition or elaboration experiences.
The directors will select the participants according to the age and the curriculum vitae. We kindly ask you to send details about qualifications and specific experiences about the course themes together with two compositions.
The course will accept maximum 20 active participants; listeners are accepted without limits. Working languages will be English and Italian.

The aims of the course are:

• to promote choral compositions;
• to develop the choir’s espressive possibilities;
• to lead the composers towards a research of their own personal stylethrough recent languages and choral composition’s techniques;
• to experience and enhance the relationship between compositionand performance, addressing the composition according to the realpossibilities of an amateur choir of good level.

Arrivals are scheduled within 5 p.m. on Sunday, 18th July 2010; followed by a meeting will be held to organize the workshops taking in to account the preferences, when possible.
The seminar will finish on Saturday, 24th July 2010 with an evening concert in which some pieces composed during the week will be performed.

Choral Composition for Children's Choirs
Workshop on original choral composition
director Mia Makaroff

Several issues will be discussed within this workshop dedicated to children’s choirs: from chosing of texts to the composition of words, from reflections on the language, to the techniques of music writing, taking into account the different musical styles and repertorie, from insights on sound to the performance of a score. Special attention will be given to some basic principles of music pedagogy, such as learning skills and strategies to teach a new song.

.............................................................................................................................................

Arranging Folk Music
Workshop on arranging Choir music from given musical materials
director Pierangelo Valtinoni

The workshop aim is the realisation of a score for choir, using given musical material drawn from archaic, folk and cultivated musical traditions. In particular, arrangement techniques inspired to omorhythmic and counterpoint style will be closely examined.

.............................................................................................................................................

Arranging and Composition for Vocal Jazz/Pop
Workshop on arranging and composing for vocal jazz/pop Choirs
director Thierry Lalo

In this workshop all aspects of making an arrangement will be looked into. On the technical side we will study harmony, voice and vocal lines aspects; special attention will be given to what works and what doesn’t with choirs of different standards. We will also be looking at the “birth” aspects of an arrangement: what is the starting point of an arrangement, and how to choose a style (or mixture of styles) for a single composition.

.............................................................................................................................................

Performance Practice
Experimentation-Performing coll ective Workshops
director Carlo Pavese

In this workshop the pieces composed by the partecipants to the composing workshops will be studied and performed, in collaboration with a vocal ensemble, with the possibility for the composers to take part. The most impor tant aim is to ponder together the critical passage from the score to the sound, looking for technical problems, alternative solutions, possible modifications to the score, given the performing problems.

Mia Makaroff

Composer, arranger, music teacher and choir leader. In 2003 she graduated at the Sibelius Academy in Finland with a Master in Music Education. She teaches music to children and young people at school and runs projects based on music therapy. Finnish folklore and poetry are great sources of inspiration in her composing work. She founded the children’s choir Vivace, with which she participated to several festivals in Europe and published a cd. A great number of her compositions have been recorded and played by choirs and vocal groups. She worked with The Real Group (Sweden), Niniwe (Germany), The King’s Singers (England) and Elegia (Finland). Noticeably she collaborates with the Finnish vocal group Rajaton.

....................................................................................................................................

Pierangelo Valtinoni

He studied organ and organ composition, choral music, composition and choir and orchestra conducting. He is currently dedicated to composing and conducting, with a particular focus on the 20th century and contemporary music. He conducted chamber groups and orchestras participating to important festivals in Italy, in Europe and in Mexico. His compositions were played in Europe, Asia and America, were recorded for Ariston-Ricordi, Tactus, Discantica, Internationales Forum Junge Chormusik, Osnabrücker Jugendchor and were broadcasted by Deutschland Radio and the Italian Rai Radio 3. He was published by Boosey & Hawkes, Sonzogno and Carrara. His opera Pinocchio was performed for three consecutive seasons at the Komische Oper Berlin, and in 2007 also at the Staatsoper in Hamburg. In 2010 the Komische Oper Berlin is staging a new opera. He won the prize for the Best Musical Score at the 60th National Festival of Dramatic Arts in Pesaro. He is currently the Vice-director of Vicenza Conservatory.

....................................................................................................................................

Thierry Lalo

For his work as a composer, Thierry Lalo was the first jazz musician to receive the New Musical Talent of the Year Award in 2002, from the French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) for his jazz opera Ramdam! Acknowledged as specialist of vocal jazz in Europe, he composed other operas based on jazz standards: Trois contes pour deux bâtons et une corde (2004) and Le Joueur de flûte de Hamelin (2005) and the musical Swing Avenue, that is to be presented at the French National Opera in Bastille in February 2010. His career was influenced on one hand by mainstream jazz and on the other by European vocal polyphony. He is founder, leader and main arranger of the Voice Messengers. He wrote a book about the pianist John Lewis (published by Limon, 1991). Since 2004, he has been directing the Big Band des Universités de Paris. Thierry is a recognized teacher and is also in demand to write arrangements and original compositions for other vocal groups. He runs regular vocal workshops in France and Europe and is a member of several international juries.

......................................................................................................................................

Carlo Pavese

Carlo Pavese is a musician from Turin. He served as assistant conductor under G. Graden in Stockholm, from 1998 to 2001, on scholarship from the Associazione De Sono. He also studied with E. Ericson and T. Kaljuste. A specialist in contemporary music, he performs concerts all over Italy and across Europe and is frequently invited to give lectures in choral conducting, interpretation and choral improvisation. Nowadays he is the Artistic Director of Torino Vocalensemble, the youth choir Coro G, Piccoli Cantori di Torino and Siryn vocal ensemble. He conducted new chamber operas at the Small Opera House of Torino. His compositions are performed throughout Italy and Europe.