About the project
Following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, European composers of contemporary music strive to resume their creative and artistic activities which came to a nearly full halt in the beginning of 2020. The European citizens, on the other hand, become increasingly more concerned about the looming worldwide climate catastrophe and the emerging European energy crisis. Our project is designed to reinvigorate contemporary music composers on the international level, establish new international collaboration networks and simultaneously become a channel for raising awareness about the necessity of integrating sustainability and renewable resources across all aspects of lives of the European citizens.
The project embraces transnational cooperation and exchanges between cultural organisations and artists from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, which constitute the Visegrad Group (V4). The project partners are music organisations deeply rooted in their nations’ contemporary music worlds who are actively involved in a continuous dialogue with all stakeholders creating, performing or consuming contemporary music. Our project will reinforce the capacity of music professionals and cross-border circulation of European music by involving composers and musicians from partner countries in joint artistic, educational and networking activities (workshops, masterclasses, rehearsals, concerts). We will commission and premiere four new innovative pieces of contemporary music that reflects the concept of ‘renewable music’, echoing the idea of ‘renewable resources’. We will draw attention to the priorities of the European Green Deal and encourage dialogue on this subject in the international artistic community during an open online conference that will sum up the project priorities.
We will commit to co-create, adopt and disseminate more environment-friendly practices and to raise awareness on sustainable development in classical music sector.
Polish Composers’ Union
the leader of the project, was established in 1945 as an association that brings together Polish composers and musicologists. Its statutory mission is to act for the benefit of musical culture by organising concerts, festivals, conferences, seminars, courses, exhibitions and competitions, as well as through publishing activities. The association supports development of musical culture in Poland and creation of composers and musicologists through its nine branches in the Poland’s largest cities (Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Katowice, Lodz, Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Lublin) as well as through the activities of the Musicologists’ Section and the Youth Circle. The PCU aims to express their views on important issues relating to culture and other public affairs, and to provide its members with facilities that help them in their creative and research work. It also acts to protect the copyright and professional rights of the composers and musicologists. Moreover, it participates in global culture by establishing foreign contacts, exchanging information and participating in the activities of other international organisations. The flagship event organised by the Main Board of the Polish Composers’ Union is the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ International Festival of Contemporary Music, initiated in 1956 by Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki. It is the only contemporary music festival in Poland on an international scale and with an international status. For many years, it was the only event of this kind in Central and Eastern Europe and it remains the biggest one in this part of the continent. The PCU also supports the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC, which was founded in 2001 on the basis of the Library of the Polish Composers’ Union – Polish Contemporary Music Documentation Centre, and quickly established itself as the leader in documenting 20th- and 21st-century Polish classical music. Currently, it serves not only as a research library, sharing its resources with visitors from all over the world, but also as a publisher and keen promoter of contemporary music. It manages the Polmic.pl website that covers musical life in Poland and activities of Polish musicians abroad, as well as provides updated and comprehensive data about Polish artists, music institutions, and publications about music.
Representative:
Mieczysław Kominek
Waves Bratislava
aims at the development of music and multi-media art in the national and international context. It supports the creation of new works, promotes concerts, events, conferences and educational activities in the field of contemporary musical art and new media. The organisation promotes awareness of music culture in Slovakia. It initiates cooperation with leading national and international festivals and promoters, including ‘Eufonie’ International Festival of Central-Eastern Europe. Waves Bratislava pays special attention to joint projects with neighbouring countries within the EU and Ukraine. The chair of the organisation is Oľga Smetanová, whose vast experience includes working with leading Slovak and international music institutions, such as Slovak Music Information Centre, Music Centre Slovakia, or International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC). Currently, she serves as the Secretary General of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).
Representative:
Oľga Smetanová
BERG Orchestra
is one of the leading Czech music ensembles, having for years brought a breath of fresh air to the Czech music scene. It has a specific mission of promoting new music and attracting new audiences to it. The orchestra performs not only at regular concert halls but is constantly searching for new spaces for contemporary music. It also mixes music with other arts like dance, theatre, visual arts, film etc. So far it has performed more than two hundred new works commissioned primarily with the very best young Czech composers and gave even many more Czech premieres by internationally renowned composers. BERG Orchestra has collaborated with the most important Czech organizations such as the National Theatre, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague Spring International Music Festival, Strings of Autumn festival and many others, it has created plenty of recordings for the Czech Radio, Czech Television and for CDs. Educational projects form a regular part of its activities. Berg Orchestra was founded in 1995 on initiative of then young conductor Peter Vrabel who still remains its artistic director. Together they were commended for artistic excellence and promotion of Czech music by the Czech section of the International Music Council of UNESCO. In 2021 the orchestra won the prestigious Prix Italia prize for its original project Music for Sirens.
Representative:
Eva Kesslová
The New Hungarian Music Association (UMZE)
is the spiritual heir of the original Association that was founded by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in 1911. The organisation was refounded in 2005 by 17 major artists and performers from the world of Hungarian music. Following its foundation, it immediately supported the UMZE Chamber Ensemble, formed in 1997 by Zoltán Rácz, the artistic director of the Amadinda Percussion Group, and the music historian András Wilheim, and it has always guaranteed financing for the Ensemble’s concerts. In addition to keeping twentieth-century works that have already become classics at the heart of its repertoire, its mission is to perform the latest pieces by contemporary Hungarian and foreign composers alike. The chairman of the Association is the composer Balázs Horváth, the vice-chairs being László Tihanyi and Béla Simon.
Representative:
Béla Simon