Selim Jeon's Kiss wins the 2023 Élan Award and the Prix du Public
The Élan Award is designed for young composers to promote their careers and offer them professional support over several years. Selim Jeon's piece will be broadcast on the France Musique website and the score published by Editions Durand-Salabert-Eschig / Universal. The work will be performed as part of the Orchestra's seasons, touring Île-de-France and the rest of France to ensure that it is heard by a wide audience. The artist will also receive a commission from IRCAM and the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France to write a new work for solo instrument, orchestra and electronics, to be premiered during next year's edition.
Selim Jeon, winner of the 2023 Élan Award and the Prix du Public with Kiss
Born in 1994 in South Korea, Selim Jeon studied composition with Gerald Eckert, Yoonjin Kim, and Youngmi Cho at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, where she received her Bachelor's degree and a scholarship for excellence. She continued her studies in France at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, where she studied analysis and orchestration with Anthony Girard, and composition with Suzanne Giraud. She then joined Martin Matalon's composition class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon.
Jeon was selected and participated in several masterclasses with Wolfgang Rhim at the Sommerakademie of the Mozarteum University and with Mauro Lanza at the International Divertimento Ensemble Academy. She was also an academician of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris for two seasons from 2021 to 2023. As part of the European creative Academy, she has participated in various programs with David Hudry, Stefano Gervasoni, Gregory Vajda, and Peter Eötvös. Her piece for the academy was performed in concert by the Ars Nova ensemble. Her music has been commissioned and performed by numerous musicians and ensembles including Oren Marshall, Fabrice Pierre, Atelier-XXI, Sequenza 9.3, L'Itinéraire, the Orchestre de Chambre de la Drôme, Ensemble Ars Nova, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.
"My piece Kiss is inspired by Freud's notion of the libido and draws inspiration from sensory sound imagination as well as timbral blends. The five movements are distinguished by their textures and instrumental sound planes. The first movement begins with rapid attacks, creating continuity, disrupted by "windows". The second movement is characterized by the lyricism and virtuosity of the flute. The orchestration is given particular prominence, and another use of harmonics is introduced, recurring in the fourth movement. Then we come to a section featuring brass and percussion, where the flute adopts another character, brilliant and penetrating, in harmony with the brass. The fourth movement presents a highly individual use of instruments, particularly through the harmonics used earlier in the second movement, and is characterized by a gradual slowness that leads to darkness. The final part becomes brighter and lighter again, highlighting a flute solo."
The Orchestra Prize goes to Andrzej Ojczenasz for his work Deux essences.
Andrzej Ojczenasz was born in 1992 in Krakow. He graduated with a degree in composition in the class of Marcel Chyrzyński. Currently a composition student studying under Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz at the K. Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, he is an exchange student between Poland and the United States with the University of Louisville.
His compositions have received numerous awards, among others first place in the Krzysztof Penderecki Composition Competition, an honorable distinction in the 2019 Sun River Prize in Chengdu, China, 2nd prize in the St. Christopher Composition Competition (St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius, Lithuania).
His works have been premiered in Poland and abroad at international music festivals, including by the Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Diotima Quartet in Paris, Šv. Kristoforo Kamerinis Orkestras in Vilnius (Lithuania), the Black Pencil Ensemble in Schokland (Netherlands), and Amorsima Trio (USA).
He was awarded the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship for outstanding achievements in the academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. He broadened his knowledge and skills in masterclasses with Linia Tonia, Tomasz Skweres, Francesca Verunelli, Oscar Bianchi, Tristan Murail, Jerry Gates, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Andrew Norman, and many others.
"Deux Essences is inspired by a theory developed by Kazimierz Dąbrowski, an eminent Polish physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, and philosopher. This theory explores the process of internal human development on five levels, a subject that resonates deeply with me. Kazimierz Dąbrowski realizes that going through and facing difficult times can lead to tremendous inner growth. He defines this process as "positive disintegration". For him, the culmination of this process, which he calls "secondary integration", ultimately lies in the balance and harmony of two essences: the personal and the social. This theory was an ideal source of inspiration for composing a work in five movements, featuring a soloist and an orchestra. In my piece, the flute soloist embodies the personal essence, while the orchestra represents the social essence."
The Jury
The jury was formed by composer Isabel Mundry, patron of the 2023 edition and president of the jury; IRCAM director Frank Madlener; artistic advisor to the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France Blandine Berthelot; conductor Léo Margue; composer Édith Canat de Chizy; 2nd viola soloist at the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France Ieva Sruogyte; director of the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine Estelle Lowry; producer at France Musique Anne Montaron and artistic and programming director at Durand-Salabert-Eschig / Universal Elsa Vautrain.
© Centre Pompidou, photo : Hervé Véronèse
The Creation of the Élan Award
The Élan Award was launched last year as a result of collaboration between the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France and IRCAM, two musical structures strongly committed to contemporary creation and the next generation of artists. Bringing together "Île de créations" (the orchestral composition competition created in 2010 by the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France) and the ManiFeste Academy, this international orchestral composition competition offers three promising young composers an exceptional platform for creative support, combining the know-how of the two structures in orchestral and electronic composition training. They are guided in their compositional work by both orchestra musicians and IRCAM teams, as well as by guest artists who join the coaching team each year, right up to the final rehearsals. This is when the public and the jury discover the works, and the Élan Award is presented, endowed by France Musique and the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine.