Élan Award 2023
Orchestre national d’Île-de-France – Conductor:Léo Margue
Educational adviser, mentor and guest judge: Isabel Mundry, composer
In 2021, IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, two musical bodies with a strong commitment to promoting contemporary creations and a new generation of artists, are joining forces to create the Élan Award, a new international composition competition for an orchestral work, including the “Île de créations” (the orchestral composition competition created in 2010 by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France) at the IRCAM Academy. The young composers shortlisted to compete in the Élan Award will enjoy an exceptional creation support platform that combines the expertise of the two bodies in terms of training on composing a work for orchestra and electronic music. They will be guided in their composition work both by musicians at the Orchestra and by IRCAM’s teams, as well as by guest artists who will join the supervising team each year.
In 2023, as part of the ManiFeste festival academy, the finalists will attend an orchestral composition workshop and will take part in the rehearsals of the flute concertos they have composed for the competition. These will be played by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, conducted by Léo Margue. Following this public concert, the Élan Award ceremony will be held, endowed by France Musique and the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine. The winning composition will be played on France Musique radio station during Anne Montaron’s programme “Création mondiale” and the score will be published by Durand-Salabert-Eschig / Universal.
The winner will also receive a commission from IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France to compose a new work for solo instrument (one instrumentalist from the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France), orchestra and electronic music, which will be developed during the following year’s ManiFeste festival. As part of the winner’s training in electronic music, they will receive support and advice from IRCAM’s computer music producers.
The compositions of the Élan Award winner may be performed during the Orchestra’s seasons, on tour in the Île-de-France region around Paris and in other regions across France to guarantee their very broad dissemination. A genuine springboard for the career of young composers, the Élan Award is designed to promote their outreach and provide them with professional support over several years.
The conductor Georg Köhler and the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, Final of Élan Award 2022, ManiFeste-2022 © IRCAM - Centre Pompidou, photo: Quentin Chevrier
Application
The competition is open
- to composers of all nationalities born after January 1, 1991.
- A laureate of a previous ÉLAN Award may not take part in the competition.
- A candidate who has been twice finalist of previous ÉLAN Award competitions cannot take part in the competition.
- Candidates must understand and speak English.
Online applicationULYSSES Platform
Application deadline Thursday 3 November 2022 at 10am CEST.
Candidates are informed by email that their submission has been received Monday, December 12, 2022
Final entry constitutes acceptance of the conditions defined in these rules. Details available online
Candidates must create an account (or use a pre-existing account) on the ULYSSES platform, fill in their profile and click on “Apply” on the page “Élan Award 2023 – International Composition Competition for orchestra”, then:
- enter personal details (full name, gender, age, nationality, addresses, mobile telephone number, ID photo, a headshot which may be used by IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France for access passes and yearbook)
- write a short biography (800 characters MAXIMUM);
- list their education and professional experience, awards and scholarships won;
- present two recent works they have composed, possibly with electronic music (audio mp3 and pdf of the conductor’s score);
- write a statement of intent presenting the concerto work entered for the competition (1500 characters MAXIMUM);
- present the first two separate movements of the concerto work entered for the competition, conductor’s score in pdf format A4 (21X29,7) or B4 (26X35) portrait or landscape (Italian) (Cf. article 1.2).
First round selection panel
The selection panel will be made up of the Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Orchestre national d’ÎIe-de-France, Case Scaglione, the conductor Léo Margue, composer Isabel Mundry who will be this year’s guest judge and mentor, composer Edith Canat de Chizy, soloists who will perform the work and a musician of the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France.
Conditions
Composers whose works have been shortlisted following the first round will be requested to compose a concerto work for flute in C and orchestra:
- This work must be composed specifically for this competition, must be original and must never have been performed, in full or in part.
- The work must be ten minutes in length, broken down into five movements each lasting two minutes, which must be separated.
- For the solo flute, no doubling flute is permitted.
- The orchestra number must not exceed the following list:
10 first violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 5 cellos, 3 double basses, 1 flute (which can play piccolo), 2 oboes (the second of which can play English horn), 2 clarinets (the second of which can play bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (the second of which can play contrabassoon), 2 French horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 percussion, 1 timpani, 1 harp.
Available percussions: snare drum, bass drum, tom, tambourine / vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel en valise / tubular bells, suspended cymbals, pair of orchestra cymbals, sizzle cymbals, crotales, triangle, tam tam (Chinese gong), windchimes / rain stick, wood blocks and temple blocks, castanets, claves, rattle, flexatone, slide whistle, whip, sleighbells, guiro, maracas, vibraslap, whistles, klaxon horns (auto-horn, taxi-horn, motor-horn)
These conditions are mandatory and suspensive.
Selected candidates will submit the full composition by email, i.e. ten minutes of music, by Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 1pm CEST at the latest. Mandatory and suspensive condition.
Selected candidates are informed that the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France will only have two hours’ service for each work shortlisted for the final. The rehearsal schedule will be sent to candidates one month prior. The work programme will be decided by the conductor upon assessment of the work time required for each work.
Besides, selected candidates will receive an online master class with Isabel Mundry, composer, guest judge and mentor of this year’s award, an online work session with the soloist who will perform the shortlisted works and an online work session with the Orchestra’s musicians. Date to be set between December 2022 and April 2023. The master classes will take place on-line.
From Monday June 19 to Saturday June 24, 2023, the selected candidates will undertake to take part of:
- individual meetings with the conductor Léo Margue and the guest composer Isabel Mundry the day before the first rehearsals;
- all rehearsals scheduled with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, including those of the other finalists which will be held at the Maison de l’Orchestre (dress rehearsal at the concert venue);
- work sessions led by Isabel Mundry with the group of finalists which will be held either at IRCAM or at the Maison de l’Orchestre;
- the conference that Isabel Mundry will give as part of the 2023 ManiFeste Academy to all interns of the Academy which will take place at IRCAM;
The finalists are cordially invited to attend the other activities of the 2023 ManiFeste Academy which will take place from June 19 to July 1, 2023 in Paris (programme under development).
Selected candidates will have no registration fee to pay for the academy ManiFeste-2023. IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France do not provide any scholarships, nor reimburse travel or accommodation fees. Accepted applicants must find their own lodging.
Disruptions in transportation, health recommendations and quarantine, or testing requirements will be the responsibility of the applicant, who is responsible for making arrangements to meet the COVID-19 requirements both in his or her home country and upon arrival in France.