The composition workshops offer young composers the opportunity to work on specific themes defined by guest composers. Through work sessions and rehearsals with artists and performers, the young participants benefit from the experience and advice of their elders to produce and finalize a new work.

Concert du Prix Élan 2022, ManiFeste-2022 © Ircam-Centre Pompidou, photo : Quentin Chevrier

Élan Award 2023

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.

In 2023, as part of the ManiFeste festival academy, the finalists attend an orchestral composition workshop and take part in the rehearsals of the flute concertos they have composed for the competition. These are 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 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.

Concert du Prix Élan 2022, ManiFeste-2022 © Ircam-Centre Pompidou, photo : Quentin Chevrier

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 composer finalists, selected in November 2022:  Leehwa Hong (South Korea), Selim Jeon (South Korea), Andrzej Ojczenasz (Poland).

Unconducted Chamber Music

The Ensemble Intercontemporain is offering a workshop for 8 young composers who work closely with the musicians and with composer Francesco Filidei to finalize their piece. The 8 selected composers were requested to write for one of the 8 suggested instrument groups paying a special attention to composition of the form in time and memory.

The 8 young composers selected in December 2022:  Claudia Sofía Alvarez Cuba (Peru), Konstantinos Baras (Greece), Carolina Cerezo Dávila* (Spain), Félix Roth (France), Żaneta Rydzewska (Poland), Peter Shin (United-States), Anibal Vidal (Chile), Rick van Veldhuizen* (Netherlands)
* endorsed by the ULYSSES Network, supported by the European Union’s Europe Creative program, as part of "ULYSSES journeys"