For the 2024/25 winter semester, the Sounding Visions Award—conferred by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in cooperation with the mdw—has set out in search of exciting new concert formats. This competition is open to students of all nationalities who are either currently enrolled at an Austrian institution of higher music education or who graduated from such an institution less than two years prior to submitting their entries.
While the competition’s first edition aimed to encourage innovative programme concepts, the current call is focused on novel formats for music’s presentation. These might centre on a coherent theme and its artistic realisation, inter- and transdisciplinary concepts, audience involvement, experimentation with new spatial settings, or the integration of performative elements. Entrants’ creativity is subject to no limits. In terms of the music itself, attention is to be placed on contemporary music and sound art—and of particular concern to competition initiators Sonja Leipold (GSCM, mdw) and Axel Petri-Preis (mdw), who collaborated on the call’s formulation, is programming that reflects upon gender and diversity. Entrants are hence called upon to have their programmes pay special attention to women, thereby rendering them visible and audible. The motivating factor behind this requirement is the persistent lack of attention to a diverse repertoire in classical concerts at large. Only 7.7 % of works performed by orchestras worldwide are by women composers,2 and competitions (which often play an important role as professional springboards for young musicians) perpetuate the traditional male- and white-dominated canon.
In the interest of supporting entrants’ search for new, as-yet-unknown repertoire by women composers, the text of the present call lists various databases—and on 26 September, the mdw held an online workshop funded by the Administrative Department for Equality, Gender and Diversity (GGD) with the singer, composer, and Trickster Orchestra artistic director Cymin Samawatie. The competition’s final round, which will take place on 20 February 2025 at the mdw’s Sound Theatre and be open to the public, is to see six selected ensembles and/or soloists present their formats live. A jury comprised of musicians, concert organisers, and individuals attached to the ISCM and the mdw will confer awards upon particularly outstanding projects. The audience can look forward to extraordinary musical experiences that forge new paths with respect to music’s programming and presentation.
- Cf. www.klangforum.at/project/akademie-zweite-moderne—globale-sichtbarkeit-von-komponistinnen (last accessed on: 13 Sept. 2024).
