Piece for violin and piano for Samuel Nebyu and Charles Abramovic

I believe that my music should be as emotionally complex as we are. What happens in day-to-day life and interactions with people in our society are the main source of my inspiration. The reflection of life, whether good or bad is something that I value in art. Not necessarily in the “concrete“ sense. Works of art that reflected deep emotions and experiences speak to me the most. Music, dance, or visual arts that use the tools of their craft to convey things that reflect what it deeply means to be sad, or anxious, or any emotion in an intense way. Vividly reflecting emotions and experiences through a chromatic language expresses the experiences that I want and need to express the best. Deep emotions aren’t restricted. They’re wild and free, and sometimes chaotic. The passion of experiences and expression of the feelings of us as a society is what I aim to reflect with my works.

“The Last Lullaby” for violin solo for Diana Tishchenko

Bohdan Sehin was born in 1976 in Western Ukraine.
A composer and project coordinator, Bohdan Sehin graduated from the Lviv Lysenko National Music Academy, and has studied composition with M. Skoryk. He took compositional advice from A. Pärt, B. Furrer, A. Shchetynsky, Y. Shaked. He has been a two-time participant (2003, 2006) in the Gaude Polonia scholarship program sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Culture and has studied composition with Zb. Bujarski in Krakow and Z. Krauze in Warsaw; a scholarship recipient of the Warsaw Autumn Friends Foundation (2003); and a Gulliver Connect (2008), and Ukrainian Presidential (2008-2010) grant recipient. He has composed works commissioned by Institute of Music and Dance of Poland (under the program “Collections” – the priority “Composition Commissions”) and Polish Institute in Kyiv. Multiple awards for both composition and theatrical work in Ukraine and Poland. Featuring symphonic, choral, and chamber works, as well as music for theatrical productions, Sehin’s work has been performed for audiences in Belarus, Armenia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, France, Switzerland, Germany, China and certainly in Ukraine.

Sehin is a member of the Ukrainian National Composers Union with broad experience in arts-festival management, including the Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival (Lviv, 1998-2006), Velvet Curtain (Lviv, 2006), Kyiv Music Fest (Kyiv, 2009), and the International Music of Youth Forum (Kiev, 2009, 2011, 2013).
Beginning in 2009, Bohdan has worked on a number of projects in Ukraine. 2009 was also the year when he began coordinating projects for the Ensemble Nostri Temporis (www.entmusic.org), becoming its director the following year. Founder and artistic director of the first in Ukraine the International Master Classes of New Music COURSE (taking place every year since 2012; http://imcnmcourse.wix.com/course) and Ukrainian Biennale for New Music (http://biennale.entmusic.org/en/). From 2012 he is the commercial director for the new music development of Lviv Philharmonic Society and executive director of the Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival (http://contrastsfestival.wixsite.com/contrastsfestival).

Piece for accordion and violin for Ghenadie Rotari

Anna Korsun (1986, Ukraine) is a composer, sound artist and performer based in Germany.

She studied composition in Kiev and Munich with Moritz Eggert.

Anna combines in her creativity musical composition, installation, performance and sound art. She works for different formations from solo to orchestra, including acoustic instruments, voice, electronics and sounding objects. She collaborates with visual arts, dance, theater and literature. Anna involves into her works both professional and amateur musicians, as well as non-musicians. Besides an activity as an artist Anna performs contemporary music as vocalist/keyboard instruments, directs musical projects and teaches composition at Amsterdam conservatory, as well as at international courses.

She participated at international festivals such as eclat, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, ISCM, Warsaw Autumn, Festival Musica Strasbourg, worked with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR Vokalensemble, ensemble mosaik, ascolta, ensemble modern, AskoSchoenberg, Camerata Silesia, Silbersee, Bavarian Academy of Theater August Everding, Ludwik-Solski-Academy for performing arts in Krakow, LOH-Orchester, Thüringer Symphoniker. She was artist-in-residence at Villa Massimo in Rome, Residency for New Music Goethe Institute Canada, Academy Schloss Solitude, Cité internationale des arts in Paris and others. Anna was awarded Prize of Christoph-and-Stephan-Kaske-Foundation, Gaudeamus Award, Kunstpreis Berlin and Open Ear of Trillende Lucht Foundation.

Piece for piano solo for Anton Gerzenberg

Anton Koshelev, born in Odessa in 1997, is a composer and pianist. His compositions give performers interpretative freedom thanks to partially graphically designed notation and thus also refer to his background in improvised music.

Piece for violin and cembalo for Ilya Gringolts and Francesco Corti

Born in 1972 in Donetsk, Ukraine, Alexandra Filonenko studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a music teacher and composer. Since 2004 she teaches piano, theory and composition at the Music School “Robert Franz” in Halle an der Saale/Germany.

Filonenko lives in Berlin as an independent pianist and composer. Her works were performed regularily at the Hallische Musiktage since 1999, including a premiere of “Kiefers Schatten” by the Kairos Quartet in 1999 and a portrait concert in 2000. Further premieres of works were performed at European festivals, including the Gaudeamus Music Week; “Look at the Clouds” by the OXALIS-Ensemble for the Festival Moskauer Herbst; “Sirenen” by the Belgian Ensemble APSARA; “Einst als ich meine Tränen vergoß …” by the Ensemble Mosaik for the Musikakademie Rheinsberg and a new version of “Kiefers Schatten” by the Arditti Quartet at the 14. Tonkünstlerfest in Magdeburg.

In 2004-2005 she was a fellow of the Music Academy Rheinsberg, 1998 at the Künstlerhaus Wiepersdorf, 1996 at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. She is currently working on a large orchestral piece to be performed in 2007/2008.

Piece for trumpet and electronics for Marco Blauuw

Adrian Mocanu was born in 1989 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He was studying music composition at P. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, and in 2019 started postgraduate studies in electroacoustic composition at Centro Superior de Enseñanza Musical Katarina Gurska in Madrid, Spain. He participated in various composition master classes with composers Beat Furrer, Raphaël Cendo, Philippe Hurel, Peter Ablinger, Francesco Filidei, Johannes Schöllhorn, Caspar Johannes Walter, Clemens Gadenstätter, Martin Schüttler, Helena Tulve, Stefan Prins, João Pedro Oliveira, Mauricio Sotelo and Jaime Reis during various workshops in Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Hungary.

He was the winner of the 38th Young Composer Competition – Frederic Mompou International Award in Barcelona in September 2017. In 2019, he received  the second prize of IV International Composition Competition GMCL/Jorge Peixinho in Lisbon and the third prize of I International Composers Competition “New Music Generation-2019” in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. He was also one of the finalists of ‘Latino Voices’ project by USA-based ensemble Anima Vox Duo in 2018. In 2019 he received the ‘Gaude Polonia’ scholarship of the Ministry of Culture of Poland and was taking classes with professor Paweł Łukaszewski at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He was a participant of the second edition of ‘CoOPERAtion’ laboratory for composers and playwrights (Moscow, 2018/19), and his opera ‘Feux follets’, which was commissioned for this workshop, was premiered at Archstoyanie festival in Russia in July 2019. Among other festivals where his music was played were the Warsaw Autumn, musikprotokoll, VANG. Músicas en vanguardia and Festival Mixtur.

His works have been performed in Ukraine (Kyiv and Lviv), Poland (Warsaw and Lublin), Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod), Estonia (Narva), Czech Republic (Prague), Austria (Graz), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastián), Portugal (Lisbon and Montijo), Italy (Trento and San Giustino), Mexico (Cholula), Brazil (São João del Rei) and USA (New York, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Fort Worth).

Quartet by Elena Rykova for Ensemble Nikel – confirmed, funded by Temperatio Foundation.

Forget Me Not (2022)
for saxophone, synthesizer, piano, percussion, electric guitar and analogue electronics

“Why should I stop?
The road passes along the capillaries of life
The quality of the space
in the ship of the moon’s womb
will kill the rotten cells
and after sunrise, in the chemical laden-air
only the sound remains
the sound that will be absorbed by the tiny particles of time Why should I stop?”

(an excerpt from “Only the Sound Remains” from Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season (1974) by Iranian poetess Forough Farrokhzad, translated from the Persian by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.)

“I wrote this piece from a place of the deepest, most vital, and most passionate love towards people, towards the world, and myself in it.  This special place has been challenged tremendously by the cruelty I see and sense.  My country and many of its people betrayed us, who refuse to stand along with the violence and crimes against humanity.  Something inside me keeps saying: “forget me not, forget me not” – similar to the flower that has forgotten its name along the way… So many memories and so much of me is rooted in the land I come from.  I want to remember it despite the pressure I feel from the world and from within to forget, deny, erase and disown its every tiny piece.  Every day I live through the internal fight against despair and anger.  Still, at times the edge of their vortex comes so close that I can see my reflection in the abyss.  Composing this piece was akin to creating an anchor to remember and hold onto in the dark moments.  I seek to revive hope by gathering rocks thrown at love and its people, rocks that left bruises on their bodies.  I want to transform this biblical weapon into the simplest of all tools, which brings light to life – a flame of hope.
I dedicate my piece to my dear collaborators Antoine, Brian, Patrick and Yaron, who ignite my inspiration and great joy of music-making. I admire you from the bottom of my heart.”

Micro-commission for violin and piano by Andrew McIntosh for Ilya Gringolts and Peter Laul – funded by Temperatio Foundation.

“As a violinist myself, I have immense admiration for Ilya Gringolts’ musicianship and exquisite violin playing.  It was a surprise and a delight when I received the request from the I&I Foundation to compose a new piece for him. The commission request also felt like a breath of fresh air in a difficult time, when so many musical commitments were cancelled due to the pandemic, and I’m extremely grateful to the Foundation for presenting the opportunity to do something creative and collaborative at that moment.  When writing the piece I had an ever-present desire to craft the music around my perception of Ilya’s unique musical personality, while inevitably letting the piece also be shaped by my own relationship to the violin, and I am very excited to hear it come to life in Ilya’s hands.”

“Jupiter muscarius” for violin solo by Mikel Urquiza for Maja Horvat —  completed.

Mikel Urquiza was born in Bilbao in 1988. He studied composition at Musikene (San Sebastian) with Gabriel Erkoreka and Ramon Lazkano, then at the CNSM in Paris with Gérard Pesson. In 2019-2020 he is first mentored by the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, then a fellow of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici. As a PhD student of the SACRe doctoral program, he wrote a thesis under the direction of Francesca Alberti, Stefano Gervasoni and Martin Kaltenecker.

He works in France and Germany with the ensembles C Barré, L’Instant Donné, Intercontemporain, Ascolta, mosaik, and Musikfabrik ; and accross Europe with PHACE, UMZE, New European Ensemble, Lemniscate, mdi, Sonido Extremo, Meitar.

Deeply linked to voice, he writes several song cycles, such as Alfabet, for Sarah Maria Sun, I nalt be clode on the frolt, for Marion Tassou, or Songs of Spam, for the Neue Vocalsolisten. A new cycle will be premiered by Exaudi at the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik 2022.

His chamber music pieces are premiered by first-class partners, such as the Catch Trio, which performs Pièges de neige at the Cologne Philharmonie, Radial System in Berlin, Resonanz Raum in Hamburg, and the Maison de la Radio in Paris, or the Diotima Quartet, which performs Indicio at the Festival Pontino in Italy, the BBVA Foundation in Bilbao, Ensems Festival in Valencia, and Musikprotokoll in Graz.
His piano piece Contrapluma has travelled along the ECHO network — from Amsterdam Concertgebouw to the Wiener Musikverein — and has been in the selection of piano competitions Ferruccio Busoni and Concours International d’Orléans.

He collaborates with some of the main Basque and Spanish institutions for music : the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Euskadiko Orkestra, BBVA Foundation, San Sebastian Musical Fortnight, JONDE and INAEM. His music is performed at festivals such as Présences, ManiFeste, ECLAT, MATA New York, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, and the Venice Biennale.

Micro-commission for violoncello da spalla by Mary Kouyoumdjian for Sergey Malov — confirmed.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to dream up and realize a project with an I&I Foundation, Ilya Gringolts and violoncello da spalla player Sergey Malov.  patiently shouting––a new work for violoncello da spalla and loop and distortion pedals––is a reflection on those who do not waver in their dedication to speak up for what they believe in and refuse to be silenced.  This piece grew out of exhilarating and thoughtful conversations with both Ilya and Sergey and out of a shared curiosity to break sonic expectations for this extraordinary instrument.”

“Vivisection” for accordion solo by Philipp Christoph Mayer for Ghenadie Rotari  – funded by Esther Kartagener, completed, WP confirmed for 4.2.2022, AlteSchmiede Wien.

“I’m very grateful for the support the I&I Foundation has given me to writing a piece for the wonderful accordionist Ghenadi Rotari.  It was a great opportunity to pick up the work Ghenadi and I had done together in the past and to enhance our collaboration. At the same time the commission was an opportunity to expand on some musical ideas I had been exploring for a while and which were waiting to take form in a piece. Many times, ideas need opportunities like this to articulate themselves.  Besides the generosity of the financial support, I was delighted to experience a very easygoing and supportive communication from the Foundation’s side.  It was inspiring to feel the drive and energy of the Foundation to foster the contemporary music scene.  All in all I just want to say a big “thank you“!”

“I am very grateful to Ilan Volkov for choosing me as the first composer in the “I&I Foundation” programme.  He suggested that I compose a new work for the great musician Ilya Gringolts.  We had a very nice collaboration!  In the meantime, there was the pandemic, and I had a second child, so I composed my work in several steps.  I would be very happy to hear the premiere of the piece someday.  Working with Ilya was wonderful, and I learned a lot – he is a great musician!  Thank you again for the commission.”

Yair Klartag (1985) is an Israeli composer whose music has been performed by leading orchestras and ensemble specializing in contemporary music, as well as at festivals such as Ultraschall Berlin, La Biennale di Venezia, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, ECLAT Festival, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik and Tage für Neue Musik Zürich.

“First and foremost, I was so delighted that Ilya and Ilan found me, living in my corner of the world in Japan, among so many young composers!  With my work Bai and Dharani, to which the I&I Foundation gave life, I could figure out my first answer to what I had been considering for the last decade.  It is undoubtedly one of the most important works in my creative journey.  Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world at the time I was working on this piece, and I have not been able to step outside of Japan since March 2020, but this creation with Ilya and Ilan connected me to the world.  I want to express my deep appreciation for Ilya’s masterful performance and realization, the beautiful video work, the online premiere at Tectonics Glasgow, and its subsequent performances. I hope that my work and every work produced by the I&I Foundation will continue to be performed for a long time to come.”

The music of composer, oboist, and installation artist Sky Macklay explores bold contrasts, audible processes, humour, and the physicality of sound. Originally from Minnesota, Sky completed her DMA in composition at Columbia University and currently teaches as Assistant Professor of Music at Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana.