Closing date: 29 February 2008
Composers Clare Loveday and Paul Hanmer are the first two South Africans to spend a month at the Visby International Composers' Centre (VICC) on the island of Gotland, Sweden, as guests of the Swedish branch of the ISCM and the Rikskonserter. This is part of a new exchange programme between VICC and NMSA, and this is how it came about …
During a visit by Michael Blake & Christine Lucia to VICC in Dec-Jan 2006-7 the idea was mooted with VICC Director Ramon Anthin, of an exchange between South African and Swedish ISCM sections (NMSA and VICC), whereby 2 South African composers (preferably from designated groups) would enjoy a 4-week residency at VICC in Nov-Dec each year under the auspices of NewMusicSA's "Growing Composers" project. The expense of the residency will be borne by the VICC and includes a fully equipped individual studio (in Composers' Hall). Ramon Anthin then brought Wera Körner from the Swedish concert agency Concert Sweden (Rikskonserter) on board, and they offered to provide SEK 10 000 (just over R10 000) per person towards travel from South Africa and subsistence in Visby.
As part of the NMSA-VICC exchange, which it is hoped will last for several years, Swedish composers/performers will come from 2008 onwards to South Africa to lead workshops under the "Growing Composers" project. A later possibility may be that a SA student attends the Gotland School of Composition in Visby, where they have a specialized 2-year course in composition.
Paul and Clare, the first two recipients of the residencies (Nov-Dec 2007) were nominated by the Board of NewMusicSA because of the need to give names to the VICC early in 2007 to secure places. (The VICC only has room for 3 composers at any one time and has applications from all over the world throughout the year.)
Clare Loveday and Paul Hanmer are both from Johannesburg. Clare is using the opportunity to finish work on her doctoral portfolio by writing a work for saxophone ensemble, and Paul Hanmer is working at Visby on a clarinet piece for Robert Pickup and a work for Swedish vocalist Eva Rune.
For the next round of residencies (Nov-Dec 2008) there will be a formal application process, for which the closing date is 29 February 2008. (See below and application form.)
For more information on VICC and Visby see www.centreforcomposers.org.
Applicants who wish to apply for a 4-week residency in Nov-Dec 2008 should be South Africans between the ages of 25 and 45, already composing independently without guidance, as there is no tuition included in the residency. They should preferably be members of designated groups who have not had much opportunity to take up a funded composition residency before. They must be prepared to stay for between 3 and 4 weeks at the VICC in Nov-Dec, and on their return they must report back to NMSA, share some of the fruits of their work at VICC with colleagues in SA, and assist with organizing composers' workshops at the following New Music Indaba.
The NMA Board will consider all the online applications in March 2008 and select 2 names on the basis of age, readiness for a residency, appropriateness of proposal for work to be done at VICC, complementarity of the applicants, and representivity of designated groups. Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed immediately, and successful applicants will be asked to put in a formal application to the VICC as well, which will go with the endorsement of the President of the SA section of the ISCM.
Download the Visby 2008 application form PDF.
Please send your application and any queries to:
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