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.
As part of the ManiFeste festival academy, the finalists will attend an online orchestral composition workshop and will take part in the rehearsals of the piano concertos they have composed for the competition. These will be played by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France at the Philharmonie de Paris, conducted by Rebecca Tong. 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 / UMPC.
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, orchestra and electronic music, which will be developed during the following year’s ManiFeste festival. The winner will be welcomed to IRCAM’s studios during the 2022/2023 season to work closely with a computer music producer who will provide assistance and advice and will support them for the electronic part of the work.
The compositions of the Élan Award winner will 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 competition is open to composers of all nationalities born after 1 January 1990.
