Due to the pandemic, the selection of candidates in May will probably also have to be determined by the current corona situation. In addition, all participants of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) at the Klangspuren festival are expected to comply strictly with the safety measures in force, as in the last year. The course from 2 to 13 September 2021 will again take place in the excellent facilities of the Mozarteum University‘s Department of Music Education and The State Conservatory of Tyrol at the Haus der Musik Innsbruck, at the end of which the program rehearsed with the expert instructors from Ensemble Modern will be presented publicly at four concerts in Schwaz and Innsbruck.

For years, one of Klangspuren’s central projects, the summer course offered by the Ensemble Modern has blended seamlessly into a whole series of music education projects of the Tyrolean festival. With annually changing programmatic themes and a notable roster of Composers in Residence – among them György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Sofia Gubaidulina, Rebecca Saunders, and Mark Andre – Klangspuren attracts not only the local Tyrolean population, but also a great many international concert-goers.

What makes the IEMA ’21 even more attractive is a special project that this year ventures into the sphere of musical theatre. Tragödia – Der unsichtbare Raum (Tragedy: The Invisible Room) by the prominent Stuttgart-based composer Adriana Hölszky is a roughly 60-minute-long, multi-genre-spanning, so-called ,instrumental musical theatre‘, which manages, without the use of vocals and actors, to develop dramatic components through the power of music and spatial electronics alone. In addition, like every year, participants will also rehearse contemporary chamber music – including many pieces by young female composers – with the active support of Klangspuren’s Composer in Residence Adriana Hölszky, who will be present for the entire duration of the course, as well as Johannes Kalitzke, who will also be conducting the performance of Tragödia.

As in 2019, we will again be offering an improvisation workshop, which is open to all participants. With the Berlin-based saxophonist and clarinettist Frank Gratkowski, IEMA has again recruited as its Improviser in Residence an artist who brings with him tremendous teaching experience and is as internationally distinguished as his predecessor Zeena Parkins. Despite the pandemic, in 2021 IEMA at Klangspuren once again promises to shine as brightly as in the past.

Reinhard Kager
Artistic Director

The International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) was founded in 2003 as Ensemble Modern’s training centre, pursuing the goals of educating musicians and audiences about contemporary repertoire and identifying new forms of artistic and creative work today.

Thanks to funding from Kunststiftung NRW (Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia), GVL, Crespo Foundation, and changing partners and sponsors, the IEMA is able to offer a broad range of training projects. The education and further education formats developed with various partners have very different target groups. Through regular projects in Frankfurt’s schools, intensive courses as part of the excellence programme epoche_f and offers for professional musicians via international master courses, IEMA pursues its mission, passing on to coming generations the knowledge and broad range of experience Ensemble Modern has gathered over many years. Furthermore, it is the only institution to present the International Composition Seminar for composers.

The main focus, however, is on the one-year master’s programme, offered in cooperation with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, where instrumentalists, conductors, sound directors and composers work with members of Ensemble Modern and renowned composer and conductor personalities on 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. The results of this work are presented by the IEMA Ensemble of the current year in 20 concerts per year, performed in Germany and abroad. Thus, almost 250 graduates have been able to take advantage of this study programme, which is unique throughout the world. As partner of the Ulysses Network, the IEMA is able to offer international cooperation projects to the students.

For the 18th time the International Ensemble Modern Academy offers master classes at the annual festival Klangspuren in Tyrol. With members of the Ensemble Modern as tutors and the renowned composer Adriana Hölszky and clarinettist/saxophonist Frank Gratkowski as Artists in Residence, musicians of the next generation can be sure that these master classes will be very intense and constitute a real challenge. www.internationale-em-akademie.de www.facebook.com/InternationaleEMAkademie www.twitter.com/iema_frankfurt www.instagram.com/iema_frankfurt