ICCS young_talents

The International Composer & Conductor Seminars (ICCS) offer a hands-on mentoring programme for composers and conductors presented by Ensemble Modern (EM) and the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA), supported by the Aventis Foundation. The ICCS comprise the modules ICCS young_professionals, ICCS young_talents and ICCS curtain_call. These three complementary modules address the particular needs of young composers and conductors at the beginning of their professional careers. In addition to the opportunity of gaining experience with Ensemble Modern as a highly qualified ensemble, the explicit goal is to create performance and networking opportunities.

ICCS young_talents closes a gap in the education system, creating key experiences for young composers at the beginning of their studies by collaborating with a highly specialized ensemble. The seminar is intended for international composers at the beginning of their studies.
The format young_talents targets young composers at the Bachelor’s degree level, who receive the opportunity to have their compositional ideas implemented by a professional ensemble. A one-week intense master course includes rehearsals of their works as well as workshops on subjects such as instrumental expertise, electronics or ensemble sound. This sharpens their technical abilities, the formation and formulation of notions of sound and the assessment of instrumental balance within an ensemble sound, for example.

Led by Ensemble Modern, the composer Iris ter Schiphorst and the conductor Bas Wiegers, the Composition Workshop ICCS young_talents took place in 2023 for the first time.