Since 2012, and thanks to the support from the Creative Europe Program, the ULYSSES Network has been dedicated to the promotion of young talented artists in the field of contemporary music. In reaction to the pandemic and the difficulty to organise physical gatherings, the ULYSSES Network proposed a series of online seminars directed to young artists, focussing on specific topics related to the development of their international career. The positive feedback received from our young artist community has motivated us to continue with the series, even after the end of the pandemic.

For each meeting, an invited speaker shortly presents a specific topic, and opens the floor  to give the participants the occasion to discuss this topic together, to address questions and share their personal experiences.  At the end of each meeting, an « Open Space » allows some of the participants to present their own projects and to exchange with their young fellow artists.

In the spring 2023 we have sessions around three topics. Session #8 gives an insight for artists on how to approach successfully contemporary music festivals. Sessions #9 and #10 discuss the possibilities to work as an artist (also) outside the concert hall setting.

#8 Thursday 25th May 2023, 11.00 CET

Speaker: Graham McKenzie

Pitch Perfect:

As an emerging composer how should I approach major contemporary music festivals? How do I get the attention of curators, programmers, and festival directors? What can I do to do it better and increase my success rate? What information do they want? How are festivals and concert series curated?

Festival Director and Curator Graham McKenzie addresses the challenges of self-marketing and promotion, and how an artist can break into the international marketplace!

Artistic Director of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) since January 2006,  Graham is a curator and writer in the field of experimental and new music. A former member of Réseau Varèse (2006 – 2015), and a member of the European Jazz Network. Programme Advisor to the Glasgow Jazz Festival. A founding member of Sounds Now. Co-Founder & Co-Director of Out Of The Machine Ltd a Consultancy and Production Company specialising in new music. Co-Founder & Co-Curator for sonic-a, Glasgow (2011 – 2015). Co-Founder of Glasgow Improviser’s Orchestra.

Graham regularly contributes to professional development and mentoring programmes for composers and artists, for a wide range of cultural organisations, universities and conservatoires, throughout the U.K. and Europe.

 

 

#9 Tuesday 13^th June 2023, 19.00 CET – POSTPONED TO FALL 2023

Beyond the concert hall: Jacob Gotlib: Creators Corps

Jacob Gotlib is the program manager of the Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps, a new model for how composers can collaborate with a symphony orchestra in the 21st century. Each year, the orchestra invites three composers to move to Louisville, KY, for the year, where they are provided a salary, health insurance, free housing, and studio equipment. Throughout their residencies, they will compose new works to be premiered by the orchestra, create and participate in educational and community engagement activities, and be active citizens of Louisville.

 

 

#10 Wednesday 21st June 2023, 15.00 CET

Beyond the concert hall: In-Situ/City at Gaudeamus

In-Situ/City is an activity by the ULYSSES Network Project. Composers, performers, conductors and ensembles will all be able to undertake projects providing them with rich and diverse experiences enabling them to develop new relations to their social context, to their fellow artists and to diverse audiences.

At Gaudeamus, Utrecht, In-Situ/City is an ongoing project that focuses on the city as an ever-changing changing collection of historical, cultural, political, and social signifiers. For Gaudeamus 2022, four young makers (groups) were commissioned to create new work that reflects on this theme, with a special focus on the relationship between humans and non-humans. The project is presented and discussed by Matthijs Mantel, programmer at Gaudeamus Festival, and sound artist Gemma Luz Bosch, who attended the project in 2022.