International Ensemble Modern Academy

Vibrant learning, experimentation and discourse. It was with this objectives in mind that the International Ensemble Modern Academy was founded in 2003 as the logical extension of everything the Ensemble Modern (EM) stands for: the highest quality, the joy of performing, interdisciplinary art projects and internationality. Over the last thirty years the EM has discussed and analysed many artists and their works and has gained a deep understanding and extensive knowledge of music from the beginnings of the 20th century onwards: a »memory of modern music«. The IEMA, whose activities are mainly operated by the members of Ensemble Modern, strives to give young artists the opportunity to share in this memory and derive manifold benefits from it in various ways.

Thanks to the funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, and the Allianz Cultural Foundation, the IEMA is able to offer a variety of training programmes designed to promote artistic discourse between highly qualified young musicians and renowned personalities from the arts world.
One of the core training programmes is a one-year Master's programme in contemporary music which was launched in 2006 in cooperation with the University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt am Main (HfMDK) and now attracts strong international interest. Young artists (instrumentalists, conductors, composers, and sound directors) work for an entire year with the members of the Ensemble Modern on the diverse repertoire of modern music. Famous composers and conductors are also regularly invited to participate, including Friedrich Cerha, Peter Eötvös, Heiner Goebbels, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm and Hans Zender. The results of this work are presented in 20 concerts each year in Germany and abroad.

The IEMA's training programme also includes an institution which is unique in the world: the International Composition Seminar for composers, conductors and musicologists. Here, young composers receive the opportunity to talk to outstanding guest tutors and to experiment with and perform their own works together with the Ensemble Modern over several phases.

In addition, the International Ensemble Modern Academy regularly offers master classes, for example at the Paxos Spring Festival in Greece and at the Klangspuren Festival in Schwaz in Austria. In 2005 successful classes were also held in Japan and Korea. In 2008 and 2010 the work was continued in Tokyo, and in Beijing the master class »contempo primo« is being launched in cooperation with the Siemens Stiftung.
In the field of education, the IEMA, in conjunction with the ALTANA Kulturstiftung, The Forsythe Company and the Bettina School in Frankfurt, organises a unique cultural project, which ran for the first time in the 2009/2010 school year: for one year 140 pupils participate in a »Day of Culture« once a week, an artistic expedition through various artistic disciplines (music, arts, dance, literature). The project is being continued in the 2010/11 school year.

Since 2008, the IEMA has been running master classes for young instrumentalists within the framework of »epoche F – Neue Musik Göttingen«. Prize-winners of the German music competition »Jugend musiziert« are invited to work on pieces of contemporary music with the Ensemble Modern and then to perform them in a joint concert at the end of the course. This project has proved to be highly successful and led to very positive after-effects.

These are just some of the examples of the different areas in which the IEMA is active at the moment: starting with children and youngsters and continuing with students who have completed their training, through to conductors and composers who have already embarked on their professional careers and who receive grants to study in international master classes.