Composition Master Classes

In the past years I have attended a few master classes of composition, so I thought I would share my experience about compositional masterclasses, both the ones I have attended and those that I maybe would like to attend.

Composition Master Class with Doctor Samuel Adler, Berlin

In 2012 I attended the six week long (!) master class with Doctor Samuel Adler (born 1928 in Germany) at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). We were 14 students whom Doctor Adler taught 45 minutes twice a week and once a week we also had a group lesson with him. In addition you could also take a conducting class (as a group lesson) with his wife Emily Freeman Brown. The course fee of around 2000 euros only included the lessons, so housing and living expenses came in addition to that. During the first two weeks we composed a 4 minute piece for a given ensemble, which was performed at the end of the course, and we also got a recording of the performance. During the next four weeks you could work on what ever you wanted to, so I wrote a small piece for orchestra. The course was the best master class I have ever attended, partly because it happened to come to a time when I had a “writers block” and Doctor Adler managed to open this writers block, which was a wonderful feeling! Also I still use some of the compositional techniques he taught me during the course. Berlin is also a wonderful and inspiring city to live in, and I went to concerts or to one of the three (!) opera houses around five times a week during the six weeks I stayed there. But recently I googled and noticed that this course doesn’t seem to be available anymore, so it seems like Doctor has retired (after retiring from Juilliard at the age of 85), therefore I won’t write too much about this course here although it was the best course I have attended!

Sävellyspaja, Finland

Sävellyspaja is part of the festival Summer Sounds in Porvoo, Finland. It takes place one week after midsummer (around the last week of June) and the composition master class is about 5 days. You apply in December to the workshop and are informed a few month later if you are elected or not. The elected participants are given a specific task, writing for a ensemble from the Avanti! orchestra. The task/piece has to be ready by March or April. The task varies form year to year, when I participated they gave us a beginning and an ending that we were supposed to incorporate into our piece, and I wrote my piece “Outlandish Excursion”. The teachers at Sävellyspaja are the Finnish composers Tomi Räisänen and Jukka Tiensuu (who is one of my favourite composers!). You usually get two classes with each teacher and then you also have master classes where each student presents works they have composed. You get a few rehearsals with the ensemble and all  compositions are performed at a concert at the festival. When I attended in 2011 also Jouni Kaipainen was my teacher. He is one of the founders of the course and has taught at Sannäs for about 25 years. But sadly he passed away in November 2015. He will always be missed and remembered for his enthusiasm, energy and warm spirit.

In short:

-Takes place last week of June

-In Sannäs, Porvoo, Finland

-You apply in December

-You write the piece before the master class

-You get rehearsals and a performance by professionals at the Porvoo Summer Sounds Festival

-You get all together four lessons with composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen

-You get free tickets and have the opportunity to hear many of the Summer Sounds concerts

-The course fee is around 300 euros and includes everything (lessons, living, breakfast, tickets) except lunch and dinner. (This price may vary from year to year depending on how much funding Sävellyspaja receives.)

-The course location is a gorgeous manor basically in the middle of beautiful fields (in the middle of nowhere) and it also has a swimming pool and a sauna.
-The food is served at the extraordinary restaurant of the manor (and costs around 15 euro per meal).

Time of Music, Viitasaari, Finland

Time of Music is a contemporary music festival taking place in Viitasaari, a small city between great lakes and forests. The master class teachers in composition vary very much from year to year. When I attended Time of Music in 2014 the course was held by Sandeep Bhagwati and was about Comprovisation. Also composers such as Beat Furrer (2012) and John Cage (1983) have been teachers & composers in residence for the festival.

In short:

-Takes place the second week of July

-In Viitasaari, Finland

-The master class is part of the avant-garde contemporary music festival

-You apply in the spring
-The teacher varies from year to year (as does the task)

-You get free tickets and have the opportunity to hear most of the Time of Music concerts

-The course fee of around 300 euros includes lessons and living, but no food. (This price may vary from year to year depending on how much funding the course receives.)

-The students live in very basic houses, but the nature is absolutely beautiful and you have the opportunity to go to sauna and/or swimming in the lake (almost) every day.
-Getting food can at times be a bit tricky (as there aren't so many restaurants in such a small town), often the students cook their own food in the evening and also eat it for lunch.

ISAM - International Summer Academy, Germany

ISAM is a two week long master class in the Landesakademie Ochsenhausen, Germany. You can participate with piano, composition or organ. The teachers in composition are Ofer Ben Amots and Jan Jirásek and you get around three private lessons with each teacher. You can also require a few more sessions if you feel you need it. In composition you have a given ensemble (usually a trio) to write for during the first 10 days, and in the end of the course all pieces are performed by professional musicians. The curious thing is that when the newly written pieces are performed, they automatically are part of the International Josef Dorfman Composition Competition. The most amazing thing about this course is probably the location: an enormous former monastery that was seculized, with original frescos from the 17-hundreds.

In short:

-Takes place the last week July and first week of July

-In the Landesmusikakademie Ochsenhausen, Baden-Wüttenberg, Germany

-You apply during the spring and are informed in June if you are accepted

-ISAM is also a master class you can do if you haven't composed much before but have studied some instrument, know how to write notes and have a background in music

-You usually write the piece during the first10 days of the master class

-You get rehearsals and a performance by professional musicians and take part in the International Josef Dorfman Composition Competition

-You get all together six lessons with composers Ofer Ben Amots and Jan Jirasek

-You get free tickets and have the opportunity to hear all ISAM concerts and matinees (in total around 8 concerts and 3 matinees)

-The course fee around 1000 euros includes everything (lessons, living, breakfast, lunch, dinner, tickets, but NOT travels to and from the location). (This price may vary from year to year depending on how much funding ISAM receives.)

-The course location is a gorgeous castle basically in the middle of beautiful fields in the small village of Ochsenhausen and it also has a lake close by.

-There is a bar just beside the castle where you usually spend a lot of time and a ice-cream parlour that you usually also visit a few times.

European Forum For Young Choral Composers, Germany

The course takes place in the same beautiful location as ISAM, Landesmusikakademie Ochsenhausen, an enormous former monastery that was seculized, with original frescos from the 17-hundreds. The teacher and conductor of the course change every time, in 2016 when I attended we had Danish composer John Høybye as our teacher and Michael Alber conducting and instructing the Orfeus Vocal Ensemble. (In earlier years I heard that the composers also conducted them selves the ensemble, I was very happy not having to do that because Alber is a great conductor and did a perfect job with my difficult piece which I could never have achieved.) The course emphasises on listening to the professional choir rehearse our pieces three hours a day and learning by watching what things are and are not hard, what things work and don’t work. For being honest, this method really beat my expectations! Even though I have sung several years in a semi-professional choir (Näsin ääni), watching a group of professional singers work very fast showed what worked easy and what is hard. Note that although the focus of the course is on new written choral music, the choir is not very used to avant garde music, so keep that in mind when you apply. But if you are interested in writing music like Whitacre, Mäntyjärvi, Pärt or Høybye, this is a perfect course for you! 

In short:

-Takes place in the middle of September all even years (next time in 2018)

-In Landesakademie Ochsenhausen, Baden-Wüttenberg, Germany

-You apply before June and are informed in June or July if you are accepted

-The course can also be attended by for instance choral composers or music teachers who compose.

-You usually bring one ready piece to the course but also can try out excerpts during the course.

-You get rehearsals and a performance by the professional Orpheus Vocal Ensemble

-You have about one private lesson with the teacher and around 5-8 hours masterclass

-You get to listen to the professional choir rehearse all the students pieces for three hours a day.

-If your are elected to the course it is for FREE and includes everything (lessons, living, breakfast, lunch, dinner and dinner). You have to book and pay your own travels to and from the course.

These are all courses I have attended, so now I will go on with other composer masterclasses and summer courses I would like to attend in the future. Obviously I don’t know so much about them as I haven’t been there, but just for some more ideas what’s out there! 

Courses I would like to attend:

Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, Germany

The legendary summer course for contemporary music at Darmstadt takes place all evan years (next time 2018). It is both for performers and composers and a meeting point for all people interested in contemporary and avant garde music. It was founded in 1946 and if you read biographies of famous living composers, most of them have attended this course at least once.

I hope on continuing this list, so maybe I will edit it in the future, but enough for now! Good luck applying!

ISAM 2014 Day 2

Saturday July 26th 2014. Only two more days left of being 25, so sad. Yep, I have already come to the age when it’s not anymore fun to grow older, all “youth reductions” (on trains and airplanes) end on Monday, so sad.

My room at ISAM 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

The view from my window at ISAM 2014.
In the garden you see on this pic they grow the sallad we ate every day!
Photo © Cecilia Damström

Had breakfast with Evan Pensis, Sam Kinsey and Geoffrey Conquer and later also Spencer Lyons and Andrey Stolyarov joined our table. At 9.15 all composer met up and we went to Ofers work room, the same room I have been composing in for the past days. There all student’s presented them selves and some work they had done. The session lasted until 12.45 and then we headed of for lunch, all very hungry by this time.

After lunch I went back to Ofer’s room (which was free) and composed until coffee time at 14.30. After coffee I practised a bit piano and composed until lunch, at 18.00 and managed to get the first movement ready of my “Dorfmann trio”. All composers are encouraged to participate in a internal ISAM composition competition. This year the instruments you can chose from (using 1-4 instruments in total) are saxophone, piano, contra bass and percussion. More over we have been given the cryptogram of musicologist and ISAM founder Joseph Dorfman for inspiration, which is a note transcription of his name: C (do), D (re), F, E (mi), A. I am writing for saxophone, contrabass and percussion (marimba and bass drum). I am going to write a three movement piece, and I actually managed more or less to finish the first movement before dinner, 2,30 minutes! Not completely happy with it yet but I can get back to it later.

After dinner I didn’t manage to get anything done.  I was planning on going to the pub, but finally decided not to go because I was too tired and instead I went to bed early (at 23 o’clock).

Bus Number 13 Rehearsals and PMO composition concert

Wednesday the 2nd of April. The day began with my piano class with Risto Kyrö at 9 AM. We are now preparing the pieces I need to play in case I get invited for the entrance exams for masters at the Sibelius Academy. I’m going to play Bach’s Prelude in e minor (from the first book of WTK), the last movement of Beethovens pathetic sonata and the prelude “La Puerta del Vino” by Debussy. I have played the Bach prelude a few years ago, so I have already quite a clear opinion about how I want to play it. But Kyrö didn’t really approve of my version at all. And I didn’t approve of his version either. I actually found it really amusing, I felt like a little stubborn child who simply was saying “no!”. Well, it’s hard to give in when the piece is dear to you and you feel you know exactly how you want to play it. So all lesson we were discussing back and forth and didn’t really come to any conclusion other than that I said “okay, I can try it your way, although I don’t approve.”

After piano class I went to the composition studio for correcting the orchestra score of Dagbok. During the conducting course last weekend we found loads of small mistakes. So I spent about 4 hours today looking through the score really carefully and drawing in correction with a pencil pen in  my printed version.

After that I headed to Tampere Hall for seing the rehersals of Bus number 13. Unfortunately I just came there at the end of their run through, so I only saw the last 3 pieces. But it looked great! After the run through the director Auvo Vihro was giving feedback and everyone was so tired. There fore these photos, where everyone looks really unmotivated and tired, after an almost 7 hour rehersal. But I have to say; what a great and motivated team! It's been so much fun working with all of them!

Our tired team. Roope Mäenpää (cb), Heidi-Annina Nikkilä (vln) , Eero Kokkonen (perc)
and Anni Härkönen (vcl). Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

Singer Alina Lehti listening to Vihro. Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

Singer Meerika Ahlqvist looking exceptionally tired after 7h rehearsal.
Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

Contrabass player and composer Roope Mäenpää paying attention to Vihros words.
 Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

Clarinetist and saxophone player Andreas Heino listening to Vihro
while Roope puts away his contrabass.
Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

An exceptionally tired singer Antti Kerosuo, in the background Anni Härkönen.
Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

Singer Meerika Ahlqvist checking if the shoe broke during rehearsals.
Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

An energetic Auvo Vihro is explaining what can be improved to a listening Antti Kerosuo.
Rehearsal at Tampere Hall 2.4.2014. ©C.Damström

After the rehearsal ended I went together with my classmate composers Jarkko Pajunen and Timo Kittilä to listen to a composition concert of the children and teenagers studying music at Pirkanmaan musiikkiopisto (Pirmanmaa music institute). It was a very nice concert, where the children had in a workshop them selves written poems (about all kind of random things) and then other children had composed music inspired by the poems. The audience was asked not to applause in-between, so it was a nice whole concert. The audience applauded very much at the end instead. This same concert will also be performed on the 13th of April as a part of the Tampere Family Day.

After the concert I headed back to the composition studio and continued correcting the score for my orchestrated version of Dagbok. But I only stayed until 00.30 o’clock, because tomorrow I have classes beginning at 9 in the morning. 

Conducting Class Day 2

Sunday the 30th of March. After a good night sleep I felt much better and easier about the conducting course staring at 10 AM.

The first hours students were conducting Mozart, so I was practising to conduct my piece in an other room. Being a pianist I have very rarely played in an orchestra, which is of course a disadvantage when conducting. But my sister Jacintha as a flutist has sat in many orchestras. She has for instance been working for two years as a flutist in the 4 hour musical “Christina från Duvemåla” at Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theatre) in Helsinki, so she sat and played about 2-4 times a week throughout the 4 hour performance for two years. Also while studying at the Sibelius Academy she has experienced playing in an orchestra conducted by various conductors, such as for instance Hannu Lintu, Atso Almila, Susanna Mälkki and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. So Jacintha was giving me very good advice on what to improve. She emphasized that technique actually doesn’t matter as much as feeling the music inside of you and expressing the feeling with your whole body language.

Me conducting my song cycle Dagbok with my sister Jacintha as soprano.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

Today I felt my conducting went much better than yesterday.  (But when I afterwards looked at the video I could hardly see any difference… But at least it felt better!) Having written in large circles in my score for easier seeing whom to show in where made it much easier for me to conduct, so I actually managed today much more to look up at my musicians (and not only have all my attention in the score like yesterday). And then I also noticed that the musicians actually looked at me as well for knowing when to come in. (That made me wonder even more how the orchestra had been able to sound so okay yesterday, considering I forgot to show in almost everybody, so they just had to rely on their own counting.)

Finally remembering to look up at my musicians!
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

Showing in my sister Jacintha in the movement Stigar in my song cycle Dagbok
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

Showing the musicians to play softer. My sister Jacintha observing my conducting.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

The orchestra had still quite much problems with playing in tune. As an inexperienced conductor I couldn’t really say why that was. There are many options, 1. The harmonies are difficult to get to sound good together (which would be the composers = my fault), 2. The musicians don’t know what to listen for, which means they have to hear the piece a few more times and play it through, and this will help getting in tune by it self throughout time, 3. The musicians are simply not listening and not paying attention to their tune, 4. The musicians haven’t practised and are simply playing out of tune. But to be able to tell which of these options it is, is actually quite hard. And of course everyone suspects always case number 1 to be the reason (while the composer often suspects case number 4…). But there is still next weeks practise before the concert, so we will see what will happen with the tune.

Conducting a big forte in the last movement of my song cycle Dagbok.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

After the musicians had left at 15 o’clock, Juha Törmä gave us all conductors a few advices:

1. Think about your practise strategy before next weekend’s sessions with the orchestra, so that you can rehearse the orchestra as efficiently as possible.

2. Remember to use your voice so that even the clarinets and bassoons in the last row can hear you.

Juha Törmä showing me how to improve my beat.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

To me Juha Törma said

Considering your freepulsative fourth movement “Stigar”: Remember always to breath everything you show you musicians. Use both hands for showing people in, as you are not conducting beats as it is freepulsative. If you use both hands, you control the musicians much better. But most practically for the musicians would be if you would have numbers in your freepulsative movement, so that you can show to the musicians where you are with you fingers. And remember that you always breath in a quartertone before showing in a musician, so that the winds (and everyone else) have time to take a breath before they play.

Juha Tömä waning me about lifting my elbow too much.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

In the last movement “Jag vill” your hand wrist is jumping too much. In the beginning it was a bit better. Don’t bounce your hand, show it instead with a intensive movement. Begin the movement slightly more active. Show also the last beat of the piece like if you were on your way to a first beat which you just don’t beat. Remember to show in your musicians and to take care of all of them. Your tempo is varying much and your first beat is always a bit too late, as it has a longer way to travel, which you don’t seem to take into consideration. So that makes the orchestra slow down a bit the whole time, as your first beat is always a bit late. Pay attention so that your tempo keeps throughout the piece (if you want it that way).

Juha Tömä finally somewhat pleased with the result.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. Photo by Simiam Ghan

And here are a few more comments Törmä said to the other students:

Student 1 conducting Mozart

It’s important that the orchestra get’s information about the next beat before you have beaten it. It’s difficult for the musician to phrase the music if you the whole time stop your beat slightly, you should instead show us the music and how it is phrased. It should the whole time be moving towards the next beat. If you jump up from the bottom of a beat it looks like you are trying to make an accelerando (trying to speed up). The preparing beat is one of the most important things you have to practise (a lot), learn to breath with you preparing beat.

Student 2 conducting Mozart

You started very well, but a bit further on you would need a bit more legato. Try with your movement to make an as beautiful legato as possible. Yesterday you conducted everything only from the stick and it was too much (too little body language), but today it’s too little conducted by the stick. In Cherubino only the first note is forte and the rest of the bar is piano, so just put much less speed in the beat after the first beat. And you could get the orchestra better to follow you if your movement would be more round.

Student 3 conducting Mozart and Damström’s Dagbok

Although you are moving your arms, the end of the stick is hardly moving. Make sure the stick is like an extension of your hand, which helps us read your hands better. You should try to provoke legato with your hands, so don’t bounce too much away from the beat. Don’t only stare at the notes. Practise until next week your beat so that your movement is more even. Practise how you prepare a beat, so that once again the winds can breath with your beat. As a conductor you constantly have to prepare.

In Damström you beat are quite unclear, so maybe a bit clearer movement from side to side so that they know what beat you are at. If your nuance can’t be smaller in you right hand then you can use your left hand for showing a smaller nuance. Don’t turn too much away from the cellos (when you show in the singer) because the cellos can’t any more see you beat, especially as you conduct with your left hand. Practise before next week to beat different nuances (from forte to piano) together with a metronome so that you keep exact rhythm. 

Tuomas Kettunen conducting my song cycle Dagbok.
Sunday 30.3.2014 at Pirkanmaa Pinna's conducting course. © C.Damström

Bad News but a Good Concert

It’s Monday the 3rd of March. I got an email from Freie Universität Berlin today saying that I DIDN’T get accepted to Doctor Samuel Adler’s course of composition this summer 2014. I was very surprised, because Doctor Adler liked me as a student and also said to me in 2012 “remember that you are welcome once again to this course, everyone can attend this course twice”! But I heard from my friends at Julliard School of Music that he is planning on retiring now (at the age of 86!), so maybe this is his last summer course and he wants to give the chance to as many new student’s as possible…? I don’t know, but I was quite disappointed for a few hours. Then I started googling up more courses which I can attend instead (with the given grant money), and there are loads and LOADS of courses, so now I just have to find out which ones are good and price worthy! If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

In the evening I went with my friend and composer Dante Thelestam to a concert “Tilaa kuulla – Tilaa ajatella” where Helsinki Chamber Choir performed a new piece by Zesses Seglias and “For Stefan Wolpe” by Morton Feldman. Seglias experimented with sound bodies, which I personally found quite boring. Morton Feldman’s 40min long piece only consisting of humming and a dialogue with two vibraphones was as meditative as ever. For getting more into the meditative mood I began closing my eyes (for not seeing the conductors waving hands, which disturbed the meditative impression for me). But having only slept five hours and sitting in a dark venue, closing my eyes wasn’t a good idea at all, and after a while I really had big difficulties not falling a sleep. But I still like Feldman!

After the official concert the audience was asked to stay for a contemporary choir workshop. We sang Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning Paragraph 7, which was really fascinating and exciting! I really liked it!