Peter Eötvös, guest composer for Acanthes’ 25th anniversary, will preside over a special arrangement: three workshops with two musical ensembles, meeting the needs of the composers, the conductors and the composers whose pieces will be selected for performance.

The musical workshops will be based around the piano, flute and cello.

Acanthes 2001 will also be celebrating the Hungarian musical tradition. This is the “Year of Hungary in France”, so the Acanthes lectures and workshops will form part of official events. They will highlight the rich tradition represented by Peter Eötvös alongside Béla Bartók, György Ligeti and György Kurtág, continued today in the works of a new generation, which will be present in its diverse forms at the Chartreuse of Villeneuve-lez-Avignon

Peter Eötvös

- Introduction to Sequences of the Wind and Chinese Opera
- Orchestral spatialisation
- Korrespondenz with Quatuor Arditti

Gabriele Faust

- Introduction to works of Peter Eötvös

Zoltán Farkas

- Bartók and his influence on the Hungarian composers.

The four generations of Hungarian Composers after the Second World War. Groups and individuals.

- Tres sunt principes…– Ligeti, Kurtág and Szöllösy. The “great generation” from Transylvania.

- Peter Eötvös and the New Music Studio.

Peter Eötvös
assisted by Gergely Vajda
with the musicians of the Ensemble UMZE - Budapest

This is for composers who will be conducting their own score.

1) Composers selected for this workshop will be required to compose a piece between five and eight minutes long for the following formation: 1 flute, 1 oboe (English horn), 2 clarinets (1 bass), 1 bassoon, 1 horn, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, 1 tuba, 1 percussion (1 vibraphone, 1 marimba, 1 glockenspiel, 4 toms, 2 bongos, 2 tumbas, 1 tam-tam, 2 gongs, 3 suspended cymbals and small percussion), 1 double bass.

Composers may use all or part of this formation (minimum five instruments).

The score (conductor’s part and separate parts, clearly legible) must reach Acanthes by 20 June.

2) Candidates for this workshop must send one or two of their own completed scores and, if possible, a recording, by 15 April. Ten composers will be selected and informed as from 30 April.

3) At an audition on 10 July at Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, these composers will conduct Octandre by Varèse. Six will be selected for the Composer/Conductor Workshop. The pieces of the other four composers will be worked through in the Composition Workshop (see below).

The six selected works will be publicly performed on 24 July. These works shall be recorded.

Peter Eötvös
assisted by László Tihanyi
with the musicians of the Ensemble UMZE - Budapest
This workshop is designed for conductors.

1) Conductors must send in their application accompanied by a detailed CV (résumé) indicating their conducting experience by 15 April. Those selected will be informed as from 30 April.

2) At an audition on 10 July at Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, conductors will conduct Octandre by Varèse. No more than six will be selected to work through Sequences of the Wind by Peter Eötvös with the Ensemble UMZE - Budapest, and a few of them will be picked by Peter Eötvös to take part in the final concert on 24 July.

Zoltán Jeney
with the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence,
conducted by Sylvio Gualda

This workshop is aimed at composers who wish to present a new instrumental work and follow through the rehearsals leading to its performance, gaining from the experience and guidance of the Acanthes teaching team.
Each piece will be worked through by the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence, conducted by Sylvio Gualda, under the artistic direction of Zoltán Jeney.

After a theoretical analysis, the orchestra will work on the piece, allowing participants to revise certain details as they hear it being played.

Instrumental group available to the Compostion Workshop: 3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (1 bass), 1 bassoon, 1 horn, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 tuba, 2 percussion (1 vibraphone, 1 marimba, 1 glockenspiel, 4 toms, 2 bongos, 2 tumbas, 1 tam-tam, 2 gongs, 3 suspended cymbals and small percussion), 1 double bass.

Participants may use all or part of this group (at least five instruments, excluding stringed quintets).

The piece must last between five and eight minutes.

Candidates will be selected as follows:

1) By 15 April composers must return their registration fsorm with one or two of their completed works, not necessarily written for the above instruments, possibly including a recording. They will be notified of their acceptance as from 30 April.

2) Before 20 June, accepted composers must send in the work written for the aforementioned instruments, presented as easily legible, separate scores for conductor and parts.

3) Selected pieces will be performed at the participants’ concert on 20 July. All accepted pieces will have been thoroughly worked through during rehearsals and a recording will be made for the participants.
The Centre Acanthes organisers, after consultation with the Composition Workshop teachers, may refuse to produce any piece which shall prove technically impossible to perform.

Groups A, B and C – Participants not selected for workshops A, B and C may sit in as auditor students at all Centre activities.

Camilla Hoitenga, flute
Walter Grimmer, cello
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Florent Boffard, piano

Musician participants shall propose, on their application form, a programme mainly made up of works by Hungarian composers (Bartók, Ligeti, Kurtág, etc.) but also including works from the entire repertoire of contemporary music. They are expected to have worked through their programme before courses begin.

Works of Hungarian composers participating in Centre Acanthes 2001 :

Peter Eötvös

- Psy, for flute, cello and piano Ricordi-Munich
- Two Poems to Polly, for a speaking cellist Ricordi-Munich
- Kosmos, for one or two pianos Salabert

Zoltán Jeney
Publisher: Editio Musica Budapest

- Soliloquium N°1a (Cancrizans), for flute
- Fungi-Epitaphium John Cage, for alto flute
- Lungo i muri dei cimiteri del mondo, for bass flute
- Consolazione (something lost: echo), for cello and piano
- Soliloquium N°3, for piano
- The locust tree in flowers, for piano

László Tihanyi
Publisher: Editio Musica Budapest

- Jan Jansson’s Journey from Denmark to Denmark, for flute
- The Passing of the Neptune, for piano

Scores will be available before 10 July at Kiosque à Musique, e-mail, 7 rue de la Monnaie, 84000 Avignon - tel. +33 4 90 85 37 52, fax +33 4 90 85 71 45 and on site during the Centre.

Some pieces from the Centre Acanthes programme can be looked up or listened to at the Centre de Documentation de Musique Contemporaine (CDMC), Cité de la Musique, 16 place de la Fontaine aux Lions – 75019 Paris – tél. +33 1 47 15 49 81