Brussels – February 2019

Maija Hynninen – composer and sound artist – is working in the areas of concert music, electronic instrument design and multidisciplinary performances. The essence of her music builds on the unique moments where the parameters of this world are slightly altered to allow a glimpse of another reality to be present. It can be a moment where the timbre of purely acoustical writing gives surprising results or when electronics project sounds into another domain, another space and reality.

She entered the Sibelius Academy in 2003 (M.Mus. 2011) to study with Paavo Heininen while she was also working for a violin diploma at the Norwegian Academy of Music. The studies in electronics continued at IRCAM, cursus 2012-13. She is currently a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, with Franck Bedrossian, Ken Ueno, Edmund Campion and Cindy Cox as her professors.

She is also doing a PhD in electro-acoustic music at Sibelius Academy. She was amongst the finalists in Feeding Music – International Composition Contest, organised by Divertimento Ensemble and EXPO Milano 2015. Her music has been presented and commissioned by YLE, Helsinki Chamber Choir, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the International Maj Lind Piano Competition, Camilla Hoitenga and Eija Kankaanranta among others.

Gyula Pintér was born in Hungary in 1954. He studied piano with Lídia Csebiss, and composition with Zoltán Pongrácz and János Kautsky (The Netherlands). Since 1978, he has been conducting electroacoustic musical experiments in his studio, which he designed himself.

He has been participating in musical and fine arts events and festivals since 1980. Mr. Pintér has contributed to numerous art events, performances and theatrical productions both in Hungary and abroad. In recent years, he won prizes at several competitions, including: Bourges International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in 1989 and 2001; Hungarian Radio’s EAR International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in 1992, 1995 and 1999; and Ferenc Erkel Prize in 2012.

Jan Flessel, born 1982 in Halle an der Saale, is a composer and sound designer based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

His works range from orchestral and chamber music, with and without electronics, to electronic music as well as music and sound design for computer games. He studied composition with Peter Manfred Wolf, Georg Friedrich Haas and Simon Steen-Andersen in Rostock, Basel and Aarhus. He also studied game design in Copenhagen.

His pieces have been performed in international events like International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Stockholm Chamber Brass Academy, Orchester-Academy of Halberstadt, Brücken-Festival for New Music in Rostock, Young Nordic Music Festival in Reykjavik, Panorama Festival in Aarhus, Nonclassical @Limewharf in London and Music-Academy in Basel among others.

Sampo Haapamäki has composed chamber music, vocal music, electronic music, ensemble works, concertos and orchestral music. He has been commissioned compositions by the Time of Music Festival, IRCAM, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Broadcasting Company/FRSO, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Chamber Choir, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Heikki Nikula, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Klangspuren Festival, Hanna Kinnunen, Susanne Kujala and Kaustinen Chamber Music Week. Haapamäki has received the Gaudeamus International Composers Award 2004 in Amsterdam, and the ISCM Young Composer Awards 2005 in Zagreb. In 2006, he was granted the Teosto Prize by Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto. Haapamäki had composition recitals in the Musica Nova Helsinki Festival in 2006 and at Scandinavia House in New York City organized by Finlandia Foundation New York Metropolitan Chapter in 2015. He was the Tapiola Sinfonietta’s Composer-in-Residence for the season 2011-12.

Haapamäki’s compositions have been premiered by the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Christian Karlsen, Serge Lemouton, Luca Bagnoli, Elisa Järvi (quarter-tone piano), Avanti! Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tomas Djupsjöbacka, Ensemble Musikfabrik conducted by Christian Eggen, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, Juuso Nieminen (quarter-tone guitar), Veli Kujala (quarter-tone accordion), Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by Hannu Lintu, Helsinki Chamber Choir conducted by Nils Schweckendiek, Insomnio conducted by Ulrich Pöhl, Quatuor Diotima, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra conducted by Susanna Mälkki, Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne conducted by Lorraine Vaillancourt, NYYD Ensemble conducted by Olari Elts, Ensemble Nordlys, The California Wind Orchestra conducted by Les Lehr and UMO Jazz Orchestra conducted by Kirmo Lintinen among many others.

Haapamäki has been involved in the development of new quarter-tone instruments. These instruments are the quarter-tone accordion of Veli Kujala (invented by Kujala and made by Pigini), the quarter-tone guitar of Juuso Nieminen (made by Keijo Korelin), and the quarter-tone piano of Elisa Järvi and Sampo Haapamäki (made by Otso Haapamäki in Toholampi, invented by E.Järvi & S.Haapamäki, technical consulting: Libero Mureddu). These quarter-tone instruments aim to have as wide a quarter-tone register as possible (24 notes per octave) and to be ergonomic.

Talia Amar, born in 1989, is an Israeli composer and pianist. She is the recipient of many international awards including the Israeli Prime Minister prestigious award 2018, the Rosenblum Prize for Promising Young Artist 2016 by the Tel Aviv Municipality, the Klon Award for young composers granted by the Israeli Composers League, CIRCE Composition Competition, London Ear Festival, North/South Consonance Composition Competition and International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition. Also, she has consecutively been awarded with scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, both in piano and composition (with honours). Her string quartet “Obsession” was featured in Castleton Festival after being hand selected by Maestro Lorin Maazel. She was selected to be the Composer Fellow of Collage New Music for 2015-2016.

Her compositions have been performed in up to eleven different countries, by ensembles such as ICE, Standing Waves, Yarn/Wire, Collage New Music, Lydian String Quartet, North/South Consonance Ensemble and Meitar Ensemble among many others. Her pieces were performed in different festivals such as ISCM World New Music, Vox Feminae Festival, Asian Composers League Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, Castleton Festival, London Ear Festival and Visible Sounds Congress. She participated in ManiFeste festival as part of the IRCAM.

Talia began studying piano at the age of 6 and composition at the age of 14. She completed her piano programme at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv University, and composition studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, both with honours. She obtained her Master’s degree in piano and composition at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She is currently a PhD candidate at Brandeis University and, since 2017, she joined the composition faculty at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel and is a council member of the Israel Composers’ League.

Graduated in classical guitar at IMEP in Namur, Gaëlle Hyernaux began her composition studies at Conservatoire Royal de Liège in 2005, with Michel Fourgon and Gilles Gobert for mixed music.

Since then, she collaborates regularly with the Centre Henri Pousseur. She also works with composer Sarah Wéry, and since 2011, their common works are signed under the pseudonym of George Elpenor. Some of her projects lead her to work with ensembles like Ensemble Nahandove, TANA Quartet and the Orchestre Studios Cergy-Pontoise, Les Agrémens, CAV&MA, Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, Patrick Baton, Alain Pire, Izumi Okubo, Jean-pierre Peuvio and Vincent Royer among others.

Gaëlle received the André Souris Award in 2008 and the Pousseur Prize in 2011. Currently, she works as a guitar teacher at the Conservatoire de Verviers and the Academy of Grez-Doiceau, and as the assistant of the Maria-Nieves Mohino’s guitar class at IMEP.

After learning how to play several instruments, Gilles Doneux turned to composition and he started his studies at the Conservatoire Royal de Mons in 2005. In 2010, he obtained a master’s degree in composition in the class of Claude Ledoux, and in 2011 a master’s degree in classical writing in the class of Jean-Pierre Deleuze, where he also studied multimedia composition with Denis Pousseur and Jean-Luc Fafchamps.

From 2011 to 2016, Gilles did research work in the musicology department of Paris 8 University (France) and at Université de Montréal (Canada). Since 2016, he works at the Centre Henri Pousseur.

François is co-founder and permanent member of the Ictus ensemble, which has performed and recorded music of our time worldwide since 1994.

Invited conductor at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, he is regularly assistant conductor at the Vlaamse Opera since 2009, where he conducts several productions. He made his debut in Paris in 2013 at the Opéra Comique with vocalist Marianne Pousseur in Schönberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”.

François leads together with conductor Lukas Vis the Ensemble Biennale at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and is a coach of the International Ensemble Modern Academy. He teaches at several major schools, including Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Conservatoire Royal de Liège and Pôle Sup Université de Lille and Strasbourg. He has taken an important role as a conductor in Daniel Barenboim’s project of creating a youth orchestra in the Palestinian territories.