Besides daily concerts and various other presentations (please check this festival offers day per day) impuls also holds a daily program with

LECTURES, WORKSHOPS + DISCUSSIONS

Access for external listeners for most of these offers possible, but advance reservation necessary (unless marked as free admission)!

Please contact office(at)impuls(dot)cc.

In English unless indicated differently.

Updates to follow on a permanent basis ...

Have a look at first preview below:

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Dmitri Kourliandski

Open only for impuls participants!

Reading-Sessions with zone expérimentale basel

Coached by Mike Svoboda

Open only for participants of impuls!

Piano Preparation Workshop for composers and instrumentalists
Workshop with Andreas Orasch

Andreas Orasch is not only a piano maker and piano tuner at KUG, but also for pianists such as Markus Schirmer. At impuls he will first give an introduction to preparation methods and possibilities on the piano and then answer all your questions. Please bring along your own works that ask for preparation or also works by other composers with similar needs. 
Conditions:

No matter whether you are composer or musician: in case of interest to join this workshop please let us know by sending a short e-mail to office(at)impuls(dot)cc (subject: Piano Preparation).

Everyone intending to use pianos during impuls (be it pianists or for example also composers) are asked to sign up and join the workshop in any case.

Open only for participants of impuls!

Frank Gratkowski and Reinhold Friedl

Lecture by and discussion

With their introductory lecture Reinhold Friedl and Frank Gratkowski give a brief overview on the discussions on improvisation and the range of their manifestations with a special focus on improvisational practices since the 1960s.
The following fundamental questions will be raised: How broad is the concept of improvisation? Are improvisation and notation compatible? Is its apparent contradiction simply due to the allographic nature of music? Where is the difference to be found in between composition and improvisation? Is there anything like “free” improvisation or is this simply an utopian idea? What does instant composition mean? How can we practise improvisation, how can we learn to improvise?

Isabel Mundry Lecture

Composition as articulation of listening

Surviving as a composer?

Doris Weberberger (mica - music austria) in conversation with composer, ensemble and festival director Matthias Kranebitter

Working as a composer not only takes place behind closed doors, but also requires a high degree of self-organization and networking in order to bring one's own pieces to performance. How do composers approach organisers and how important are (informal) networks? Doris Weberberger (mica - music austria) talks to Matthias Kranebitter, who is not only a composer himself, but also the founder and director of the Ensemble Black Page Orchestra and the Unsafe + Sounds festival. He also held the IGNM presidency (Austrian sectioin of the ISCM) in 2018. With his diverse functions and experience, he provides practical and helpful information.

free admission

Clara Iannotta, Mirela Ivičević, Simon Løffler, Julien Malaussena, Joan Gómez Alemany, Yoav Levy

Discussion on New Compositions on Peter Tscherkassky´s CinemaScope Trilogy (see also 12.2.)

free admission

Beat Furrer Lecture

Violetter Schnee

In his lecture Beat Furrer will give an insight into his most recent opera „Violetter Schnee“ premiered at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin in January 2019 and hereby also talk about his personal approach to music theatre nowadays.

Bernhard Gander Lecture

Transgressive techniques using the example "Take Death" and other compositions

Reading-Sessions with IEMA Ensemble

Coached by Johannes Schwarz

Open only for participants of impuls!

Dmitri Kourliandski Lecture

Before the sound

Johannes Schwarz Digital soundlibrary for instruments

Lecture and discussion
For composers and musicians

Bassoonist Johannes Schwarz is a member of ensemble modern tutoring at the impuls Academy for the first time. Schwarz will explain the subject exemplarily on the basis of the instrument bassoon, for which he has created a comprehensive sound archive in recent years to be expanded by many more instruments in the future. More than 25.000 sounds have already been recorded with bassoon, which can be found on the platform www.soundlibrary.online since 2018 including related information for viewing and retrieving via live streaming. The platform thus represents an invaluable compilation of all possible sounds that can be produced by a specific instrument.

The approximately 40-minute lecture is based on the following points and questions and will lead to an open discussion about:

- the several steps that lead from an audio collection to a digital soundlibrary
- the first attempts to create a digital sound archive
- easy ways to create a sound archive for yourself
- how does the current digital soundlibrary for bassoon work? who can use it?
- general discussion on the functions of an archive in the artistic field, discussion of content, utility for a specific clientele, meaning and nonsense, etc.

Pierluigi Billone Lecture

Notes: Some reflections about sound

Reading-Sessions with IEMA Ensemble

coached by Johannes Schwarz

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Clara Iannotta

Open only for participants of impuls!

Johannes Schwarz Bassoon playing techniques in contemporary music

Presentation workshop especially for bassoonists, woodwinds and composers

Johannes Schwarz, member of ensemble modern and tutoring at the impuls Academy for the first time, presents certain possibilities, techniques and problems that are repeatedly encountered in the field of new music with the instrument bassoon. These include i.a. quarter tones, glissandi, multiphonics, but also microphoning and playing techniques in relation with amplification as well as possibilities of notations, including both positive and negative examples. Special playing techniques are also presented along specific compositions by Berio, Poppe, Billone, Wesselmann, Holliger and many more.

Open only for impuls participants!

Reading-sessions with Klangforum Wien

Ilan Volkov conductor

Klangforum Wien and Ilan Volkov offer a full day with reading-sessions for young composer participants of the impuls Academy, where, amongst others, questions on formal and esthetic aspects, notation and instrumentation are discussed.

Open only for participants of impuls!

Robin Minard Lecture

Composing silence

Meet the Composers

Nuno Costa | Timothy McCormack | Jung-Eun Park | Chris Swithinbank | Hakan Ulus

Ilan Volkov moderation

Presentations and discussions with the composers of the impuls commissions after their premieres on 15.2.

free admission

Radiokulturcafé am Sonntag - Radio Helsinki

Talk with Simon Løffler

Alberto Posadas Lecture

The musical instrument and external models in compositional practice

Contemporary Art Scene in Iran

Presentation by Martyna Kosecka and Idin Samimi Mofakham

Iranian contemporary music, opposite to the traditional and folklore art, is still quite undiscovered in the world. It is not due to the lack of Iranian composers writing new music, but rather because of the lack of promotion and being out in the circle of the world events, which means especially European musical scenes. Alfred Jean-Baptiste Lemaire, a French military musician and composer, who came to Iran in 1868, introduced western classical music theory to Iranians. However, the military music school was already opened in at 1851, and since then western classical music in Iran had started to rapidly develop. This lead to creation of the first generation of composers and the evolution and fusion of compositional techniques with western musical legacy through a century until today.

The lecture will present contemporary music scene in Iran before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and introduce the most important movements in Iranian modern and experimental art, like Tehran Contemporary Music Festival among many. Music by Alireza Mashayekhi, Fuzieh Majd, Arshia Samsaminia, Martyna Kosecka, Idin Samimi Mofakham and many others will be presented during the lecture.

Agata Zubel Lecture

On voice - new compositions

New instruments – Can composers still ask for new instruments?

Round Table with Volkmar Klien (sound artist, composer, professor for computer music and electroacoustic composition / Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz) | Ernst Kovacic (conductor, violinist, teacher, chairman of the executive board / Ernst Krenek Institut Privatstiftung) | Michael Maierhof (composer, performer) | Isabel Mundry (composer, professor for composition / Züricher Hochschule der Künste & Hochschule für Musik und Theater München)

Astrid Schwarz moderation

> further info

free admission | in English language

impuls in cooperation with Ernst Krenek Institut

Modular synthesizer of Donald Buchla

Presentation & workshop by Volkmar Klien

> further info

free admission | in English

impuls in cooperation with Ernst Krenek Institut

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Isabel Mundry

Open only for impuls participants!

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Mark Andre

Open only for impuls participants!

Special Workshop with Nimikry (Contemporary Pop Duo with Alessandro Baticci and composer and violist Rafal Zalech)

The Austrian-based duo Nimikry has been researching in the field of augmented instruments for several years now. The emphasis hereby lies on optimal transformation of instrumental materiality into digital values.
In the workshop the prototypes will be demonstrated in detail and the technological and artistic approach of the duo presented. Nimikry also developed controllers and equipment for controlling electronic processes in live-situations. Furthermore, an insight into the current projects of the duo will be given.

Open only for impuls participants!

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Dmitri Kourliandski

Open only for impuls participants!

Alessandro Baticci Workshop

Flute and Amplification Techniques (specifically for flutists)

Open only for participants of impuls!

Mark Andre Lecture

the compositional shadows, interstices of disappearing: "üg" for ensemble & electronics and "hij2" for 24 singers & electronics

Michael Maierhof Lecture

Oscillating system

As we know from physics, systems donnot necessarily need to be static ones. So if you for example connect two different oscillations, you will get an "oscillating system" /"schwingendes System".

In my lecture I will a.o. give examples of interactions and interferences in my musical and multimedia works.

On Percussion . Masterclass for Composers

Workshop with Christian Dierstein

Besides his class for percussionists Christian Dierstein will give an additional Masterclass, that will put a special emphasis on new techniques for percussionists as well as specialities of music-theatrical forms. Specially for composer participants of impuls 2019 Mr. Dierstein will thematize particular new techniques on percussion-instruments as well as striking techniques and tools. Besides he will also be talking about the new book „The Techniques of Percussion Playing. Mallets, Implements and Applications“ (Bärenreiter Verlag).
 
Conditions:

Please announce your interest on registration or by sending an e-mail to office(at)impuls(dot)cc (subject: Percussion Masterclass). First come first serve.

Open only for impuls participants!

Jour fix

Meeting for composers + instrumentalists

accompanied by Alberto Posadas

Open only for participants of impuls!

Jorge Sánchez-Chiong Lecture

Between/beyond electric, acoustic, & transmedial music

MUMUTH Lounge - Conducting & Contemporary

Pre-program to the concert 

Ulla Pilz talks with Peter Rundel and Ernst Kovacic about the special challenges of conducting Contempoary Music