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eeemerging Emerging European Ensembles

The process set in place by the ‘eeemerging’ project aims to increase equality in the options open to young ensembles, give them excellent working conditions along with support and organisation for their projects, and help them to confront the realities of the early music market in Europe. eeemerging will therefore encourage the international circulation and promotion of these European artists, and also raise awareness of one of the most beautiful chapters of our European musical heritage.
The project is run by eight co-organisers, supported by 37 international partners and six European professional networks. The ABE (EU Cultural Ambassador from 2011 to 2013) has served as the framework for the group’s work.

A large-scale European cooperation project promoting the emergence of new talent in early music

The project allows to:

  • find, select and train the best emerging ensembles, 
  • prepare them to enter the European marketplace through the creation of a network of places for training, residencies and diffusion,
  • allow the ensembles to perform for varied audiences in order to get them accustomed to the concert environment, outreach work and the development of programme proposals in accordance with the expectations of promoters,
  • promote the ensembles, giving them access to high-quality marketing tools;
  • raise awareness of all participants through a website and a shared digital audiovisual platform, and increase the audience for early music.

 This experimental project will be evaluated throughout. It is not only groundbreaking in its field but also replicable in the wider genre of live performance. 

The Partners

1 – The eeemerging co-organisers

Specific contributions of each co-organiser :

Ambronay Cultural Encounter Centre – leader

www.ambronay.org
Ambronay concentrates on the promotion of ensembles by:

  • programming nine concerts within its Festival;
  • organising for each ensemble a training programme on promotional methods and networks;
  • helping the ensemble to organise tours at the end of their eeemerging programme.

Early Music Centre of the National University of Music, Bucharest

www.unmb.ro
Will focus on the training of tutors, encouraging meetings between young Romanian musicians, ensembles and specialist contributors. The ensembles will also find themselves teaching students in the Early Music Department (masterclasses, concerts with students etc.)

Göttingen International Handel Festival

www.haendel-festspiele.de
The Festival’s participation is based on outreach work. During residencies and specialist training sessions, emphasis is placed on learning about educational outreach with the public (putting together adapted programmes, accessibility of  spoken presentations, testing programmes in front of a class, and developing outreach tools).

Ars Ramovš, Ljubljana

www.seviqc-brezice.si
Ars Ramovš will offer the ensembles interdisciplinary studies: the relationship between stage and music through theatre (Stanislavski method) and dance.

Ghislieri Musica, Pavia

www.ghislierimusica.org
Ghislieri Musica will involve the eeemerging ensembles with its important research work in the field of Italian sacred music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Original unpublished manuscripts will be presented to them for analysis and performance.

Riga Early Music Centre

www.earlymusic.lv
Teaching, diffusion and promotion of early music are in their early stages in Latvia. The Centre, the first and only in this field in Latvia, will offer training in audience development techniques as part of its residency programme. It will seek to increase concert venues for each ensemble, and also teach the ensembles how to adapt to different audiences.

Ozango, Strasbourg

www.ozango.eu
A company specialising in the production of live events, Ozango will be responsible for the audiovisual strategy of the project. It will support emerging ensembles in devising and producing audiovisual products (e.g. EPKs and recording of concerts) which will serve as tools for digital promotion.

National Centre for Early Music, York

www.ncem.co.uk
The prestigious International Young Artists Competition (founded in 1985) is organised by the Centre every two years, and will be one of the main ways of discovering new ensembles. The co-organisers will attend the final and offer a selected ensemble the opportunity to proceed directly to the first year of the eeemerging programme.

2 – Other partners and supporters

37 other partners are linked to the eeemerging project (see map opposite). The diversity of their activities (training or diffusion) enables them to take part in either one or several steps of the project, notably by hosting occasional residencies for study or performance. They complete the guaranteed offerings of the co-organisers. Three partner academic organisations (University of Arts in Belgrade, University of Valencia and the research unit La terre est ronde from Lyon) will lead the evaluation of the project.

Amuz, Festival des Flandres, Anvers, Belgium
Fondation Royaumont, Asnières-sur-Oise, France
Schola Cantorum Basel, Switzerland
Esmuc Barcelona, Spain
Belgrade University of Arts Serbia
School of Arts Ghassam Yamine, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik, Blankenburg, Germany
Brighton Early Music Festival, UK
Concertgebouw, Bruges Festival, Belgium
Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
Festivals de Wallonie, Brussels, Belgium
Renaissance Music Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
Festival Monteverdi, Cremona, Italy
Semena de musica religiosa, Cuenca, Spain
Fondation Kastelyi Karolyi, Fehérvárcsurgó, Hungary
Haute École de Musique, Geneva, Switzerland
Dominicains de Haute-Alsace, Guebwiller, France
Stiftung Händel Haus, Halle, Germany
Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Harpenden, UK
University of Huddersfield, UK
Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, Netherlands
Valetta Festival, Malta
Festival des Arts Jaillissants, Montsapey, France
Festival Nuits d’été à Pausilippe, Naples, Italy
Paris and Lyon conservatoires, France
Casa de Musica, Porto, Portugal
Academia Muzyczna, Poznan, Poland
Domaine de Fonds St Jacques, Sainte-Marie, Martinique, France
Reims Scènes d’Europe, France
L’Entracte, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France
Abbaye aux dames, Saintes, France
Jeunesses musicales, Split, Croatia
Epicantica, Trieste, Italy
Trossingen Conservatoire, Germany
Utrecht Conservatoire, Netherlands
University of Valencia, Spain

The Eeemerging Project

The emerging ensembles are initially found and selected, and will then benefit from a support programme which lasts a maximum of three years.

1 – Finding the ensembles

A – Selection methods

Eligible ensembles must be less than three years old, formed of between two and twenty musicians, all adults and with an average age of 32 or less. They are selected:

  • through a call for candidates and auditions organised by the co-organisers;
  • through the competitions at York and Göttingen.

At these competitions, an eeemerging Special Prize will be presented to an ensemble selected by a jury formed of a delegation of the co-organisers. This award will allow the ensemble to proceed directly to the first year of the eeemerging programme. 

B – Annual planning

April : a call for candidates will be published on the eeemerging web page of each partner organisation and on social media.
July: applications will be examined by the co-organisers, and 20 ensembles will be selected for audition.
September: auditions will be held in 4-5 European cities in front of a jury formed of the co-organisers.

2 – Summary of the support programme for the ensembles

The eeemerging programme lasts for three years. In each of the three years a new promotion will be launched. Progression to the next year is selective. The programme is organised around four main activities (residencies, specialist training, diffusion, promotion).

YEAR 0: Selection of ensembles
YEAR 1: the six selected ensembles will benefit from:

  • two periods of residency
  • tailored specialist training
  • assistance in setting up a website
  • two paid concerts
  • visibility on the audiovisual platform

At the end of the year, the co-organisers will select the four best ensembles.
YEAR 2: the four selected ensembles will benefit from:

  • two residencies
  • new specialist training
  • production of an EPK
  • two paid concerts.

At the end of the year, the co-organisers will select the two best ensembles.
YEAR 3: the two selected ensembles will benefit from increased support and promotion in order to maximise their chances of succeeding in the extremely competitive international marketplace:

  • three residencies
  • training in sound and video recording
  • recording of the ensemble’s first CD on the Ambronay label’s ‘Young Ensembles’ series.
  • three paid concerts.

NB: Transition period 2014-2015: eeemerging is the successor of the project initiated by Ambronay as part of its European Baroque Academy. Certain ensembles, selected by Ambronay as part of this project, will be directly integrated into YEAR 2 or 3.

3 – Description of the main activities

A. Residencies

Newly formed ensembles struggle to find places to rehearse which are accessible to them free of charge. A residency offers them a place to work for 7-10 days, hosted by one of the co-organisers or one of the other partners. The residency comprises specialist training sessions tailored to the needs of each ensemble, and allows them to gain experience in public performance and in delivering outreach work to varied audiences. It gives them the time and space to work on a particular project and to develop their own sound, repertoire and group dynamic.
Ensembles are provided with travel, accommodation and meals, and keyboard instruments (harpsichords, organs, pianos) are made available to them.
In total, over 80 residencies will be organised in seven European countries. At the end of its three-year programme, an ensemble will have completed residencies in at least four different countries. Additional residencies may be organised with the other partners.

B. Specialist training

Training will be offered throughout the residencies.

a – Organisation and professionalism
Administration
: managing contracts, payslips, creating a company, putting together a budget, finding public and private funding.
Diffusion: putting together and maintain a database of relevant concert programmers, venues and concert halls, communicating with programmers, creating a proposal document.
Press and communication: defining a visual identity, communicating with audiences, music professionals and journalists, using online communication and social media.
Outreach:

  • Creating specific projects for different audiences (schools, young people and families, older people, the unemployed or socially isolated);
  • Communicating with these audiences in a concert setting (speech, use of theatrical techniques, management of time and space);
  • Creating and organising workshops.

Organisation: organising an artistic event, including all the stages of the process.

b – The ensemble’s artistic projects
Artistic coaching
: input from musicologists, vocal coaching, pronunciation, the theatrical dimension, interdisciplinary apprenticeship.
Putting together a concert programme: Developing a coherent, balanced and attractive concert programme, making use of visual and theatrical elements where appropriate.
Training in sound and image recording: learning the basic vocabulary required to communicate with engineers and technicians.
Specific national, legal and administrative elements, as well as an overview of performance venues and the characteristics of audiences, will also be addressed.
During each of the residencies, each ensemble will benefit from at least two training sessions, which will be tailored to the needs and expectations of the ensemble. In total, 170 training sessions will be provided.
Training linked to organisation and professionalisation will be led by seasoned professionals from the management teams of the co-organisers.
Artistic coaching will also be led by specialists in the repertoire or discipline.

C. Diffusion

a – Concerts
An essential element in the development of an ensemble, the concert setting allows a group to test out programmes, meet with audiences and to get themselves known.
The wide experience of the co-organisers and their partners, and their membership of international networks, will give ensembles a visibility in regard to European programmers and thus a wider and improved reach. In the first instance, ensembles will be programmed into the concert seasons and festivals of the co-organisers.

b – Tour : New EuropeanAcademy
Every two years, within the framework of a new project entitled ‘New European Academy’, Ambronay will secure the production and tour of a programme bringing together one or several young ensembles from the eeemerging project, along with young musicians and/or singers recruited individually from throughout Europe. They will be placed under the direction of a renowned conductor such as Enrico Onofri (in 2015) and René Jacobs (2017).
One or several selected emerging ensembles will form the core of this new Academy. They will find themselves in the dual educational roles of trainees (under the direction of the conductor) and tutors (with regard to the young colleagues recruited individually).

c – Remuneration
The ensembles will be paid following the signing of individual or group contracts. The level of remuneration is set by the co-organisers in accordance with current national legislation.
Almost 150 paid concerts will be organised. At the end of the three-year process, an ensemble may have performed in more than four European countries.

D. Promotion

a – Promotional tools
Many tools will be utilised to help promote the emerging ensembles.

  • eeemerging.org: a website dedicated to the project will pull together news regarding the project (activities by the organisers as well as the ensembles), as well as more general information and a discussion forum.
  • A digital audiovisual platform: from January 2016, this will allow the dissemination of promotional materials and recordings (EPKs, concerts, interviews etc.)
  • RadioRema.eu: a web-based radio station dedicated to early music. Created by REMA, the station will devote a large part of its programming to ensembles from the eeemerging project.
  • Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+
  • Co-organisers’ websites: these will make use of the aforementioned promotional tools.

 The EBU will promote the recording of the ensembles’ European concerts.

b – Promotional benefits for the ensembles
During YEAR 1 of the programme:

  • Press (local, regional and specialist) linked to residencies and concerts;
  • Help in setting up their own website;
  • Photo session with a professional photographer.

YEAR 2:

  • Press (national and European);
  • Production of an EPK;
  • New photo session.

YEAR 3:

  • Press (national , European and international);
  • Recording of the ensemble’s first CD on Ambronay Editions (distribution by Harmonia Mundi).

Audience Development

eeemerging aims to engage with new audience types who do not follow this stereotype.
Emerging ensembles have considerable assets: youth, energy, open minds and a creativity which engages audiences of all ages through positive identification, a vital element especially for the youngest among them. eeemerging will draw on all these elements, channel their energy and be open to innovative proposals from the ensembles.
eeemerging will go into non-traditional spaces (nurseries, schools, retirement homes,  cafes, hospitals and prisons) to perform specially tailored concerts.
To organise these often experimental projects, meetings will be organised in 2016 for outreach and press relations departments from each of the co-organisers. These meetings will enable discussion and sharing of experiences, a better knowledge of different audiences on a European scale, and the enhancement of skills and knowledge.
Finally, the co-organisers plan to produce an animated film presenting baroque music to students and teachers. This will be developed in conjunction with teachers, outreach professionals and musicians from the emerging ensembles. 

eeemerging Emerging European Ensembles


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