En 2022, IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, two musical bodies with a strong commitment to promoting contemporary creations and a new generation of artists, are joining forces to create the Élan Award, a new international composition competition for an orchestral work, including the “Île de créations” (the orchestral composition competition created in 2010 by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France) at the IRCAM Academy.
The young composers shortlisted to compete in the Élan Award will enjoy an exceptional creation support platform that combines the expertise of the two bodies in terms of training on composing a work for orchestra and electronic music. They will be guided in their composition work both by musicians at the Orchestra and by IRCAM’s teams, as well as by guest artists who will join the supervising team each year.
In 2025, as part of the ManiFeste festival academy, the finalists will attend an orchestral composition workshop and will take part in the rehearsals of the works they have composed for the competition. These will be played by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France. Following this public concert, the Élan Award ceremony will be held, endowed by France Musique and the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine. The winning composition will be played on France Musique radio station during Anne Montaron’s programme “Création mondiale” and the score will be published by Durand-Salabert-Eschig.
The winner will also receive a commission from IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France to compose a new work for solo instrument (one instrumentalist from the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France), orchestra and electronic music, which will be developed during the following year’s ManiFeste festival. As part of the winner’s training in electronic music, they will receive support and advice from IRCAM’s computer music producers.
The compositions of the Élan Award winner may be performed during the Orchestra’s seasons, on tour in the Île-de-France region around Paris and in other regions across France to guarantee their very broad dissemination.
A genuine springboard for the career of young composers, the Élan Award is designed to promote their outreach and provide them with professional support over several years.
General provisions
1. Candidate profiles
The competition is open to composers of all nationalities born after January 1, 1990.
A laureate of a previous ÉLAN Award may not take part in the competition.
A candidate who has been twice finalist of previous ÉLAN Award competitions cannot take part in the competition.
2. The work
- The candidate will compose a work for orchestra. No concerto or concertante work will be accepted.
- This work must be composed specifically for this competition, must be original and must never have been performed, in full or in part.
This condition is mandatory and suspensive.
- The orchestra number must not exceed the following list:
10 first violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 5 cellos, 3 double basses, 2 flutes (the second of which can play piccolo), 2 oboes (the second of which can play English horn), 2 clarinets (the second of which can play bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (the second of which can play contrabassoon), 2 French horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 percussion (who cannot play timpani), 1 timpani (who cannot play percussions), 1 harp.
- For strings, accepted divisi:
V1 divisi in 4
V2 divisi in 3
Viola divisi in 2
Violoncello divisi in 2
Double Bass divisi in 2
- Available percussions: snare drum, bass drum, tom, tambourine / vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel en valise / tubular bells, suspended cymbals, pair of orchestra cymbals, sizzle cymbals, crotales, triangle, tam tam (Chinese gong), windchimes / rain stick, wood blocks and temple blocks, castanets, claves, rattle, flexatone, slide whistle, whip, sleighbells, guiro, maracas, vibraslap, whistles, klaxon horns (auto-horn, taxi-horn, motor-horn).
No additional instrument or accessories, no prepared instruments, no electronics, no amplification will be accepted.
This condition is mandatory and suspensive.
- The work must be ten minutes in length, broken down into five miniatures each lasting two minutes, which must be separated.
This condition is mandatory and suspensive.
- Candidates are required to mark the metronomic tempo of each miniature on the score, as well as the date of composition at the top of each part.
- Candidates are informed that the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France will only have two hours’ service for each work shortlisted for the final.
- The rehearsal schedule will be sent to candidates one month prior.
- The work programme will be decided by the conductor upon assessment of the work time required for each work.
Submission procedure
The candidate must submit the full bid on the ULYSSES platform - www.ulysses-network.eu – by Tuesday November 5, 2024 at 10am CEST.
Candidates must create an account (or use a pre-existing account) on the ULYSSES platform www.ulysses-network.eu, fill in their profile and click on “Apply” on the page “Élan Award 2025 – International Composition Competition for orchestra”, then:
- enter personal details (full name, gender, age, nationality, addresses, mobile telephone number, ID photo, a headshot which may be used by IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France for access passes and yearbook);
- write a short biography (800 characters MAXIMUM);
- list their education and professional experience, awards and scholarships won;
- present two recent works they have composed, possibly with electronic music (audio mp3 and pdf of the conductor’s score);
- write a statement of intent presenting the orchestra work entered for the competition (1500 characters MAXIMUM);
- present the first 2 minute-miniature of the orchestra work entered for the competition, conductor’s score in pdf format.
The platform will notify of any incompleteness before the final submission. Applicants may save their application as a draft before the submission deadline and must click on SUBMIT button to finalize their application.
Candidates are informed by email that their submission has been received.
Final entry constitutes acceptance of the conditions defined in these rules.