Arnau Brichs wins with Degrees of presence the Élan Award 2024

 

3 finalists competed in the final on June 15 at the Maison de l'Orchestre

 

Tom Belkind - Metal Heart, Iron Soul, He took his last breath
Youssra Khechai – Hikikomori (ひきこもり)
Arnau Brichs - Degrees of Presence

 

The Élan Award: A Springboard for Success

 

The Élan Award is designed for young composers to promote their careers and offer them professional support over several years.

 

Arnau Bricks' creation will be broadcast on France Musique's Création Mondiale program by Anne Montaron.

 

His score will be published by Editions Durand-Salabert-Eschig / Universal. This work will be performed as part of the Orchestra's seasons, touring Île-de-France and the regions to ensure wide distribution.

 

The artist will also receive a commission from IRCAM and the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France to write a new work for solo instrument, orchestra and electronics, to be premiered during the next edition.

 

The jury

 

Jury and artists durings the Finals on June 15, 2024 © Xavier Brichs

Chaya Czernowin, composer, sponsor of this year's edition and president of the jury
Daniele Ghisi, composer
Nicolò Umberto Foron, conductor
Anne Montaron, producer of the program Création Mondiale on France Musique
Estelle Lowry, director of the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine
Elsa Vautrain, artistic director, Editions Durand Salabert Eschig / Universal
Pierre Brouchoud, managing director, ONDIF
Frank Madlener, director of IRCAM
Justina Zajancauskaite, ONDIF musician

 

Biography : Arnau Brichs, Élan 2024 winner

 

Barcelona-based composer and pianist Arnau Brichs is an ABSRM scholarship holder. He studied with Rubens Askenar and Helen Grime at the Royal Academy of Music (London), from which he graduated.

 

Brichs has won international prizes such as the 2019 Promising Young Composers Competition from WCSMS (USA) and the Eric Coates Prize (UK). He is co-founder of polsfura, a label for electroacoustic and experimental electronic music.

 

 

He has performed and collaborated with the Uusinta Ensemble (Finland), the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (Switzerland), the Locrian Chamber Flying Carpet Festival (Turkey) and the London Contemporary Soloists (London). Initially, he studied jazz with Chano Domínguez and classical piano at the IEA Oriol Martorell institute in Barcelona. As a soloist, Brichs has performed at the Ateneu Barcelonès, the Fundació Miró (Lluerna), the CaixaForum (Microconcerts) and at the Cadaqués International Music Festival.

 

Arnau Brichs © Xavier Brichs

The Creation of the Élan Award

 

The Élan Award was born out of the collaboration between the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France and IRCAM, two musical structures strongly committed to contemporary creation and a new artistic generation. Bringing together "Île de créations" (the orchestral composition competition created in 2010 by the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France) and the ManiFeste academy, this international orchestral composition competition offers three promising young composers an exceptional platform for creative support, combining the know-how of the two structures in orchestral and electronic composition training. They are guided in their compositional work by both Orchestra musicians and IRCAM teams, as well as by guest artists who join the coaching team each year, right up to the rehearsals for the grand finale. This is when the public and the jury discover the works, and the Élan Award is awarded, endowed by France Musique and the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine.

 

Prix Élan 2025 

 

Applications are being accepted until November 5, 2024!
June 11 - 17, 2025
Lucia Ronchetti, president and sponsor of the 2025 edition
Matteo Franceschini, guest composer