DUO SIGNAL
Call for scores
2021-2022
We are immensely grateful to all the composers for their interest and submissions. We received over 169 applications from 47 different countries. We sincerely enjoyed discovering and studying the submitted music.
Nuño Fernández Ezquerra (winner of our last Call for Scores) and the members of the Duo Signal, would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to all the composers for the outstanding quality of their submitted pieces. Although we regret not being able to choose more than 2 composers, we are proud and happy to announce the winners:
Jaehyuck Choi (1994) - Commission of 2000.- CHF for a 12 minutes piece.
Born in Seoul on 31 October 1994; Jaehyuck Choi is a composer, conductor, and Artistic Director of the ensemble blank. After winning the 1st prize of the Concours de Geneve in 2017, his works have been commissioned and premiered by the ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Parker Quartet, L'Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve, Seoul Philharmonic, Gyeonggi Philharmonic, The Juilliard Orchestra, FontanaMix Ensemble, and so on. In 2018, Choi made his international debut as a conductor on Stockhausen's Gruppen at the Lucerne Festival with Sir Simon Rattle and Duncan Ward conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy. Since then, he has been invited to ensemble and orchestras such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, PinkNoise Ensemble, FontanaMix Ensemble, Bucheon Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Gyeonggi Philharmonic, and so forth.
Jaehyuck Choi holds bachelor of music and master of music degrees in composition from The Juilliard School, and is continuing his composition studies at the Barenboim-Said Akademie.
His composition studies were guided by Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Unsuk Chin, Peter Eötvös, Samuel Adler, Jung-sun Park; and his conducting studies were guided by Peter Eötvös and Matthias Pintscher.
Lover of paintings and sculptures, Choi founded the ensemble blank in 2015, which has become one of the Korea's leading contemporary music groups. The ensemble blank continues to perform under the direction of Choi. He makes his home in Berlin and in Seoul. Choi is represented by the Credia Music and Artists as a composer-conductor exclusive in Korea. Choi's music is published via the Universal Edition.
Submitted work:
Jon Yu (1988) - Commission of 2000.- CHF for a 12 minutes piece
Jon Yu (b. 1988) is a Taiwanese-American composer whose works explore notions of ritual, utility, and excess. His music has been performed by ensembles and soloists such as Mivos Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Wet Ink Ensemble, Ensemble SurPlus, AuditivVokal Dresden, Eco Ensemble, Earplay, Transient Canvas, AsianArt Ensemble, and haegeum player Soo Yeon Lyuh, and programmed at festivals such as June in Buffalo (2014), Dian Red Kechil (2015), SICPP (2016), Darmstadt Ferienkurse (2016), Pacific Rim Music Festival (2017), Festival Musica (2018), Festival Barcelona Modern (2019), impuls Festival (2019), and outHEAR New Music Week (2019). He was the recipient of the 2017 Mivos/Kanter Prize for his string quartet “O reche modo,” and was the laureate of the Prix Alain Baltes for his vocal sextet “PEK TI.” From 2018-19, he was in residence in Paris as a fellow of the George Ladd Prix de Paris.
Jon is currently a PhD candidate in Music Composition at UC Berkeley, where he studies with Franck Bedrossian, Ken Ueno, and Edmund Campion. He has also studied privately with Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Rebecca Saunders, and Pierluigi Billone. From 2020-21, he studied in the Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music at IRCAM under Thierry De Mey.
We would like to mention the following composers for their exceptional pieces:
Emircan Pehlivan, Arda Yurdusev, Jug Markovic, Silvia Rosani, Ioannis Angelakis, Luis Quintana, Minzuo LU, Toykan Efe Kahraman, Jaeduk Kim, Camilo Mendez San Juan, Aled Smith, Patricia Martinez.
2020-2021
We are immensely grateful to all the composers for their interest and submissions. We received over 162 applications from 44 different countries. We sincerely enjoyed discovering and studying the submitted music.
The jury, composed of Jürg Henneberger and the members of the Duo Signal, would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to all the composers for the outstanding quality of their submitted pieces. Although we regret not being able to choose more than 3 composers, we are proud and happy to announce the winners*:
Submitted work:
Commissioned piece:
Nuño Fernández Ezquerra (1992) - Commission of 2000 CHF for a 12-15 minutes piece.
The composer Nuño Fernández Ezquerra (Segovia, 1992) holds a bachelor’s degree in composition from the ESMUC (Barcelona), where he studied under the guidance of Agustí Charles and Mauricio Sotelo (graduating with with honours) and a master’s degree from the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, studying under the guidance of Lauri Kilpiö, graduating with a 5/5 in both, composition major and the master’s thesis. His studies and carrier have been supported by the Caja de Burgos Foundation (Spain) and the Martin Wegelius Foundation (Finland).
Refusing aesthetic and conceptual shallowness, his works are characterised by a fastidious attention to detail and the quest to create a meaningful and impactful experience to the audience. With a critically open listening, his musical language has metabolised radical elements from other genres such as advanced kinds of electronic music, jazz, post-rock or metal, influencing his aesthetics in a coherent and cohesive way.
His work has been awarded several prizes internationally: being the winner of the National Composition Contest of the Castile and León Symphony Orchestra (2017), winner of the the International Call for Scores & Commission 2017 of the ensemble Suono Giallo and ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week (148 candidates), and receiving the 3rd prize in the contest “Jóvenes Compositores 2014” of the SGAE/CNDM Foundation and an honorable mention in the 3rd
Construct Radiate Composition Competition 2020 (amongst 334 candidates).
His pieces have been programmed in numerous festivals, amongst which stand out: regular season of the Castile and León Symphony Orchestra (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) the Klang! Concert Series (Helsinki, Finland, 2019 and 2018), UNM Festival (Bergen, Norway, 2018), the 7th Contemporary Music Concert Series of the BBVA Foundation (Bilbao, Spain, 2016), Festival MIXTUR (Barcelona, Spain, 2017 and 2015), OUT.SIDE 2016 Concert Series (Barcelona, Spain, 2016). He has worked with ensembles such as Uusinta Ensemble, Zagros Ensemble, CrossingLines, Ensemble Suono Giallo, Espai Sonor, Ensemble Temporum, the Black Page Orchestra, Saxtronauts amongst other chamber groups and soloists.
He has attended courses, master-classes and seminars with Kaija Saariaho, Raphaël Cendo, Mauro Lanza, José María Sánchez Verdú, Pedro Alcalde, the cellist Anssi Karttunen and the singer Barbara Hannigan, amongst others.
Submitted work:
Emre Eröz (1995) - Commission of 1500 CHF for a 10 minutes piece.
Emre (b.1995) started music by playing electric guitar at an early ages. At high school, he developed an interest in diverse types of music especially free jazz and rock. In 2015, he was accepted to the Theory and Composition program at Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts for his bachelor’s degree.
He studied composition with Onur Türkmen and still continues his studies with Tolga Yayalar. Additionally, he had the opportunity to work with remarkable composers such as Beat Furrer, Clara Iannotta, Pierluigi Billone, Mark Andre, Bruno Mantovani, Eun-Hwa Cho, Martin Hiendl, Ken Ueno, Mahir Çetiz, Ulrich Alexander Kreppein, and worked with many performers including Garth Knox, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Oerknal Ensemble, IEMA, Pre-Art Soloists, Hezarfen Ensemble, Yurodny Ensemble, Black Pencil as well as NK Ensemble.
He was awarded second prize in the Pre-Art Competition for Young Composers (Switzerland) for his ensemble piece “Amnesia”. Also, his research based quartet piece “Adsum”, which combines Turkish music instruments and Western music, has released by Bilgi Label in album project "Lahza" at Spotify and Apple Music. Recently, He was selected to participate in 2020 Taproot New Music Festival and his music was premiered by Chicago based Spektral Quartet.
Commissioned piece:
Submitted work:
Commissioned piece:
Nicolas Roulive (1989) - Commission of 800 CHF for a 5-7 minutes piece.
Nicolas Roulive is born in 1989 in Namur, Belgium. He started to study the piano at the age of 11.At the age of 14 he started to write music through computer softwares. In 2007, he entered as piano student the Royal Conservatory of Mons(Arts2), Belgium, where he completed a Bachelor degree in 2010. Interested about contemporary music, he had the opportunity during his studies in Belgium to work as pianist alongside his colleagues from this school’s composition department.
In 2010 he entered the « Paul Dukas » conservatory in Paris where he studied at the class of prof. Eric Tanguy during four years. In 2014, he entered the Regional Conservatory of Paris (CRR de Paris) where he studied composition with prof. Edith Canat de Chizy. He also entered the Departmental Conservatory of Montreuil (CRD de Montreuil) for further piano studies under prof. Gwendal Giguelay’s guidance, chamber music with prof. Michel Maurer, and accompaniment with prof. Florestan Boutin. He obtained his diplomas in both institutions in June 2016.
He is currently studying for a Master in Mixed Medias Composition at the university of Music of Geneva (HEM Genève), Switzerland with prof. Michael Jarrell, prof. Luis Naon and prof. Gilbert Nouno. He was selected for the « Sound of Wander » 2018 masterclasses by prof. Chaya Czernowin and receives advices from international composers as Kaija Saariaho, Stefano Gervasoni, Santiago Diez-Fischer, Philippe Leroux, Rebecca Saunders and Stefan Prins among others.
His has been invited to international festivals such as « CrossRoads Festival » 2018 in Salzburg, « Impuls Festival » 2019 in Graz, « Mixtur Festival » 2019 in Barcelona, and IRCAM’s « ManiFeste » 2018 and 2019, where his music has been performed. In 2014 he received the first prize and audience prize of the « Piano Contemporain week-end » composition competition for solo piano by « Frederic Chopin » Conservatory in Paris. In 2019 his piece « Suicide Circus » for Bass Clarinet and Cello solo, Ensemble and Electronics was awarded the prize of the « Paleo Festival Nyon ».
His recent work includes a new piece for soprano, ensemble and electronics for the ensemble NAMES, which will be premiered in November 2019 during the « CrossRoads Festival » 2019 in Salzburg, a chamber music with electronics piece for the members of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and a commission by Ensemble Proton-Bern, which will be premiered in Spring 2020.
He also regularly performs as a pianist in both classical and contemporary repertories.
The jury would like to mention the following composers for their exceptional pieces:
Anna Sowa, Valerio Sannicandro, Emilie Girard-Charest, Javier Quislant, LEE Yi Wei Angus, Bethany Younge, Stylianos Dimou, Maja Bosnic, Marcelo F. Lazcano, Dativo Tobarra, Asia Ahmetjanova.