Six new composers selected for KUPP 2.2

With the development program KUPP, the Norwegian Composers Association and Music Norway want to arrange for young Norwegian composers to get useful guides and tools in their work with marketing, sales, network building nationally and internationally, and for a period get some gateways to key people in these networks.

Here are the six composers part of the KUPP 2.2 program:

Anders Hannevold

Ingebjørg Vilhelmsen

Inga Margrete Aas

Jonas Lie Skaarud

Louisa Palmi

Tobi Pfeil

KUPP 2.2 will last one and a half years, where the participants will undergo a program in four phases. The target group is newly graduated composers under the age of 35 with ambitions for an international career.

The participants take part in professional gatherings and mentoring sessions where they are trained in expressing themselves about their own work both in physical meetings with, for example, publishers, festival managers and relevant bookers, but also for a larger audience, on digital surfaces and in social media etc. A close and dynamic collaboration is planned in which Music Norway and the Norwegian Composers Association will link the academic content closely to the individual participant, based on conversations and knowledge of where the individual participant stands in their career, which projects they are working on and which direction in which they work.

The ambition for the program is to educate and assist the composers in their international work, with the aim of more collaborations, performances, as well as greater knowledge for international industry contacts. The composers must also compose one work for an ensemble they choose in dialogue with the KUPP team. Through collaboration with ensembles, the project wants a larger part of the free field to get a boost in its international work with new music.

Around 60 applications were received by the application deadline for KUPP 2.2. The jury has consisted of James Black (composer and artistic director Klang festival), Heloisa Amaral (pianist and director Ultima), Stine Sørlie (composer and chairman Notam), Trond Madsen (artistic director BIT20), and Mathieu Lacroix (composer, professor and former participant in KUPP). Ida Habbestad (day-to-day manager of the Norwegian Composers' Association) and Kaja Bjørntvedt (advisor and project manager of Music Norway/KUPP) participated with information and guidance in the jury meeting.

The jury's instructions were as follows: The jury must arrive at a group of six composers who have a professionally satisfactory level and who will benefit greatly from working with national and international exposure. The group must be put together so that it works well together and with an emphasis on the motivation of the participants. If possible, also have a geographical spread. In the composition of the group, one must strive for equality, as well as diversity in expression and diversity in background.