BLUDENZER TAGE ZEITGEMÄßER MUSIK
Workshop/Competition 2026
with Clemens Gadenstätter and Quatuor Diotima
The Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik are pleased to announce a workshop / competition for composers in Bludenz (Austria), as a part of the festival taking place from October 7th to October 11th 2026.
Workshop with Clemens Gadenstätter and Quatuor Diotima
A jury consisting of composer Clemens Gadenstätter and Quatuor Diotima will select 6 composers who will have the opportunity to work on a piece for string quartet written for the occasion. The pieces will be performed in the concert on the 11th of October 2026 at Remise Bludenz. Composers will also be invited to attend all the events of the festival (rehearsals, concerts, lectures), and give a public presentation of their work.
The cost of the masterclass is € 450,— and includes 6 nights accommodation in single rooms (arrival on Tuesday, October 6th 2026 and departure on Monday, October 12th, 2026), a lecture and a private lesson with Clemens Gadenstätter, rehearsals, professional recording, and free entrance to the concerts.
Commission
At the end of the festival one composer, among the selected participants, will be chosen to receive a commission for a new piece to be premiered during the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik Festival 2027.
The selected composer will be offered by the festival:
Travel expenses (within Europe: economy flight or second-class rail ticket, whichever is the cheaper; from overseas: a contribution up to a maximum of €550,—)
Four nights hotel accommodation
The composer will receive a one-time payment of €1000. With this payment all rights concerning the public performance within the BTzM Festival 2027, the live recording and the possible broadcasting are compensated.
Guidelines
The BTzM Workshop/Composition-Competition is addressed to composers of all nationalities. There is no age limit. Applicants can submit up to two scores and two audio files. Chamber music works are preferable.
If scores are not relevant to your music, you may submit audio and/or any other accompanying documentation in PDF format in lieu of scores.
Applications open on February 16th and end on March 16th 2026
Selected composers will be notified by April 16th 2026
A jury consisting of composer Clemens Gadenstätter and the musicians of Quatuor Diotima will nominate 6 composers to attend the workshop/competition. The new piece for string quartet should be up to 7 minutes long.
The deadline for delivery of score and parts of the piece that is going to be performed during BTzM 2026 is 16th July, 2026
To apply, please send the filled-in application form to info@allerart-bludenz.at
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mentors
Clemens Gadenstätter
The mentor of this year’s composition masterclass, Clemens Gadenstätter, is not only one of the most prominent Austrian contemporary composers, but also a mentor with many years of diverse pedagogical experience.
He studied composition, first in Vienna with Erich Urbanner, then in Stuttgart with Helmut Lachenmann. A central focus of his work is compositional re-synthesis of perception, sensation and feeling, which for him should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition.
Gadenstätter’s works have been commissioned by institutions and festivals including WDR Cologne, the Salzburg Festival, IRCAM Paris, ManiFeste Paris, the Berlin Music Biennale, the Donaueschingen Festival, steirischer herbst, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Berlin, Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart, Wien Modern, and ORF. His music has been performed by Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, the Arditti Quartet, the Jack Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble ascolta, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, PHACE, Trio Accanto Freiburg, and many others.
He is Professor of Analysis, Music Theory, and Composition at KUG (University of Music and Performing Arts Graz), and has also been visiting professor of composition at the Nordic Music High School in Oslo, as well as lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer Course, impuls Academy Graz, and the Masterclass for Composition in Kyiv. From 1995 to 2000, he was editor of the music journal ton of the Austrian section of the IGNM (International Society for Contemporary Music) and is the author of numerous articles and essays on compositional poetics.
His awards include the Vienna Promotion Prize for Composition, the Vienna Recognition Award, and the Erste Bank Composition Prize. In 2006, Clemens Gadenstätter was a fellow of the Berlin Artists Program of the DAAD.
Quatuor Diotima
Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, with an ongoing passion for the music of our time. It was formed in 1996 by graduates of the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris). The quartet’s name evokes a double musical meaning: Diotima is at once an allegory of German Romanticism—Friedrich Hölderlin gives this name to the love of his life in his novel Hyperion—and a rallying cry for the music of our time, brandished by Luigi Nono in his composition Fragmente–Stille, an Diotima.
Quatuor Diotima has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Pierre Boulez and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from composers such as Toshio Hosokawa, Miroslav Srnka, Rebecca Saunders, Francesca Verunelli, Lisa Streich, and many others. The quartet appears regularly in the world’s finest concert halls and concert series, and its recordings are frequently praised and honoured with awards by the international music press. Alongside a dense performing schedule, they continue to work as dedicated mentors to the youngest generation of composers.