Artistic project

String Quartet

Vedi i corsi

Ensemble intercontemporain

String Quartet

Vedi i corsi

Ensemble intercontemporain

PERIOD

31 March – 4 April 2025

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

14 February 2025

Boulez100

This year marks 100 years since the birth of Pierre Boulez, and the Stauffer Academy, in collaboration with the Ensemble intercontemporain, is hosting a special workshop from March 31 to April 4. The project will explore the legacy of the French composer and culminate in a concert on April 4 at the Arvedi Auditorium of the Violin Museum in Cremona.

Designed around the “learn-by-doing” philosophy, where the public performance plays a central role in the learning process, the workshop focuses on preparing a concert programme that combines Boulez’s works with music by Bach and Webern, two composers who profoundly influenced his artistic vision. The Stauffer students will dive deeply into excerpts from the Livre pour quatuor, a demanding yet pivotal piece in Boulez’s output, and Anthèmes 1 for solo violin. The programme will also feature pages from Bach’s The Art of Fugue (Contrapunctus I, III, and VII) and Webern’s String Quartet, Op. 28.

The workshop will be led by the string quartet of the Ensemble intercontemporain, the renowned French ensemble founded by Boulez in 1979, which accompanied him throughout his artistic and personal life. The professors – Jeanne Marie Conquer and Diego Tosi (violins), Odile Auboin (viola) and Renaud Déjardin (cello) – will perform together with the students in the final concert.

The Boulez100 project also includes study days, lectures, and seminars in collaboration with the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage of the University of Pavia. Among the speakers is the musicologist Jean Louis Leleu, who played a key role in completing the unfinished fourth movement of Livre.

Admission requirements

The course is open to established string quartets and violinists, students of the Stauffer Academy or external. 50% of the available spots will be reserved to the Stauffer students.

It is not required to have performed the proposed works previously. Nonetheless, a certain confidence with the late XX century is required.

Documents for the applications

Applications must be submitted online, through the “Apply” button at the bottom of the page.

Requirements:

Personal data;
Copy of a valid ID;
Curriculum vitae and the repertoire already studied;
Link to video audition (see below).

Admissions

The entrance examination consists of a video audition. The candidate must create a link to a YouTube video, specifying the programme in the description.

On this page you can find all the indications for making a video that meets all the requirements.

Programme

Violin:

Anthemes I by Pierre Boulez (complete or excerpts), or a piece for solo violin, written after 1950.

Quartetto d’archi:

A piece written after 1950

Applicants will receive the results of the auditions at the e-mail address provided during registration, approximately one month before the start of the course.

Costs

A registration fee of €55.00 is required for the application. Online payment is activated upon the submission of the application.

Students enrolled on the Stauffer Academy annual courses are exempt from the registration fee.

The registration fee is non-refundable.

Attendance fees are entirely supported by the Stauffer Foundation.

Other expenses related to travel, board and lodging in Cremona are borne by the students.