FESTIVAL NIEUWE NOTEN

On 1 October 2022 the Festival Nieuwe Noten - Composing for and by All took place in Maastricht. The festival was organised by  CoMAMaastricht to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Over 80 enthousiastic amateur musicians, within the age range of 4 to 80, participated in the various activities of the festival. 

At the end of the Festivalday the Festival Orchestra, Festival Choir and participants of the various workshops gave a presentation of their achievements.

‘Open Score’ Composition contest

An important element of the Festival was the 'Open Score' Composition Contest. The aim of this contest was to challenge composers to create an interesting and inspiring composition. This composition should be feasible for amateurs and also  flexible scored, i.e. without predetermined instrumentation.

From the twenty-one compositions submitted, thirteen from the Netherlands and eight from Belgium, the jury (Michael Finniissy, Wim Henderickx, Jesse Passenier and Paul Pankert) chose three compositions for the final contest on the Festival Day. These compositions were performed during the evening concert by the ensembles of CoMAMaastricht and CoMA Eindhoven. The jury then determined the prizes and an audience prize was awarded. The prizes are:

First prize: IKaggen by Wilma Pistorius (Zaandam)

Second prize: Missiles à domicile by Marc-Henri Cykiert (Brussels)

Third prize: The Miraculous World of Hiëronymus Bosch by Mark Hendriks (Eindhoven)

Audience Award: The Miraculous World of Hiëronymus Bosch by Mark Hendriks

Below you find a video of

Performance of the finalists' Open Score compositions

Workshops

During the Festival Day a variety of accessible and adventurous composition workshops took place. Of the seven workshops offered, two were especially for children and young people.  For everyone who prefered to 'just' play or sing, a Festival Ensemble and a Festival Choir were formed Both did rehearse challenging works from the CoMA library, espcially written for amateurs. In addition, workshops were held for four composers who participated in the composition competition, but were not finalists. Below you find videos of

Impressions of Workshops, Festival Ensemble and Festival Choir

Final presentation of Workshops, Festival Ensemble and Festival Choir

ENSEMBLE88 with compositions by the four jury members of the composition contest

Wim Henderickx	Air
	Soprano, flute and electronics
Paul Pankert	Breaking News
	Cello and electronics
Michael Finnissy	No-one sees us
	Soprano and percussion
Jesse Passenier	Reyk Zadt- Dat Kyzer
	Violin, clarinet, cello, piano and percussion

Concert by ENSEMBLE88