Results 2023
Jonty Harrison, Birmingham 1 May 2023
On behalf of the jury, I am very pleased to announce the results of the fourth Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition. There were 222 works submitted to this edition of the Competition, representing a wide range of musical and technical approaches and styles. Judging was completely anonymised (not even titles were available to the jury), so our deliberations were purely acousmatic, based only on close and attentive listening to the works as they presented themselves in sound alone. All the jury members commented on the high quality of the submissions, which meant that, inevitably, many good pieces did not make it through to our final short-list. Congratulations to the composers of the four prizewinning works and the two works awarded honourable mentions – all six pieces will be performed in the prizewinners’ concert in Thessaloniki in November.
1st Prize (600€): Cameron Naylor (United Kingdom) for his piece Foxglove
2nd Prize (400€): Zach Thomas (United States) for his piece husk 2
3rd Prize (ex aequo, 400€/2): Robert McClure (United States) for his piece in excess & Edmar Soria (Mexico) for his piece Vortex Flow
Honorable mentions to
Ian Whillock (United States) for his piece Directionality
Todor Todoroff (Belgium) for his piece Voices Part III ¬– Resistance
Jonty Harrison (Chair)
Jury members: Elsa Justel, Panayiotis Kokoras, Robert Normandeau, Luis Quintana
Results 2021
Annette Vande Gorne, Ohain 7 April 2021
If we consider the maxim of Iannis Xenakis “To make music is to express human intelligence by sound means”, this competition, which received 224 entries and celebrates the twentieth anniversary of his death in 2021, demonstrates the relevance of this phrase, especially when the word “intelligence” covers logic_structuring, emotion_feeling, action_know-how. Taking into consideration the absolute anonymity of this competition, one can only marvel at the broad consensus that emerges from a competent and very diversified international jury as to its aesthetic choices. The 37 acousmatic pieces that passed the second selection stage demonstrate, by their very high technical and musical level, to what extent this media art corresponds to our era (that of distanced communication), and to the digital future of our civilization. But the acousmatic art also renews the possibilities of language and universal musical expression by escaping from any academic and formalist straitjacket, just as the engineer-architect Xenakis did in the 20th century in favor of the European music known as ” learned “. We would like to thank all the participants in the 2021 competition and encourage them to continue their research in this direction.
Please find the selected pieces below.
1st Prize: Luis Quintana (Puerto Rico) for his piece Junkyard Construction: Why stop the swing?
2nd Prize: Leah Reid (United States) for her piece Reverie
3rd Prize: Nikos Kanelakis (Greece) for his piece Spaces & Places
Honorable mentions to
1. Thibault Madeline (France) for his piece Le murmure de Bombus
2. Zach Thomas (United States) for his piece branch—splinter—moss
3. Rocío Cano Valiño (Argentina) for her piece Okno
Annette Vande Gorne (Chair)
Jury members: Manuella Blackburn, Gilles Gobeil, Damian Gorandi, Panayiotis Kokoras
Results 2019
Trevor Wishart, York 25 April 2019
On behalf of the jury, I am very pleased to announce the results of the second Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition. This year the judges had the pleasure of listening to many accomplished works. We congratulate the winners and those with honorable mentions. Selecting the “best” from a collection of such high quality is always very difficult. The final result is a compromise between the preferences of the jury members and undoubtedly influenced by their own predilections. If, therefore, your work has not been selected, please do not presume that the judges found it inadequate. And please continue to make the music!
Please find the selected pieces below.
1st Prize: Damian Gorandi (Argentina) for his piece So…is coming…
2nd Prize: Madore Xavier (Canada) for his piece Les loges de la suite
3rd Prize: Dimitrios Savva (Cyprus) for his piece Moments Of Liberty II Falling Within
Honorable mentions to
1. James O’Callaghan (Canada) for his piece If (and only if) I am among
2. Apostolos Loufopoulos (Greece) for his piece Demons And Fairies
3. Robert Seaback (United States) for his piece in surge
Trevor Wishart (Chair)
Jury members: Ludger Brümmer, Oliver Carman, Panayiotis Kokoras, Joao Pedro Oliveira.
Results 2017
Denis Smalley, London 5 March 2017
On behalf of the jury I am very pleased to announce the results of the first Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition. The competition raised worldwide interest, attracting 270 submissions, of which 106 were in multi-channel formats. Selecting from as many as 270 pieces proved a challenging but rewarding task, and inevitably many good pieces could not make it into the final five. The selection process was anonymised: our judgements were based solely on our responses to the music. We did not know who the composers are, nor did we have access to titles or programme notes. Please find the selected pieces below.
1st Prize: Nikos Stavropoulos (Greece) for his work Topophilia
2nd Prize: Oliver Carman (United Kingdom) for his work Electric Strings
3rd Prize: Marie-Hélène Breault and Martin Bédard (Canada) for their work Replica
Honorable mentions to
Daniel Blinkhorn (Australia) for his work Cradle Caldera
François Buffet (France) for his work Anabasis
Denis Smalley (Chair)
Jury members: Ambrose Field, Panayiotis Kokoras, Elainie Lillios, Germán Toro-Pérez