Virtual Brass Academy for Composers

(Application deadline reached)

Ensemble Musikfabrik’s Virtual Brass Academy for Composers is entering its fourth edition on December 15, 2025 to January 12, 2026 – inviting composers worldwide to immerse themselves in the fascinating world of contemporary brass composition.

Composing for brass instruments means working with an enormous spectrum of timbres, techniques and forms of expression. The Academy offers the unique opportunity to explore this field in close exchange with musicians and composers who can draw on a wealth of experience:

The workshops and individual lessons will be led by Sarah Nemtsov, Alex Paxton and the brass players of Ensemble Musikfabrik: Christine Chapman, Stephen Menotti, Maxime Morel and Marco Blaauw.

The academy is aimed at composers worldwide. The special challenge: the composition of a short miniature that focuses on the development of a single musical idea (without electronics). These pieces will be premiered and recorded in a live stream concert from the Ensemble Musikfabrik studio in Cologne at the end of the course.

The fourth Virtual Brass Academy for Composers features Sarah Nemtsov, Alex Paxton as tutors and the brass players of Ensemble Musikfabrik Christine Chapman, Stephen Menotti, Maxime Morel and Marco Blaauw

Participating composers:

Program:
December 15: Opening with a film screening: Tender Theater Flight Nageire (Lucia Dlugoszewski) and Heart Blowing (Georges Aperghis)

December 16-18: Workshops and group meetings

January 5: Group meeting and exchange of experiences

January 6-7: Q&As

January 9-11: Rehearsals

January 12: Final concert featuring the world premieres of the miniatures composed during the academy

Past Virtual Brass Academies

General

Ensemble Musikfabrik has been presenting an online academy exploring contemporary brass composition to composers worldwide since 2020.

If composing is like painting, what could be better than having as many colors and techniques as possible at your disposal? Composing with extended technique for these instruments is a vast field, and the best way to approach it is by learning from instrumentalists and composers who can draw from a wealth of experience.

One to one composition lessons will be led by renowned composers, and lectures on their instruments and rehearsals will be led by the Ensemble Musikfabrik brass section and guest soloists of other instruments.

The Virtual Brass Academy welcomes composers from all over the world to apply. There is no age limit and composers do not have to be currently studying to qualify. Participants will be selected by the tutors to participate in each course. During this intensive composition period, composers will create a short piece, a miniature, that focuses on developing a musical idea. The newly written pieces will be performed, presented, and recorded in a live-stream concert at the end of the course from the Ensemble Musikfabrik studios in Cologne, Germany.

2025

The third Virtual Brass Academy for Composers featured Elise Jacoberger as a guest soloist on bassoon and composer Milica Djordjević as tutor for composition.

Information regarding the opening concert

Information regarding the closing concert

Participating composers:

2024

The second Virtual Brass Academy for Composers took place in 2024 featuring the composers Milica Djordjević and Felipe Lara.

Information regarding opening concert

Information regarding closing concert

Participating composers:

2020

The first Virtual Brass Academy for Composers took place in 2020 during the Corona Lockdown

Information regarding closing concert

Participating composers: