The Baltic Sea Festival is looking for musical collaborations with young scientists
Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab is a new Baltic Sea Festival event at the Swedish Radio concert hall Berwaldhallen jointly produced with Stockholm University and Voksenåsen Music Academies. Through this project nine young scientists from the Baltic Sea Region will be paired with nine young composers. Together, they will turn scientific research into music that will be performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra during the Baltic Sea Festival 2023. Now open for applications.
Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab brings together composers, scientists and musicians during the 2023 Baltic Sea Festival.
For the last twenty years, the Baltic Sea Festival has directed the spotlight on the inland sea on which so many countries are dependent, offering world-class concerts and talks on climate, the environment and sustainability.
“We are now moving into the next phase by adding scientific research to the concert programme. We see it as an opportunity to test ways of combining science and art music as well as experimenting with artistic expression,” says Berwaldhallen Director Staffan Becker.
“This project will truly give resonance to research conducted around our common sea. The Baltic Sea is facing major environmental and sustainability challenges while at the same time as considerable scientific research offers a more hopeful perspective on the situation. We would like to celebrate this – with music!” says Professor Anna Sobek at the Stockholm University Department of Environmental Science.
Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab is aimed at master students, PhD students and postdoctoral scholars working in any of the countries around the Baltic Sea. We welcome contributions from any discipline relevant to the Baltic Sea region. The winning applications will be selected by scientists at the Stockholm University Department of Environmental Science and the university’s Stockholm Resilience Centre. The composers have been selected by the Voksenåsen Music Academies, Oslo.
Nine fifteen-minute performances divided into three topical themes will be produced. Scientific research and art music will come together over two days with the help of director Elisabet Ljungar. The audience will hear three performances from each theme followed by moderated panel discussions.
"The project experiments with new ways of reaching out to audiences. We hope that both participants and audiences will gain new insights through the combination of art music and science." says Emma Nyberg, project manager for the Baltic Sea Festival.
“At the Stockholm Resilience Centre we have extensive experience of working with various forms of artistic expression, it’s an important collaboration process that contributes to our development and assists us in communicating our findings,” says Deputy Professor Thorsten Blenckner at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.
“Allowing our young composers to work in a new context guided by the experienced members of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is immensely valuable to us,” says Professor Peter Herresthal, Artistic Director at Voksenåsen Music Academies.
Read more about the application process at balticseafestival.com. Application deadline 1 December 2022.
About the participating institutions
The Baltic Sea Festival, organised by the Swedish Radio concert hall Berwaldhallen, is one of Sweden’s leading classical music festivals, featuring top artists, orchestras and conductors. Over the past twenty years, the Festival has served as a meeting place for outstanding concerts and initiatives that contribute to a sustainable Baltic Sea region. Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab is an interdisciplinary experiment and part of the Festival programme. Baltic Sea Festival 2023 takes place 24 August – 2 September.
Stockholm Resilience Centre is an international, cross-disciplinary centre for research and studies in sustainable development at Stockholm University. The Centre is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University conducts research in and teaches environmental science. Focus is on issues including chemicals in the environment and in humans. Scientists from the Department frequently collaborate with Swedish and European authorities on producing data for decision-making.
Voksenåsen Composer Academy is a programme for young composers at the beginning of a career in composition. The course fosters networking, mentorship, professional development and offers access to professional opportunities. The Composer Academy is a collaboration between Voksenåsen Musik Academies, the Sparebank Foundation and the Fure Foundation.
For more information about the project, please contact
Emma Nyberg, Baltic Sea Festival Project Manager
Emma.nyberg@sverigesradio.se, tel +46 732 621162
Media queries are answered by:
Karl Thorson
Press- & PR-ansvarig / Press & PR Manager
Berwaldhallen | Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester | Radiokören
karl.thorson@sverigesradio.se
08-784 18 30 | 070-431 18 93
Sveriges Radios konserthus Berwaldhallen
SE-105 10 Stockholm, Sweden
Besök/Visiting address Dag Hammarskjöldsväg 3
berwaldhallen.se
