Ukrainian composer Adrian Mocanu became a winner of the 5th Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition by the Ludwig van Beethoven Department of Piano in Music Education. The competition took place on February 1–4, 2022 at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
For the work “La piccola fiammiferaia”, the author received a 2nd prize and €4,000. Also, the piece will be recorded digitally, and published in cooperation with Universal Edition.
About the competition:
“We are looking for piano pieces written for children and young adults which, although limited in their technical difficulty, remain uncompromising in their artistic aim; pieces written with a contemporary compositional technique which offer the young student stimulus, insight and new experiences: experiences about oneself and the world in which we live”.
The Jury consisted of European composers who write contemporary music (including works with electronic and live electronic): Swiss composer Michael Jarrell, Spanish composer Elena Mendoza, German composer Isabel Mundry, Czech composer Miroslav Srnka, Italian composer Marco Stroppa.
Read more: 30 during 30. The most significant classical music works written during Ukrainian Independence
Among the winners of the competition: Patrick Thomas Schäfer (Germany, 1st prize), Biin Jin (South Korea, 3rd prize), Oscar Prados (Spain, 3rd prize) and others.
View video recordings from all of three days via link.
Adrian Mocanu
Adrian Mocanu was born in Kyiv, in 1989. He graduated from the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Composition (professor Yurii Ishchenko). Adrian Mocanu had an internship in the Gaude Polonia Scholarship Programme at the Chopin University of Music. Later he completed a Master’s degree in electroacoustic composition at the Katarina Gurska Higher Center (Madrid).
Adrian Mocanu participated in composers’ master classes with Beat Furrer, Rafael Sendo, Philippe Hurel, Peter Ablinger, Francesco Filidei, Helena Tulve, Johannes Schöllhorn, Mauricio Sotelo and others.
Adrian Mocanu is a winner of the 38th Young Composer Competition by Frederic Mompou International Award (Barcelona, 2017), The 4th International Composition Competition GMCL by Jorge Peixinho (Lisbon, 2019), In 2021 he became the winner of the 2nd Young Composers Competition named after Borys Lyatoshynsky (Kharkiv, 2021).
He participated in the 2nd International Laboratory of Young Composers and Playwrights called “Cooperative” (2018/19), during which the opera “Feux follets” was written and staged. Adrian Mocanu was a finalist in the “Latino Voices” project by the “Anima Vox” ensemble (USA). Also, he received a grant from the Goethe-Institut to participate in the “Postcolonial Recherche” project with the “Recherche ensemble” (Germany).
Since 2021, Adrian Mocanu has been a member of the Spanish General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) in Madrid and the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. His works have been published by BabelScores (Paris) and AvA Musical Editions (Lisbon).
Festivals where Adrian Mocanu’s music was performed: “Warsaw Autumn”, “musikprotokoll” (Graz), “Rossi fest” (Belgrade), “Dias de Música Electroacústica” (Lisbon), “VANG. Músicas en vanguardia” (Madrid), “Mixtur Festival” (Barcelona) and “Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival” (New York).
Adrian Mocanu’s works are performed in Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Russia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil and the United States.
Works:
- metamorphoses: nychterídes (2019) for large ensemble
- ecos en una cuerda (2018) for piano
- waren wir, sind wir, werden (2020) for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano
- este amoroso tormento (2018) for soprano and bass flute
- sólo queda el desierto (2016) for large orchestra
- lamento de metal, rumor de alambre, voz de junco, también latido, vena (2018) for bass flute, tenor saxophone and piano
A full list of Adrian Mocanu’s works is available on composer’s official website.