ricordilab 2022-2025

ricordi lab the composers

about ricordilab

Established in 2016, ricordilab provides the opportunity for emerging composers to participate in a three-year collaboration with Ricordi Berlin. We will publish selected works, provide international promotion and support the laureates with expertise in the music industry. After the immense success of ricordilab’s first two rounds, Ricordi Berlin decided to relaunch ricordilab for a third time from 2022 to 2025.

Backed by a group of international associated partners, we are looking forward to boosting the careers of the young composers. The associated partners have agreed to feature more than one laureate more than once until the end of season 2025/2026. We were impressed by the number of applications from all over the world and by the artistic quality and the craftsmanship of the submitted works. All applications were reviewed by the team of Ricordi Berlin who handed over a preselection to the ricordilab advisory board consisting of international experts. Based on the recommendations of the advisory board, we are excited to present the three winning composers Hannah Kendall, Alex Paxton and Diana Syrse.

We would like to thank the associated partners for their commitment to the mission of ricordilab and the members of the advisory board for their high diligence in reviewing the applications.

Let the journey begin!

Advisory Board

Mark Sattler Dramaturg, Lucerne Festival

Julia Wolfe Composer

Heribert Germeshausen Intendant, Oper Dortmund

Paul Hughes

Former Director, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, BBC Singers

hannah kendall

The Knife of Dawn (2016/2022) 60 min Opera Bar.2S.A - hp.vl.vla.vc

Disillusioned Dreamer (2018/2022) 12 min 2.2.2.2 - 4.2.2.1 - 2perc - hp12.10.8.8.6

Nexus (2020/2022) 6 min 4.3.4.4 - 5.4.4.2 - timp.3-8perc2hp.cel - str

Where is the chariot of fire? (2020/2022) 7 min 2.2.2.2 - 2.2.1.1 - 2perc - hp.pf2.2.2.2.2

this is but an oration of loss (2022) 11 min for vocal ensemble S.Ms - SATBarB + small auxiliary instruments

Hannah Kendall, born in London in 1984, is based in New York City as a Doctoral Fellow in composition at Columbia University with Georg Friedrich Haas and George E. Lewis. She majored in vocal studies and composition at the University of Exeter and gained a master’s at the Royal College of Music. Kendall is the recipient of the 2022 Hindemith Prize for music composition.

Known for her attentive arrangements and immersive world-building, Hannah Kendall’s music looks beyond the boundaries of composition: “Conjuring evocative imagery within dramatic constructs form the main components of my compositional style. I sometimes draw on aspects of my African-Caribbean-European heritage; finding ways to garner a deeper understanding of how musical engagement through cultural discovery might influence my music’s aesthetics.” Her upcoming world premieres include shouting for ever into the receiver for Ensemble Modern at Donau eschinger Musiktage 2022, … I may turn to salt for the New Century Chamber Orchestra in California, May 2023, and a London Symphony Orchestra commission for autumn 2023.

“Groundbreaking is the only way to describe the opera The Knife of Dawn” The Telegraph

alex paxton

“ a riotous, hot pink overabundance of love and rage” The Wire

iLolli-Pop (2019–2020) 25 min

improvising soloist - 1.1.1.11.1.1.0 - 2perc - 2key - 1.1.1.2.1

Levels of Affection (2022) 10 min

improvising soloist (optional)picc.cl.ob - tpt - 2key3vl.vc.db

Water Music (2021) 9 min

solo water percussionist1.1.1.1 - 1.1.1.1 - 2perc - hp.pf1.1.1.1.1

Od Ody Pink’d (2018–2019) 10 min

improvising soloist (optional)2.2.2.2 - 4.2.2.1 - 2perc - hp12.10.8.6.4

Music for Bosch People

(2018–2019) 16 min

2sax.2trb.dr.2e - git.electronics or 1sax.1trb.dr.e - git

Shrimp BIT Babyface 20 min 1.0.1.0 - 0.1.1.0 - perc – key1.0.1.1.1 - loudspeakers

Alex Paxton, born in Manchester in 1990, is a composer and improvising-trombonist. He studied jazz and composition in London at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. Awards include an Ivor Novello Composer Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. His music has been released on labels including Listenpony and Everest Records, and, most recently, “Music for Bosch People” on Birmingham Record Company/NMC Recordings. Alex describes his music “like minimal but loads more notes like video-games but with more song like jazz but much more gay like old music but more current like yummy sweet but more stick like paint but more scratch like tapestry but filthily like prayer but more loud like loud groove and more rude like fingers and faces too but somehow more smelly like smelly things cooking with more chew and change like louder prayers that groove with like stinking-hotpink in poo-brown but even more desperate-like than that like drums and Dream Musics …” Upcoming projects include new commissions for Explore Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, and two portrait albums: “ilolli-pop” on nonclassical in October 2022 and “Happy Music for Orchestra” on Delphian in 2023.

diana syrse

Connected Identities (2017–2021) 18 & 16 min

Part I: Connected Identities

Part II: The Invention of Sex

1.1.1.1.sax - 1.1.1.1 - 3percpf - 1.1.2.2.2 - electronics

The Myth of Possession (2022) 70 min Ne-opera

2S.Bar.5dancers.cl.barsax.pf. perc.vl.db.electronics

Der Kiosk (2020) 40 min Music theatre for children Ms.cl.perc.vla.electronics

Géante Rouge (2020) 8 min 2.2.2.2 - 4.2.2.1 - timp.2perc14.12.10.8.6

Pensar en Quetzales (2021) 16 min

S - cl.hrn.perc.pf.vl.vla.vc.dbwith traditional instruments

La Dialéctica de los Erotes (2019) 20 min for bass clarinet and string quartet

LA Times

Diana Syrse, born in Mexico City in 1984, is a composer and a vocal artist. After studying voice and composi tion at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, she completed a Master as composer-performer at the California Institute of the Arts, followed by a master at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. Currently, she is finishing her PhD at the University of Birmingham. Among others, Syrse has won the Music Prize of the City of Munich and the Counterpoint of Tolerance Project of Los Angeles. She was also selected for residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and at the Deutsches Zentrum in Venice.

Diana Syrse’s sonic language often incorporates voice, electronics and traditional instruments from Latin America to evoke powerful, theatrical images. In her urban soundscape, she deals with socially relevant issues and makes an artistic contribution to the discourses of our time.

Diana’s upcoming projects include a commission by Los Angeles Master Chorale, a new work for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, a new duo for the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, and a portrait concert with herself as a soloist in Mexico City with the Orquesta Escuela Carlos Chávez.

“ Syrse is an arresting singer as well as composer (…) who appears destined to play a defining role in the future of Mexican music”