First Day

Workshop – Lecture – Opening Ceremony – Opening Concert – Concert

6 September 2025

Events
Joachim Heintz - Workshop

Advanced Csound

12:00 - 14:00 | Tehran Time
Michael Edwards - Lecture

Learning to Forget the Past; Yearning to Forget the Future

14:30 - 16:00 | Tehran Time
Opening Ceremony

19:00 - 20:00 | Music Museum

Opening Concert

Curated by TIEMF
20:15 - 21:00 | Music Museum

Concert 2

Curated by Thomas Gorbach
20:15 - 21:00 | Music Museum

Events

Workshop

Summary

The workshop is dedicated to program some musical structures as algorithms. We will start from a musical idea and try to find means how to code them in Csound. As a side line, we will also cover some new programming features in Csound 7.

Google Meet
Joachim Heintz is a composer and writer living in Hannover, Germany. He tries to understand a minor part of the overwhelming reality (to hear a sound, to see faces and gestures, to go shopping, to watch news) in his compositions and texts. For practicing meditation, he spends some time in programming in the old-fashioned way: Thinking, writing code, understanding error messages, and contributing to some Open Source activities, in particular Csound. He loves teaching, as a shared activity of being creative, together, perhaps for the benefit of something unknown.
Website
Michael Edwards is a composer, improvisor, software developer, and since 2017 Professor of Electronic Composition at ICEM, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany. His compositional interests lie mainly in the development of structures for hybrid electro-instrumental pieces through the integration of algorithmically produced scored materials with similarly generated computer-processed sound. His compositions have been played worldwide at many international festivals, including the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, the International Computer Music Conference, the Zagreb Biennale, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival. Edwards studied composition at Bristol University with Adrian Beaumont and privately with Gwyn Pritchard. In 1991 he moved to the US for further studies in computer music with John Chowning at CCRMA, Stanford University. (Photo © Rebecca ter Braak)

Lecture

Summary

Learning to Forget the Past; Yearning to Forget the Future: This talk will focus on prognoses (and their impossibility) both in general and for the electronic music of the near future, with reference to past developments (and past prognoses). It will touch on the continuing relevance of what has historically been called tape music: its practice and its reception; current and future technologies (not limited to AI); the potential of Music Apps; metanarratives in general but also as an approach to musical form (and its perception); and the teaching of electronic music. The second part will introduce my piece from the concert, voir (remix), as well as the technologies it arose from.

Google Meet

Opening Ceremony

19:00 – 20:00 | Music Museum

Daniel Teruggi (b. 1952, Argentina), a physicist turned composer, directed the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at INA for over three decades, leading pioneering efforts in audiovisual preservation and composing over 90 electroacoustic works performed worldwide. Retired since 2018, he remains active in music and audiovisual preservation pursuits. photo (c) Pierre Grossman

Program Notes

Phonomaggio (2023) Phonomaggio is a tribute to the Studio of Phonology in Milan, a pioneering institution in electroacoustic work whose name evokes the voice and the search for new languages. Founded by RAI in 1955 by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna, it has been an important center of musical thought on the possible uses of electronic tools. Luciano Berio composed there one of the emblematic works of the 1950s, the Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) which pays homage to James Joyce and to the voice of Cathy Berberian who recites chapter 11, Sirens from the Ulysses. No references, no allusions, a simple tribute through the memories of listening; the captivating voice of Cathy Berberian and the swirling treatments of her voice. A tribute also to the laborious studio-work involved at that time in the composition of "electronic" music, as it was called in Italy and "concrete" as Pierre Schaeffer had baptized it in France. Omaggio allora al maestro Berio.

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Frisius (1941, Hamburg, Germany) studied mathematics, philosophy and musicology with a focus on new music. Since 1959 he regularly participated in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, accompanied productions in electro-acoustic studios in Munich, Utrecht, Cologne, Paris and Bourges, and attended seminars and courses by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, Riedl, Iannis Xenakis, François Bayle, Wolfgang Rihm, Pierre Henry and John Cage, among others. He has taught in Germany, France, Greece, Austria as well as in India, Korea and Japan. In addition to numerous radio broadcasts, he has published books and articles on music theory (including »Untersuchungen über den Akkordbegriff«, 1969; »Notation und Composition«, 1980), composers of older and newer music (Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Charles Ives, Arnold Schönberg, John Cage, Anton Webern, Mauricio Kagel, Dieter Schnebel, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Henry and Karlheinz Stockhausen), about improvisation, about new radio play/ acoustic art and about electroacoustic music (for example »Music and Technology«, 1995, edited with Helga de la Motte-Haber). From 1998 to 2005 Rudolf Frisius was chairman of the Institute for New Music and Music Education Darmstadt.
Website
Reza Korourian was born on November 5, 1971 in Tehran. He graduated from the Faculty of Art and Architecture with a Bachelor’s degree in Music. He was also a flutist, guitarist and pianist. He studied Music Theory, Harmony and basic lessons of Composition with Alireza Mashayekhi and continued studying Music Composition at university with Farid Omran and Kiawasch SahebNassagh. He then pursued his passion for composition more seriously with SahebNassagh. He completed his study of Electronic Music under the instruction of Shahrokh Khajenouri and Arvin Sedaghatkish. Korourian was one of the five participants who attended the first electronic music workshop in Iran which was held by Shahrokh Khajenouri. By 2008, he also participated in Joachim Heintz’s electronic music workshop and received conducting lessons by Manuchehr Sahbai. He presented his thesis in Electronic Music and spent years of his life translating reference books about electronic music and composition. His translation of Tom Holms’ article “The Most Impressive Electronic Music Pieces” was published in the 111th volume of “Art of Music” magazine. Two albums of his works have been published by “Contemporary Music Records” so far. The only official performance of his works was in “IC No.3” held by Yarava Music Group and with Khajenouri and SahebNassagh providing the speech, introducing Iranian and the world electronic music composers and presenting the piece “In Dreams” by Korourian. A year later, “In Dreams” was introduced and performed at Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Reza Korourian departed this life in the morning of March 3, 2015.
Niloufar Shahbazi (b. 1995) is a composer and Kamānche player from Tehran, Iran, currently based in London. She has a Master’s degree in Composition from the University of Tehran. Over the years, she has studied with composers such as Sara Abazari, Arman Norouzi, Hans Koolmees, René Uijlenhoet and Joachim Heintz. In recent years, she has received commissions from artists and groups such as Khashayar ‘Kaya’ Amri, the Erasmus Flute Quartet, The Rogue Duo, and St. Stanislas College. She has been awarded the Van Beek Scholarship, the Holland Scholarship, and international composition prizes, including the Petrichor International Music Competition (2022). As a Kamānche player, she began her training in high school in Tehran and later earned a bachelor’s degree in performance. Over the past ten years, she has participated in many concerts, festivals, and recordings across Iran and Europe. Niloufar is also an active member of Yarava Music Group, where she contributes to organizing concerts, festivals, and collaborative projects.
Website

Opening Concert

Curated by TIEMF

20:15 – 21:00 | Music Museum

Arsalan Abedian was born in Tehran, where he received his first musical training on the santur with Omid Sayareh. He began his composition studies in Tehran and continued them at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover. In Tehran, he founded the label Contemporary Music Records and co-initiated the first electroacoustic music competition in Iran, the Reza Korourian Awards, where he also served as a juror and editor. Abedian’s compositional output encompasses works for various ensembles, as well as electroacoustic music and sound installations. His works have been performed at renowned festivals and by ensembles in several countries, and released in various CD series, including those of DEGEM (German Society for Electroacoustic Music).

Program Note

Asphyxia
An unheard aura emerges.
Most of it has been deleted, swallowed, vomited.
What remains are the in-between spaces:
a silence filled with pressure, hatred, breathlessness.
One hears what usually disturbs.
The sound of asphyxia.
Cut, hollowed out, exposed.
A collage of what remains.
Perhaps nothing more than an endless memory.

Program Note

This composition was created by crafting transitions between sonic gestures through detecting and bridging musical distances, seeking similarities between sound events, and constructing paths from one manifestation to the next. ‘Dance Song’ also expresses my passion for world music, utilizing folkloric dance music from different regions of Papua New Guinea.

Year of composition: 2025 (premiere)

Iranian composer Amir Teymuri studied composition and music informatics at the University of Tehran, the University of Music Freiburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt am Main, and the Institute for Music Informatics at the University of Music Karlsruhe in Germany. He was awarded at the First National Biennale for New Music in Tehran and has been a scholarship holder at the Music Section of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, as well as an Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Arts and Urbanistics in Berlin (ZK/U). He is currently a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and the University of Music Karlsruhe.
Jaime Reis (b. 1983) is a Portuguese composer. He studied Composition and Electroacoustic Music with João Pedro Oliveira, Emmanuel Nunes and K. Stockhausen. He continued his PhD Studies at NOVA University in Ethnomusicology. Reis’ music is informed by both his keen interest in cutting-edge research in the natural sciences, and his abiding attention to Asian musical - and indeed spiritual - traditions. One of his focuses is the dynamics of forms, forces and fluxes in music. He explores spatial polyphonic paths through dome-shaped immersive sound systems. Another striking feature of his music is the presence of fairly complex concepts which underpin the construction of his pieces, whilst not in any manner distracting from their sensible beauty. Ideas work as hidden functions which, their intellectual rigour notwithstanding, generate voluptuous musical forms. Reis is Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music in the Lisbon College of Music (ESML), and a researcher at the Nova Institute of Ethnomusicology. He is the artistic director of Festival DME and of Lisboa Incomum, both of which develop an intense activity of research and creation in contemporary music. His music has been performed worldwide by ensembles and musicians such as Christophe Desjardins, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Aida-Carmen Soanea, Ana Telles, Ensemble Fractales, Ensemble Horizonte, Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa, Machina Lírica, Orchestre de Flûtes Français and Aleph Gitarrenquartett.

Program Note

Commissioned within the frame of the project “The Soundscape we live in”, a European Project organized in collaboration with GMVL, Tempo Reale, Amici della musica de Cagliari, AFEA and Ionian University.

The main electronic realization was made in a residency at the Studios of Musiques & Recherches (Belgium, Brussels, Ohain).

Selected as finalist work for the 10th biennal acousmatic composition competition Métamorphoses (Belgium) and Prix Russolo 2018 (France/Italy).

This piece belongs to the cycle Fluxus, whose pieces are inspired by elements of physics and in which musical elements related to physical phenomena on fluid mechanics are developed. This particular piece is centered in ideas related to what I have called “aerial” soundscapes.

The formal development is based on 3 pillars that were inspired by Bernie Krause’s concepts geophony, biophony, and anthropophony (géophonie, biophonie, anthropophonie). The sections are interconnected through specific spatial movements that show or hide their own paths, recognition of sound sources, and other events in order to create moments that are more or less clear in the perception of themselves.

Program Note

Mian (In-Between) is an experimental sound piece inspired by the concept of in-betweenness in both its physical and metaphorical dimensions: being between places, in transit, or caught between situations. This “between” carries instability and unsettledness within itself, yet as it occupies a large part of many lives, people find ways to “settle” in the unsettled—or in the in-between.
This concept is the core of the piece. The main sound sources are recordings made in airplanes and airports (illustrating literal in-between moments) and recordings of feedback (illustrating technical in-betweenness or being caught in loops). The recordings are mostly lo-fi, mirroring the noisy and unclear atmosphere of in-
betweenness. The concept also shapes the form of the piece. Moments of tranquility and tension, intimacy and distance, intertwine—so that the piece itself becomes an in-between object, an in-between experience.

Niayesh Ebrahimi (b. 1995, Tehran) is a composer and improviser whose work explores the intersection of everyday sonic environments and abstract or synthesized soundscapes. She began her musical education in Tehran, where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance, and pursued her Master's degree in Musicology and Electroacoustic Music at the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig, Germany. Her artistic practice spans composition, live electronics, and improvisation, often in collaborative settings. Her works frequently integrate field recordings, digital processing, and instrumental textures, with a particular focus on the spatiality of sound.
Negar Zolfaghar is an Iranian composer and vocalist with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in composition from Tehran University of Art, with final projects Cantata for vocal and Orchestra and a piece for ensemble and video art. During her studies, she worked with notable professors, including Arsalan Abedian, Madjid Tahriri, Bahar Royaee, Karen Keyhani, Mehdi Jalali, Arshia Samsaminia. In 2024, Negar won first place in the “Reza Korourian Award” for her electroacoustic composition, based on the Ney and vocal elements. She also earned second place in the vocal ensemble category at the 2017 “Yerevan Komitas Conservatory's International Festival”.

Program Note

This Piece is a stereo “fixed media” composition, based on the sounds of the “Ney” instrument and vocals. It was created using CsoundQt and Audacity. The full title of the piece is “Within a room, shrouded from the light’s caress, a wandering glimmer traces its solitary path.”. The abbreviated title is “A wandering glimmer traces its solitary path…”. The emotional influence of Sohrab Sepehri’s poem “Unanswered” has been significant in the compositional process. Since the overall structure and form of this piece have been shaped in the form of a coherent whole through the transformation of sonic textures and various timbral contents, the simultaneous and meaningful integration of the streams of sounds or sound fragments with diverse gestures and the existence of focal points in it, and in the path of the piece evolve, therefore, the piece’s texture can be considered holophonic based on the theory of the Greek composer, Panayiotis Kokoras.

Concert

Curated by Thomas Gorbach

21:15 – 22:00 | Music Museum

Beatriz Ferreyra was born in 1937 in Córdoba (Argentina). She studied piano with Celia Bronstein (Buenos Aires 1950-1956), harmony and musical analysis with Nadia Boulanger (1962), electroacoustic music with Edgardo Canton (G.R.M. - France ; R.A.I - Italie 1963) and composition with Earl Brown and Gorgy Ligeti (Darmstad 1967). She worked at O.R.T.F. (French National Television) in Research Department, participating to the Group of Musical Researches (G.R.M.) under the leadership of Pierre Schaeffer (1963-70). She contributed to Pierre Schaeffer’s book « Traité des Objets Musicaux » (1966), to Henri Chiarucci and Guy Reibel’s exploration work : « Relation between pitch and fundamental basis of a musical sound », published in March 1966 in the International Journal of Audiology. Besides, she participated to the realisation of records from « Solfège de l’Objet Sonore » by Pierre Schaeffer (1967). She had an educational function during the G.R.M. training periods as well as the lectures she gave at the courses of National Conservatory of Music in Paris. Has been also in charge of the inter learning subjects seminaries from Research Department. Since 1970 she has been working as a free composer. Worked with Bernard Baschet at his new instruments « Structures Sonores » (1970). En 1975 she became a Member of the « Collège des Compositeurs » created by the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges (G.M.E.B.). Was requested by the Dartmouth College in Electronic Music Department to work on computers (1976), music and film music (1998), while she was interested with inquiries and realisation of pieces applied to muscotherapy (1973-77). She has been Memeber of the Jurys : 4th International Competition of Experimental Musique in Bourges 1976, International Competition of Radiophonic Music Phonurgia Nova in Arles 1978, International competition of Musiques et Recherches « Metamorphoses 2000 » in Bruxelles and,Royal Conservatory of Mons’s Music since 2000, in Belgium. Beatriz Ferreyra created the concerts « Rendez vous de la musique concrète » at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche Pierre Schaeffer » (1998/1999). Since 1967 she had commissions for concerts and festivals : particularly from the G.R.M.(actually INA-GRM), the G.M.E.B since 1971, it became latelky Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (I.M.E.B.) til 2011, the A.C.I.C. (Association pour la Collaboration entre les Instrumentistes et Compositeurs, 1976-90), and French State commisions and had pricewinning till 1975. She composes for concerts, festivals, ballets and films, and gives international seminariesn conferences and interviews. In 2014, she has been elected Honneur Membre of the CIME/ICEM (International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music)

Program Note

Tensioactive substances seem inconspicuous, yet they are of crucial importance: They bridge what repels – liquids with seemingly insurmountable surface tensions come together through their intervention. In the same way, the composition penetrates tensions, dissolves them, and transforms them into new sonic landscapes. It reflects the fragmentation of our world, where contradictions can be guided into a delicate harmony through careful mediation.

Three distinct frictions lead the way: surfaces collide, friction ignites sparks, until a new soundscape opens up. Frequencies intertwine – sharp, crystalline – and unexpectedly reveal a shimmering beauty of their own. The transformation begins: what was once stretched horizontally tips over, pulled by the weight of recoil, where sound seeks its new form – and in the vertical, finds the moment of metamorphosis.

Thomas Gorbach (* 1966) grew up in a little village in the mountains with the shimmering sounds from his brother's accordion, the natural sounds of the surroundings, the four bells of the local Catholic church and the changeable sounds of a synthesizer. Classical music studies in Switzerland and studies of electroacoustic music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2007 he founded the first concert series for acousmatic music in Austria and established the first Austrian acousmonium with the concert association THE ACOUSMATIC PROJECT. Various teaching activities, sound installations, PEEK research project, international concert activities and city of Vienna and state scholarship for composition 2020 and 2024.
Anestis Logothetis | *1920 Burgas_Bulgaria - 1994 Vienna_Austria Born in Burgas on the Black Sea, the Greek studied composition and conducting in Vienna and became an Austrian citizen in 1952. Logothetis gained fame for the development of a graphic notation system to mediate complex sound structures. Among his theoretical writings, refreshing comments about the Viennese musical and cultural scene can be found again and again. It is difficult to report sincerely where hardly a semblance of truth is communicable. Even the most benevolent witness also has the need to hear what he desires and believes, and not what really happened. However, those who were not there suspect exaggeration in everything that exceeds their own abilities. Envy springs from the living in mutual emulation. Only that which no longer stands in our way will be honored with undisputed affection.

Program Note

(1981, 15:09) – computer music realized at the Electronic Music Studio (EMS) in Stockholm.

Logothetis about the parameters of his compositions elsewhere

“complexity of sound and complexity of time, movement, speed, flow and density of sound, dynamization of music.”

In the winter of 1980/81 Logothetis was invited to the Elektronmusikstudion Stiftelsen, EMS Stockholm. There existed a graphical program, IMPAC after Michael Hinton, which made it possible to track movements started with the joystick for a few seconds. Logothetis assigned the values obtained to various parameters for sound generation. These were then layered on top of each other. The sonic possibilities of this program were limited, but the movement possibilities were enormous. It must have been inspiring for Logothetis to be able to implement his aleatoric approach to composition and his knowledge of cybernetics sonically with a computer program.

Program Note

Capture Éphémère is a seminal work of musique concrète, composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1967 at the GRM studios in Paris. The piece explores the ephemeral nature of sound and time, not through traditional musical structures, but through a carefully constructed sequence of concrete sonic events. Its title — “Ephemeral Capture” — already hints at the core idea: attempting to grasp fleeting moments through sound.

Parmegiani creates a temporal landscape in which sounds appear, transform subtly, vanish, or re-emerge in altered contexts. The material consists entirely of recorded sounds, processed and arranged to emphasize their temporal behavior rather than their origin. The spatial dimension plays a key role: originally composed for four channels, the piece uses space as an expressive element, guiding the listener’s attention and enhancing the sense of movement.

Rather than following a narrative or developmental arc, Capture Éphémère unfolds through juxtapositions, transitions, and moments of sonic stasis. Parmegiani’s attention to timbre, gesture, and spatial articulation turns listening itself into a meditation on impermanence.

The piece stands as a vivid example of musique concrète’s philosophical potential: not only to organize sound, but to engage with perception and temporality in profoundly poetic ways.

Bernard Parmegiani (1927–2013) was a French composer and a key figure in musique concrète. Initially trained as a sound engineer at ORTF and later as an actor under Jacques Lecoq, he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in 1959. At GRM, he created numerous influential electroacoustic works, including De Natura Sonorum, Violostries, and Capture Éphémère. Parmegiani also composed for film, television, and radio, bridging the gap between artistic and applied sound. His music is marked by structural clarity, sonic richness, and a profound engagement with the perception of time, space, and the poetic potential of sound.
Category: Festival Days