Composition, Orchestration & Artistic Research - From Score to Sound | International Mentorship with Lina Tonia

A work-in-progress approach — from score to sound 

Online | November 2026 Edition 

Applications open internationally 

Composer Lina Tonia is opening a limited number of places for an international, individually tailored mentorship programme for composers developing a new work. 

The programme is centred entirely on the participant’s own music. Rather than following a predetermined syllabus, the mentoring process develops from the artistic, structural and technical questions arising from each composition itself. 

Particular attention is given to contemporary compositional techniques, structure and formal development, timbre as a compositional parameter, orchestration, instrumental writing, extended techniques and contemporary notation, as well as to the crucial relationship between the written score and its sounding result. 

The aim is to support each composer in developing an individual musical language with greater clarity, imagination and technical control — without imposing a particular aesthetic direction. 

A work-in-progress, revision-based approach 

A central feature of the mentorship is the opportunity to follow the evolution of the same work over time. 

Each composer enters the programme with a composition in development. The work is revisited at successive stages, allowing ideas discussed during the sessions to be tested in practice, revised and reassessed in the music itself. 

The mentoring process therefore moves beyond a one-time evaluation of a score: it creates a dialogue between musical intention, compositional decision, revision and sounding result. 

From score to sound 

Particular emphasis is placed on how compositional decisions translate into actual sound: how orchestration, register, balance, instrumental technique, articulation, notation and timbral organisation shape what is ultimately heard. 

For projects involving interdisciplinary ideas, the mentorship may also address artistic research and the question of how material originating outside music — scientific, visual, conceptual or otherwise — can be transformed into an autonomous compositional language. 

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November 2026 Mentorship 

A maximum of five composers will be selected for the first edition. 

Each participant will develop one principal work through: 

• - four individual online sessions of 75–90 minutes 
• - advance study and detailed discussion of the participant’s score 
• - feedback on successive stages of the composition 
• - guidance concerning structure, orchestration, timbre, instrumental writing, extended techniques and notation 
• - a final session devoted to the work in its advanced or completed form 

The mentorship will take place over approximately 8–10 weeks, allowing sufficient time for writing and revision between sessions. 

All mentoring sessions are individual. 

Programme fee: €850 

Application deadline: 5 November 2026 

Programme begins: mid-November 2026 

A further edition is planned for early 2027

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Focused Composition Consultation 

Two-Session Format 

For composers who do not wish to join the full mentorship, a limited number of 4–5 consultation places are available. 

The format consists of two individual 60-minute sessions devoted to the same work or project. 

The first session identifies and explores the artistic and technical questions arising from the piece. The composer then has time to revise and develop the work before returning for a second session. 

This two-stage format allows the consultation to include not only feedback, but also revision, development and reassessment. 

2 × 60-minute individual sessions Fee: €250 

Consultations are available on a rolling basis, subject to availability. 

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Who can apply 

The programme is open internationally to advanced composition students, emerging composers and professional composers. 

There is no age limit and no prescribed compositional aesthetic. 

Applicants should have previous experience in composition and should be developing — or preparing to begin — a work that they wish to explore through the mentoring process. 

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Application 

For the November Mentorship, please submit: 

• - a short biography of up to 250 words 
• - 1–2 representative scores 
• - recordings, where available 
• - a short description of the work you intend to develop during the mentorship 
• - a brief statement describing the artistic or technical questions you would particularly like to explore 

For the Focused Composition Consultation, please submit: 

• - the score or work in progress you would like to discuss 
• - a short biography 
• - a brief description of the questions or areas you would like the sessions to address 

No application fee. 

Applications: linatonia@yahoo.gr 

Website: www.linatonia.com 

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About Lina Tonia 

Lina Tonia is an internationally performed and award-winning Greek composer whose music has been presented across Europe, North America and Asia by leading orchestras and ensembles including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Arditti Quartet, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, Athens State Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Court-Circuit Ensemble and the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonia. Her work has appeared in major international contemporary-music contexts including Wien Modern, Music Biennale Zagreb, IRCAM/ManiFeste and the Takefu Contemporary Music Festival. Her scores are published by Universal Edition, Donemus and other international publishers. 

She has received more than forty international awards and distinctions in composition, including prizes and distinctions in Austria, Spain, Russia, Germany, France, Poland, the United States and elsewhere. Her recent distinctions include the Prix du public in Paris for L’Invisible sonore and First Prize at the 20th Andrey Petrov International Composers Competition for Jupiter III. Her career combines extensive international compositional activity with long-standing experience in university-level composition teaching. 

Tonia holds a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Edinburgh. A distinctive dimension of her artistic research concerns the sounds of space. During her postdoctoral research Touching the Sounds of Space: Analysis of Cosmic Music as Heard from Earth, Saturn and Jupiter, she worked with material from NASA spacecraft missions, investigating structures observed in recordings and data associated with Earth, Saturn and Jupiter and transforming these findings through independent compositional decisions. Her broader practice encompasses orchestral and chamber composition, contemporary instrumental techniques, orchestration, timbre, notation and artistic research.