A Journey of Artistic Discovery Across Europe
[simulator] I. [OPEN CALL] for SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA PERFORMERS
.abeceda Institute [Institute for research in art, critical thought, and philos…
Deadline
Participation fee
Individual applicants:– 400 EUR [early application - submitted and confirmed applications submitted within the first three days following the opening of the call - before September 3]
– 500 EUR [students]
– 600 EUR [standard application]
– 700 EUR [payment plan in 2 installments]
Auditors:
– 150 EUR
Details
[simulator] I.
RESIDENCY PROGRAM for SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA PERFORMERS
[2026/2027]
SOURCE, SUBSTANCE, AND STRUCTURE
Performance as Musical Knowledge: Genealogies and Futures
An international residency investigating the historical foundations and future trajectories of symphonic orchestra performance.
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FORMAT:
Stage I. | October 2026
- 2 online seminars
- Participants present their artistic practices, performance methodologies, and works in progress
- Q&A
Stage II. | December 2026
- 2 online seminars
- Critical inquiry and practice-led experimentation centered on SOURCE, SUBSTANCE, AND STRUCTURE: Performance as Musical Knowledge
- Q&A
Stage III. | June 2027
- Performances, lecture-performances, simulation laboratories, and research presentations at the seventh Bled Contemporary Music Week in Bled, Slovenia
The [simulator] residency approaches symphonic orchestra performance as a historically situated form of musical knowledge. It brings together an international cohort of orchestral performers to investigate how embodied techniques, memory, repertoires, instruments, technologies, conducting practices, rehearsal processes, and collective relations enter performance and shape emergent musical form.
The program is structured around three interdependent fields of inquiry. SOURCE concerns the conditions, inheritances, and resources from which symphonic orchestra performance emerges. SUBSTANCE examines its material, embodied, sonic, and perceptual constitution. STRUCTURE traces the processes through which musical relations acquire coherence, generate form, and transform over time.
Throughout the online sessions, participants develop performances, recordings, artistic research, writing, and experimental formats. Sustained exchange with peers and mentors enables them to articulate their methodologies, critically examine underlying assumptions, and situate their practices in relation to historical lineages and future-oriented experimentation.
The residency culminates at the seventh Bled Contemporary Music Week in Bled, Slovenia, EU, where participants present their work through performances, lecture-performances, interpretative laboratories, and research presentations. The program advances symphonic orchestra performance as both an artistic practice and a mode of inquiry through experimentation, critical reflection, documentation, international exchange, and collaboration.
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APPLY by September 15, 2026
More information: https://simulator-i.com/
Deadline
Participation fee
Individual applicants:– 400 EUR [early application - submitted and confirmed applications submitted within the first three days following the opening of the call - before September 3]
– 500 EUR [students]
– 600 EUR [standard application]
– 700 EUR [payment plan in 2 installments]
Auditors:
– 150 EUR