Composer Portraits @ impuls Festival
The project Front Row Seat, launched during the COVID pandemic, provided artists from various disciplines with a creative outlet at a time when social life came to an abrupt halt. In 2021, the project was renamed and continued under the title Composer Portraits.
The focus of the video portrait series Composer Portraits is now on the nominees of the international impuls composition competition. Every two years, impuls—an International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music—awards composition commissions. These new musical pieces are premiered during the biennial festival by the renowned Klangforum Wien, one of the world's leading ensembles in this field, at the Helmut List Halle in Graz, Austria.
With Composer Portraits, the AVL Cultural Foundation enables the commissioned composers to depict their creative ideas, showcase their sources of inspiration, and provide a behind-the-scenes look into their compositional process.
The video series differs from other formats in that the composers become the creators of their own films. The young musicians film and create their own video footage, thus providing very personal insights into their artistic methods. The post-production of the video recordings is done by the Austrian film production company HENX.