GLENN GOULD BACH FELLOWSHIP
ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP
FELLOWSHIP DETAILS
The successful Glenn Gould Bach Fellow will receive a total stipendiary budget of €50,000 (Fifty Thousand Euro) over the course of their Fellowship - i.e. over the two year period of the Fellowship. In addition to this, a budget of up to €90,000 (Ninety Thousand Euro) will be provided towards the production and realization of their Fellowship project.
Each Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship will last two years. Project proposals should be artistically ambitious and applicants should consider how they might realise the project over the course of the Fellowship. Project proposals should also engage with technology in imaginative ways.
All recorded and filmed materials along with all collated parts that go into the creation of the final project will be placed in a special new archive that will be managed by an appointed curator. Each project will be made freely accessible to the public and be disseminated throughout the world through various formats - from the digital archive online to organized installation and presentational events. The Archive will also, on request, make freely available its materials to relevant educational institutions and bodies as well as to researchers and pedagogues alike.
FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS
Applications for the Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship are open to any virtuoso - instrumentalist or vocalist. At the time of applying (i.e. on September 30th 2022), applicants must be at least 23 years of age. Applicants should be a mature artist with a visionary project that centres on art-music from the Baroque period (constituted here to mean Western Art-Music composed between 1600 and 1750).
The successful applicant will be a virtuoso of exceptional ability with a questing intellect. They will have an established track record of international achievement and have produced work commensurate with same.
Projects must be centered on the music of J.S. Bach and/or of music from the Baroque Period (as defined above). Applicants are welcome to explore their subject from any angle; though an in-depth consideration must be given to the final artistic artefact(s) that will be produced and placed in the Fellowship Archive. There must also be an imaginative engagement with technology and its role in the production of the project.
FELLOWSHIP STRUCTURE
At the end of their first year, the Fellow will present a portion of their project, whilst at the end of their second year, the completed project will be unveiled. In both instances, the presentation events will take place at the Thuringia Bach Festival in Germany.
Fellows will also prepare for two private presentations that will take place in front of the Monitoring Committee. These presentations will take place at the half-way point during each of the two years and will provide a further opportunity to review the Fellow's progress in addition to mentoring, advising and helping the Fellow to realise their project goals.
At the beginning of each fellowship, an agreed calendar of expectations will be put in place. In cases where the Monitoring Committee deem that the Fellow is not making satisfactory progress or no longer seems able to realistically or successfully deliver their project, the fellowship granted to that individual will be discontinued.
EXPLORING THE BAROQUE
With its combination of extravagance and control the music of the Baroque - constituted here to mean Western Art-Music composed between 1600 and 1750 - stands as one of the high points in European musical history. The polyphonic textures and structures, often of great complexity, invite continual re-interpretation, just as its structural severities demand the greatest discipline. The Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship presents a visionary musician with the chance to reimagine this extraordinary music for audiences of the 21st century and in the process engage in new and exciting ways with this rich and vital heritage.