FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS

Introduction

• The Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship is awarded by the City of Weimar. The successful recipient will be expected to explore and develop a unique project concept over the two-year period of the Fellowship, culminating in an artefact inspired by the example of Glenn Gould.

• Their Project will be fully funded by the Fellowship and the recipient will be fully supported and mentored by the Fellowship team throughout the two-year period of the Fellowship.

The Applicant

• The Fellowship is for an outstanding, professionally established musician.

• By the application deadline, (i.e., on September 30th, 2023), the applicant must be at least 23 years of age - a mature artist with a visionary project concept that focuses on music from the Baroque period (constituted here to mean Western Music composed between 1600 and 1750).  

The Project Concept

• The Project Concept must be unique, and capable of being developed into an artefact, which will be fully and successfully realised and preserved for future reference.

• The applicant’s project concept must focus on a musical work (or set of works) from the Baroque period, by a particular composer or set of composers; must have a compelling musical vision at its core; must go beyond the obvious or the everyday, and thereby reveal something of that questing intellect mentioned earlier.

• An example of a banal concept might be – I want to record a series of Vivaldi concertos. Whereas a better, more appropriate version could read something like – I want to tackle head-on the old myth that Vivaldi wrote one concerto 300 times. I want to unearth the extraordinary variety found in these works; I want to put together an original narrative, a new picture of what Vivaldi actually achieved throughout these concertos.

• Challenging mythologies, common perceptions, or misconceptions and outdated ways of doing things, are always welcome – so long as they reveal a fresh conception of the music, that can be convincingly and persuasively realised.

• In one of his last essays on Glenn Gould, the literary critic Edward Said placed Glenn Gould within a larger tradition, not of concert pianists, but of intellectuals. Said’s idea is that Gould thought and worked like an intellectual and in this way has more in common with figures such as Julien Benda or Jean Paul Sartre. The idea is that Gould thought both critically and independently about the traditions and practices which he found himself engaging with – and his work stands as both a critique and reconsideration of those same traditions and practices. The GGBF encourages work of a similar nature – work, that questions, broadens, challenges and re-shapes our understanding of the great musical inheritance of the Baroque period.

The Role of Technology in Projects

• The purpose of using technology is to capture and enhance the project’s unique intricacies. When we say, ‘engage in technology in an innovative way,’ we mean using technology to bring out these unique qualities – while ensuring they remain musically focused.

• The technology must always, therefore, be at the service of the music to help the artist capture their musical vision. It should never be an end in itself.

Completing the Artefact

• Applicants should consider the final artefact produced on completion of the Fellowship. This will be placed in the newly designed Glenn Gould Bach Archive which will preserve and exhibit the artefact.

• Artefacts can take many forms – but must be exhibitable in the Glenn Gould Bach Archive. These artefacts will be permanently preserved and publicly available. Therefore, applicants should aim to produce artefacts that will endure over time.

• The GGBF team, is ready to work with each GGB Fellow – providing advice and support in every way they can – and to answer any questions with regard to the Archive.

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