Ink Still Wet
Success storiesPublished: 13 March 2025
The future
of musicMusic is in good hands in Grafenegg. Top international orchestras, soloists and conductors of the highest standing have performed throughout the entire venue each summer since 2007. Whether at the Wolkenturm, with its swooshing opulence, up close in the Reitschule and castle courtyard or in the sublime ambience of the auditorium - the air in Grafenegg is filled with music. Each year, Grafenegg welcomes a composer in residence with their own pieces, a newly commissioned work, discussion rounds and, since 2011, as director of a unique institution - the Composer-Conductor-Workshop Ink Still Wet, or ISW for short. The concept: aspiring composers are given the opportunity to rehearse their own works with a professional orchestra and perform (or premiere) in front of an audience. In the process, they learn how to best express their own ideas in the score, how to communicate effectively with musicians and how to make efficient use of rehearsal time with the orchestra. Every year, the final concert of the Ink Still Wet Composer-Conductor Workshop is an exciting highlight in the midst of Grafenegg’s summer concert programme: ISW has established itself as a magnet and stepping stone for the new generation of music creators.
Almost 70 composers from all over the world have taken part in Ink Still Wet over the past 14 years. The number of annual applications has risen steadily and currently stands at almost 200 applicants per year. The selection process is carried out by the current Composer in Residence him/herself. A first encounter and introduction in Grafenegg follows in spring, and the time until the festival is used for composing, coaching- and feedback sessions.
We have invited nine of the about 70 young composers to talk about their memories and their careers since their time at Ink Still Wet.
Portraits
Franz Ferdinand August Rieks
2014«Migremus per Finientem»
He is the youngest participant in the history of ISW. In the year of his participation (2014), Franz Ferdinand celebrated his 16th birthday, and even then, the young artist could show a long list of achievements. In the years following Ink Still Wet, Franz Ferdinand August Rieks continued to focus on his work as an «artist - composer – performer», as his official biography describes. In 2019, he was Composer in Residence himself at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, and in 2024 he completed his master's degree under Wolfgang Rihm. Commissioned works, portrait concerts, residencies, appearances as a pianist and performer... Franz Ferdinand's world is a polyphony.
He puts his memories of Grafenegg into marvellous metaphors: «my time at the Grafenegg Festival was a midsummer night's dream» and about the first moment standing on the podium of the orchestra:
«when I stepped onto the stage [...] as a 16-year-old, stretched out my arm for the first time as a conductor, closed my eyes for a moment, opened them and looked into the faces of this wonderful orchestra, the fagottist smiled at me with anticipation, with whose solo the premiere began, on the left the concertmaster, who was right beside me, began, in my back this intense week with complete dedication of jörg widmann ...»
There is no doubt that Franz Ferdinand experienced in Grafenegg how it is like for a composer to step out of himself and begin an intensive exchange with his surroundings. We will hear more from him.
Tomasz Skweresz
2018 und 2019«Critical Mass» für Orchester, Teil III
3. Satz aus «Plutonion» für OrchesterOnly very few Ink Still Wet participants have taken part in the workshop more than once. Tomasz Skweresz (*1984) is one of them; two of the composers in residence have independently selected his scores. Born in Poland, Tomasz now lives alternately in Vienna and Middle Franconia, where he works as a composer, solo cellist (Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and occasionally as a teacher at universities.
The list of awards that the composer received after his second ISW year in 2019 is impressive: in the USA, he was awarded the Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition (2nd place), two years later he won the Earplay International Composer Competition and the Gilgamesh International Composition Competition, both in the USA as well. In 2024, the city of Regensburg awarded him the Kulturförderpreis, previously he had already received the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition. The list of clients is similarly prominent, ranging from the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra to the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Austrian Ensemble for New Music (Salzburg), the Madrid Festival Orchestra, Ensemble Zeitfluss and many more.
Grafenegg was «an incredibly wonderful experience for him. Above all, it was a great emotional experience to be able to stand in front of such a wonderful orchestra and bring my work to life. Particularly important and helpful were the always very cooperative suggestions from the individual orchestra musicians. The easy-going get-togethers with the other composers and the interesting conversations [...] were a great enrichment as well.»
Anyone interested in the music of our time will hear a work by Tomasz Skweres, sooner rather than later. His music accompanies our musical life with its expressive liveliness.
Hannah Eisendle
2020«crushed ice II»
Unfortunately, women at the conductor's podium are still the exception. All the more reason for the Austrian music scene to be delighted with Hannah Eisendle, a multi-talented, highly gifted composer, pianist and conductor at the start of her career. An example? Her orchestral work «heliosis» was commissioned by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, premiered under Marin Alsop and subsequently performed in Madrid, Paris and at the BBC Proms in London. It is perhaps fair to say that Hannah Eisendle is an Austrian export hit.
And Grafenegg has been an important stop on her journey so far:
«Ink Still Wet was the beginning of my career as a composer. What's special about it is, you gain a deeper understanding of your own work when you look at it from the perspective of a conductor. Experiencing this with skilled mentors and in dialogue with other composers is what makes the Ink Still Wet concept so incomparable.»
So, it was in Grafenegg that Hannah Eisendle's journey as a composer began. Meanwhile, her works have been included in the programmes of Marin Alsop, Manfred Honeck and Cristian Măcelaru, among others. She has received commissions from the Vienna Concert-Verein, the Carinthian Summer Festival and the Vienna State Opera, among others. With Boosey & Hawkes, she is represented by one of the world's most prominent publishers. Hannah Eisendle can also be heard conducting in many places: at the Klagenfurt City Theatre, where she has been Kapellmeister and accompanist since 2023; as well as conducting the Tonkunstler-Orchestra of Lower Austria and as an assistant at the Orchestre National de France, to name just a few. And as part of the Johann Strauss Year 2025, Hannah Eisendle will conduct a new production of «Wiener Blut».
Donghoon Shin
2021«Of Rats and Men»
One of the ISW participants who has already fully established himself internationally is South Korean Donghoon Shin. Since 2014, he has been living in London, where he is currently pursuing a doctorate in composition with Sir George Benjamin at King's College London alongside his work as a composer.
While he regularly receives commissions from top orchestras, his own experience of conducting at Ink Still Wet in Grafenegg was something extraordinary for him:
«As a composer, we usually sit in the audience during rehearsals. ISW was a rare opportunity for me to hear my music on stage and on the podium and to work with great orchestral musicians from the Tonkunstler-Orchestra.»
With Donghoon Shin, it's hard to choose whether to mention the works he has already composed and premiered - or the commissions for new works he is currently working on. Perhaps a little bit of both: after Grafenegg, he won the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and wrote his cello concerto «Nachtergebung» for the 50th anniversary of the Karajan Academy, which premiered the piece with Bruno Delepelaire as soloist under the conduction of Kirill Petrenko. In January 2025, Donghoon Shin's Viola Concerto was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonics under Tugan Sokhiev with violist Amihai Grosz; the work was commissioned jointly with the Tonkunstler-Orchestra Lower Austria, the Minnesota Orchestra and Gyeong-gi Philharmonic. The rest of 2025 will also bring a new violin sonata for Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes as well as a new orchestral work commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Donghoon Shin and his career as a composer are among the outstanding success stories of contemporary music.
Tanja Elisa Glinsner
2022«Ein Baum. Entwurzelt. Der ins Leere fällt.»
Tanja Elisa Glinsner was born in Linz and initially studied composition. She then went on to study singing in Vienna - an exception for composers - and has also been studying music drama in Vienna since 2021. Her approach to music as a conductor, singer and stage actress is also reflected in her works.
In 2024, she won the Austrian Composers (former ÖKB) «Call for Scores Orchestral Works» in cooperation with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wien Modern and the Arnold Schönberg Centre. In November, her composition «Ein Baum. Entwurzelt. Der ins Leere fällt» was performed at the Musikverein Vienna, two years after the ISW concert in Grafenegg. Also in 2024, Tanja Elisa Glinsner, in tandem with librettist Lea Willeke, won the short operetta competition at the Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl as part of the Capital of Culture programme: «Goldaustrudl oder Die Sch(t)rumpfende Stadt» premiered in July as one of three short operettas. And in October 2024, her short opera «Schweig still, mein Stein» was presented for the first time in Frankfurt with the Ensemble Modern. Tanja Elisa has received several awards for her work, including the Dr.-Helmut-Sohmen Composition Prize, the Ö1 Talentebörse Composition Prize, the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition and the Theodor Körner Prize - the list goes on. At the same time, she sings at the Theater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich (Third Lady in Mozart's «Zauberflöte») and other mezzo roles in concerts.
Portrait
For her, the stay in Grafenegg as part of Ink Still Wet was «a fantastic, indispensable all-round experience full of opportunities: from the Ö1 Klassiktreffpunkt [...] to very intensive conversations with Georg Friedrich Haas during the composition process - which practically made me ‘grow’ as a composer - to the rehearsals [...] with the Tonkunstler-Orchestra. With great conducting coaching from Baldur Brönnimann, Ink Still Wet and the opportunity to experience first-hand how the orchestral musicians react immediately to my work during the rehearsal process was a truly ground-breaking and mind-expanding experience for me as a conductor and composer.»
Lisa Streich
2022«Mantel»
«I would recommend future participants to try out things that you can't try out in the regular course of work. This opportunity will most probably not occur again. » Lisa Streich addresses what is one of the main aims of Ink Still Wet: an opportunity to experiment, to work in a structured environment with creative freedom.
The Swedish-born composer has also studied the organ in Berlin, Stockholm, Salzburg, Paris and Cologne. She also is on the best path to establishing herself internationally amongst the leading composers. Her most recent successes: in 2024 Lisa Streich was Composer in Residence at the Lucerne Festival and with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Other commissioners include the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Choir, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Shizuoka Concert Hall. Her works are published by Ricordi Berlin. Among her numerous awards, three should be mentioned as examples: the Orchestra Prize of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize and the Villa Massimo Rome Prize.
Portrait
The dialogue on music, art and its possibilities is of particular importance to Lisa Streich; that is something you can feel when her music is being performed. Accordingly, her reflection on Ink Still Wet:
«ISW has provided me with a world inside the conductor for which I am very, very grateful and which has helped me a lot with developing my ideas further - in artistic, practical and also ethical terms.»
José Luis Valdivia Arias
2022«In Effigie»
Ink Still Wet has become increasingly prominent over the years - which is also reflected in the variety of the participants' nationalities. It is also fascinating to observe what could later be realised after or even because of ISW.
«Ink Still Wet laid the first solid foundation of my career, I feel like that's really where it all began. After the programme, I submitted the audios from ISW to Tanglewood and the Lucerne Festival and was selected by both, which led to two new orchestral pieces, and so on.»
Portrait
A career gains momentum here. José Luis Valdivia Arias, born in Spain, was in Grafenegg in 2022; in the same year, he composed his piece «Hyperconnected Fragmentations» as a scholar at the Tanglewood Music Centre and won first prize at the 33rd Young Composers Award of the Fundación SGAE-CNDM with his work «Arya». His successful career continues: he recently won the prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize and the Ibermusicas Prize for his work «Al-Zahra». He proudly announced on Instagram in the summer of 2024:
«My new orchestral piece ‘Cyberpunk’ is finished! It will be premiered at the @lucernefestival as part of the Lucerne Festival Academy Composer Seminar - Anniversary Edition. The concert will be on the 25 of August, performed by the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra».
It's refreshing when composers tell us about their work on social media!
Grafenegg could contribute to José Luis' career; he has fond memories of the organisation of Ink Still Wet:
«I felt so well treated, the Tonkunstler-Orchestra and the team took care of every little detail in order to make sure everything ran perfectly. I really miss it, they are just great and inspiring people, and everything was just so professional. They really know how to make a composer happy.»
And he has some advice for everyone taking part in the upcoming ISW workshops:
«Enjoy it, it's unique. Don't waste the weeks worrying and being nervous about conducting, it will all be fine. Concentrate on the work, don't think about anything else [...] Think more about the process than the completed piece, the piece is the result of a process. »
Otto Wanke
2023«Micrographies»
Works that were composed for Ink Still Wet and premiered in Grafenegg were later honoured in further ways. The orchestral piece «Micrographies» by Otto Wanke is one example: the Ö1 editors submitted his piece for Grafenegg to the «International Rostrum of Composers» competition, which has existed since 1954 - «Micrographies» was awarded as one of nine works in the category «Recommended Works» ; Otto Wanke's composition was thus included by several radio stations in their respective programmes and is estimated to have been broadcast several hundred times. Previous winners of the «Rostrum» competition include Luciano Berio, Tōru Takemitsu, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Erin Gee and Georg Friedrich Haas.
Otto Wanke was born in the Czech Republic and lives in Vienna, where he studied with Iris ter Schiphorst, Wolfgang Liebhart and Karlheinz Essl, among others. He was an assistant at the Institute for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 2018 to 2022. Since 2020, he has been a university assistant for electroacoustic and multimedia composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno.
In his work, he does not exclusively focus on music; installations, visual art, sound art and interactive media are his means of artistic expression as well.
Otto Wanke's oeuvre ranges from music for solo instruments to orchestral works and two operas, in which he utilises instruments, voice, electronics and sound objects. In his work, Otto Wanke draws inspiration from nature and the physical world to translate his perceptions into an abstract and expressive musical language - a work that has been successful beyond the world of music. As recently as 2024, Otto Wanke won the main category of the «Sounds of Matter» competition for his piece «... Connections ...».
And what impact has Grafenegg had? Otto Wanke:
«I can highly recommend the participation in Ink Still Wet! Gaining practical experience plays a central role for young composers, and the collaboration with a professional orchestra offers a particularly important experience in this context. The possibility to rehearse a new composition as a conductor with the Tonkunstler-Orchestra was an exciting challenge for me. The practice-orientated work process and the thorough preparation and analysis phase gave me many important impulses for my further work.»
Tina Geroldinger
2023«Drops of paint» still wet
Tina Geroldinger concludes her own short portrait on her website as follows:
«... She wants to challenge the audience with her music but keep them engaged with humour.» She certainly succeeded in this with her two-movement orchestral piece «Drops of paint» still wet, which she premiered in Grafenegg. The concert marked the start of a whole series of positive developments for her:
«It's only been a year since Ink Still Wet, and I'm surprised at how much has happened in that one year and what impact this workshop made ...»
To name a few:
She completed her bachelor's degree at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz in June 2024 and has been studying composition at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Sarah Nemtsov since last autumn. Her participation in ISW in Grafenegg also attracted the attention of commissioners. Last year alone, she composed works for the Ensemble Cantando Admont (première in Linz's Mariendom), for the HermesEnsemble as part of «The Times Academy», the Ried Symphonic Wind Orchestra on behalf of the Upper Austrian Composers' Association, the Upper Austrian Sinfonietta, the AMBITUS Group, Trio Zallt, EnsembleVokal and several others. Anyone who follows her on social media can regularly read and hear news about Tina Geroldinger’s career.
She herself describes ISW as «... a turning point in being ’taken seriously‘ as a young composer - accompanied by many commissions for a wide variety of instrumentations; ... consciously questioning the written from a conducting perspective when composing and thinking concretely about practical organisation and feasibility; ... the development of a confidence to be able to master large-scale compositions and orchestras - and to be able to access this self-confidence in stressful everyday situations; ... motivation & encouragement; ... and last but not least: Friendship - such a marvellous team dynamic ...»
You can tell that the days in Grafenegg were of great benefit to her; it is even more rewarding to see how Tina Geroldinger's path continues to progress successfully. The Ink Still Wet team is always delighted when the careers of aspiring composers receive a boost from the workshop. And the feeling is mutual, Tina is delighted too:
«... a luxurious project and a great personal challenge from which I have grown enormously. This experience will stay with me for a long time. THANK YOU for your trust!»
Ink Still Wet
Closing ConcertTonkunstler Orchestra · Participants of the composer conductor workshop Ink Still Wet · Alexander Moore · Fabián Panisello
PANISELLO / PARTICIPANTS OF THE COMPOSER CONDUCTOR WORKSHOP