As a festival of contemporary music and related art forms, the Music Biennale Zagreb generates new
ideas, embraces risks and experiments and unravels new ways of presenting, as well as new
communication channels with the participants of the festival – both artists and audiences. The MBZ
Masterclass workshop for composers emerges from this context and its aim is to enable participants to
improve their creative understanding and hone their composing skills in individual sessions with
prominent composers and in open rehearsals with the ensemble.
The MBZ masterclass for composers was first held at the MBZ Festival in April 2019 with Nina Šenk
(Slovenia), Achim Bornhoeft (Austria) and João Pedro de Oliveira (Brazil/Portugal) as composers-
mentors, together with the workshop’s resident ensemble Riot (UK). In 2021, the workshop was held
online by Alexander Schubert (Germany), Martin Matalone (Argentina/France), Sasha Blondeau (France)
and Raphaël Cendo (France) and was divided into three different segments: (1) one-on-one online
sessions (in which each participant was assigned two mentors) in combination with online lectures and
discussions; (2) open rehearsals with the resident ensemble – Ensemble Quasars (Slovakia) led by Ivan
Buffa, and (3) harpsichord workshop with harpsichordist Franjo Bilić (Croatia).
The new edition of the MBZ Masterclass workshop for composers will be held from April 14-21, 2023 at
the Music Academy Zagreb. Current composers-mentors are among the most productive and original
composers of the 21st century: Chaya Czernowin, Olga Neuwirth, Franck Bedrossian and Clemens
Gadenstätter.
Details are available at web pages:
https://www.mbz.hr/en/2023/masterclass