Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Awards Project Funding to ISCM Commissions to Madli Marje Gildemann Sink and Samuel Hvozdík

January 23, 2026 / ISCM

The ISCM Executive Committee is pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation has decided to support two ISCM Young Composer Award commissions in 2026. This year we can look forward to the premiere of two works commissioned from recent ISCM Young Composer Award winners: Estonian composer Madli Marje Gildemann Sink (YCA 2023) and Slovakian composer Samuel Hvozdík (YCA 2024).

The new works will be performed during the next ISCM World New Music Days festival, which takes place from 23 to 31 May 2026 in Bucharest, Romania. Among the 25 performance events that make up this festival, there will also be a staged performance of The Tempest, an opera by British composer Thomas Adès, who received the ISCM Young Composer Award in 2002.

“I am so pleased that the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation has recognized the significance of the ISCM’s Young Composer Award. Our annual festival has been a significant international platform for many young composers from around the world since its earliest days, and through the decades outstanding works by these composers have been acknowledged by the ISCM in various ways. We believe that the current format for our Young Composer Award is a particularly effective way to further the career and reputation of an emerging composer since the award includes a commission for a brand new work which receives its world premiere performance during a future World New Music Days festival. Thanks to the generosity of the Siemens Foundation, we can confidently continue to honor these important new voices and further grow the repertoire of contemporary music.”

— Frank J. Oteri, ISCM President

The newly commissioned works by Madli Marje Gildemann Sink and Samuel Hvozdík will be performed alongside works that were jury-selected from submissions from ISCM member organizations on six continents as well as independently submitted works and repertoire chosen by the festival’s programming committee. Full details about the program of the 2026 ISCM World New Music Days festival “Columna Infinita” in Romania can be found here. This page is regularly updated.

Press contact ISCM Young Composer Award
Ol’ga Smetanová, Secretary General
Frank J. Oteri, President
Contact details

Download the full press release here.

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ISCM

The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a premier forum for the advancement, dissemination and interchange of new music from around the world. Through ISCM, our members promote contemporary music in all its varied forms, strengthening musical life in their local contexts and making their music and its creators known to world.