Madli Marje Gildemann Sink on her Young Composer Award commission ‘Faux Flora’

At every ISCM World New Music Days Festival, an international jury (constituted from the ISCM membership) presents an award to a composer under the age of 35 whose work is performed at the current festival. The winner gets a monetary prize and a commission for a new piece to be performed at a future edition of the ISCM World New Music Days. In 2023, at the World New Music Days Festival in South Africa, the ISCM Young Composer Award was awarded to Madli Marje Gildemann Sink (b. 1994 in Estonia) for her composition Osmosis (2020) for violin, viola, cello, and piano. The ensuing commissioned composition, Faux Flora for string quartet, received its première on 24 May 2026 during the World New Music Days Festival in Bucharest, Romania. Faux Flora was performed by ARCADIA string quartet; the commission was supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. I spoke with the composer the day before the concert.

What can you tell us about the concept of the new composition?

The idea for the piece came from Neo Botanica (Neo Botanica – An Atlas of Artificially Generated Flora, ed. Luca Bendandi, Freya Marshall, Vetro Editions), which is basically an atlas of artificially generated flora, made by many different artists in collaboration with AI. I found this book while traveling, and I found it absolutely amazing and very stimulating. The book presents a photo collections, but in real life these flora are actually sculptures. I think it’s even more special to experience them in that form. In the book I found three works that I especially liked and I ended up dedicating each part of the quartet to one of these artworks: Stellaris Radiala, Lunaris Ignis and Sinuiflora Absurdica.

I drew a lot of inspiration from the visuals, they were extremely striking regarding the colours and the compositions. The third part is a bit of an exception, because there I tried to convey the movement. This is also a bit reflected in the title, it has the element of absurdity: a tree-like figure, standing on its roots. There are three of these figures next to each other, like dancers. So I just had this image of movement.

How did you experience the collaboration with the performers? Have you been able to attend any rehearsals yet?

Actually, this is the first time that I haven’t been able to work with the performers. We will have our first rehearsal tomorrow, which is directly before the performance. It’s very different for me. I’m completely in the dark still. I trust them 100%, but of course I have slightly bigger butterflies than usual.

When I was first discussing this commission with the ISCM and they asked if I had a preference for a certain line-up or ensemble, I suggested two options: a string quartet or four electric guitars. I had no idea what was going to be possible. Later, we it was decided that the commission would be to write for string quartet, it made me very happy. I’ve been really enjoying writing for string instruments in general, it comes very naturally to me. I hadn’t heard about the Arcadia Quartet before, but I read about them after I got the commission and they seem to have a really long history already, so I’m excited to hear them and see what’s their approach like and just get to know them as musicians.

What’s your experience of the festival? Are you attending the festival for the first time?

I have been at the ISCM World New Music Days Festival before, in Tallinn in 2019, and it has always been a very colorful experience. There are so many countries involved and I love the idea that each year a different country hosts it, so they can also add their cultural flair and their cultural heritage. And that means also that each year the spotlight is on different composers, e.g. this time there are more Romanian composers.

What does the ISCM Young Composer Award mean to you?

On one hand, it definitely means recognition. I think other composers can relate to that. As a composer you work alone in your own space and you feel kind of isolated, and sometimes you feel like you’re writing for yourself. So this kind of recognition makes you feel like you’re on the right track.

There is also the fact that other people appreciate your work. One thing is that you like it or you like something about it, the other thing is to experience the joy in others, how others experience it. That is very encouraging, of course. It is really important, I think, for composers to have this little reassurance.