How do you create new connections in a musical landscape where composers and musicians often work alongside one another – but not necessarily together? That question became the starting point for Danish New Music Academy, which since 2022 has established itself as a new gathering point for contemporary music in Denmark.
The initiative grew out of a sense that there was a need for a stronger community around the development of new music – both nationally and internationally.
“We saw a need to create closer connections between musicians and composers,” say violinist Sofie Thorsbro Dan and saxophonist Anja Nedremo, who, together with composer Emil Vijgen, organise Danish New Music Academy. In August 2026, for the third time, they will bring together seven composers and six musicians at the beginning of their careers and pair them with a group of experienced guest artists for a week of concerts, seminars, workshops and rehearsals. The ambition is not only to strengthen the Danish scene, but also to build connections across borders and make contemporary music more accessible to classical musicians.
Inspired by international experience
The idea also emerged through international experience. Both Sofie Thorsbro Dan and Anja Nedremo have worked and performed abroad and repeatedly encountered surprise from international colleagues that Denmark – despite its strong tradition of contemporary music – did not have a format comparable to international meeting places.
“We’ve often heard comments from Germany and Austria saying that it’s strange Denmark doesn’t have its own internationally renowned academy for new music,” they explain.
Summer courses like Darmstadt and others have played a central role in the development of contemporary music in Europe. But Danish New Music Academy was never intended as a replica of a master-apprentice model. “We wanted to place greater emphasis on dialogue and collaboration between performers and composers. Not a masterclass format, but a place where we come together to create something collectively.”
Dissolving hierarchies
Co-creation has become the festival’s defining characteristic and the aspect that most clearly distinguishes it from traditional course formats. Instead of teaching or masterclasses, participants work in groups where musicians and composers create and perform music side by side – across differences in experience, age and nationality.
The clearest example is the 24-Hour Lab, where participants develop and perform a new work together within a single day. Here, fixed roles dissolve, and no one knows in advance what the final result will be. Guest artists participate on equal terms with everyone else, and according to the organisers, something special happens when the roles of composer, performer and teacher become less fixed.
“There is a completely different energy in the intensity and sense of community that emerges when creation becomes a shared experience.”
For the organisers, this is also about thinking more long-term about the musical ecosystem. In a field shaped by competition for resources, they see closer collaboration between composers and performers as a more sustainable path forward for contemporary music.
Repertoire as a shared language
Although co-creation is central, existing works also play an important role in the festival. The repertoire concert focuses on already written works – especially by Nordic composers – but without reproducing a traditional masterclass logic. Here, experienced musicians do not act as teachers but as collaborators working side by side with participants.
The repertoire concert thus becomes both a presentation of works and an exchange of working methods and experience. At the same time, it offers international participants insight into what the organisers describe as a distinctive Nordic and Aarhus-based contemporary music tradition.
As the organisers put it: Musicians and composers from abroad want to experience “the sound of what characterises Denmark and its contemporary music scene” – and the repertoire concert becomes a way of offering precisely that insight.
From experiment to community
A new element introduced in this year’s edition of Danish New Music Academy is audience development, included through a collaboration with the project TUTTI #2 - a nationwide networking initiative for chamber music societies, music festivals, and churches, with a focus on audience development launched by Art Music Denmark.
While the festival's main focus is on participants’ creative processes, it is now also exploring how audiences can become more actively involved. This year’s edition includes an audience survey designed to explore visitors’ experiences of the festival – and whether audiences could imagine themselves taking on more creative roles. The aim is to investigate how contemporary music can open itself to broader communities beyond established circles.
Ripples beyond the festival
Danish New Music Academy first took place in 2022 and is now being held for the third time, but the organisers already see lasting effects from the earlier editions. Former participants continue collaborations, commission works from one another and form new artistic constellations after the festival.
International attention surrounding the Danish initiative is growing – including within communities that originally inspired the project. At the same time, the ambition remains to strengthen the connection between contemporary music and more classically oriented musicians in Denmark. “It has always been our ambition to build a stronger bridge between contemporary music and the classical music environment, and we hope to continue contributing to that,” say the organisers.
Concerts
The concerts at Danish New Music Academy are all open to the public, they take place at Institut for (X) and The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and entrance is free. The repertoire concert on 6 August features a number of pieces from the Edition·S catalogue.
Concert #1 · 3 August · 19.30 – Athelas (Maria Isabel Edlund, Andras Spang Olsen, Andrew Power and Helene Navasse) performing works by Xenakis, Reza Vali, Dai Fujikura, Christian Lindberg, Anna Thorsvaldottir and Andras Olsen
Concert #2 · 4 August · 19.30 - Solo performance by harpist Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir
Concert #3 · 5 August · 19.30 - 24 Hour Laboratory
Concert #4 · 6 August · 19.30 - Repertoire Concert
Kaija Saariaho: Light still and moving
Christian Winther Christensen: Being APU SARKER
Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir: Axis Spirat
Jeppe Ernst: Lovsange
Frej Wedlund: Morning Light
Malin Bång: Kaolin
Peter Bruun: Libera Me
Kirstine Lindemann: Further and Back
Concert #5 · 7 August · 19.30 - Surprise Concert
Concert #6 - 8 August · 19.30 - Showcase Concert