In the 18 years since its founding, ECMA – the European Chamber Music Academy – has established itself as the European talent factory for young professional chamber music ensembles. Top European educational institutions and leading festivals collaborate in a training and funding programme for professionally oriented chamber music configurations, ranging from string quartets and piano trios to saxophone quartets, which extends all across Europe and as far as Shanghai. The ECMA, founded in 2004 at the initiative of Hatto Beyerle, is characterised by experimental openness, artistic independence and active participation in shaping the future world of music, based on the great European chamber music traditions.
In a two-year advanced education programme comprising eight to nine one-week sessions and further activities lasting several days per year and, since 2019, also in a regular academic format with the ECMAster (a European Joint Master Programme), the ensembles receive intensive mentoring and inspirational input from distinguished lecturers in the context of the different regional and national cultural backgrounds, traditions and current developments.
The programme provides much scope for reflection on art and society in historico-cultural, philosophical and transdisciplinary lectures and workshops. ECMA also places emphasis on practice-oriented research and on connecting the arts and the sciences with one another. In addition, it engages in an increasing number of regular collaborations with prestigious venues (e.g., the Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Berlin, etc.) and high-ranking festivals (Grafenegg Festival, Ghent Festival, etc.).
With the Creative Europe project ECMA Pro (International Career Development and Socially Engaged Outreach in Chamber Music), which is set to run from 2020 to 2024, ECMA is placing greater emphasis on further development in the areas of career advancement, networking, digitalisation and social responsibility.
Univ.- Prof. Dr. h.c. Johannes Meissl
Artistic Director, ECMA
