The Edison Studio collective, with the support of the SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) for the project “SIAE – Classics of Today“, with the collaboration of Romaeuropa Festival 2019 and the support of Cineteca di Bologna (Film Archive of Bologna), announces the 4th edition of the “Sounds of Silences” International Competition of Musical Composition for the Moving Image. The aim of the competition is to stimulate musical creativity in its interaction with the audiovisual media, particularly for the reinterpretation of historical silent films and the creation of new soundtracks, with a special concern for timbre as in today’s instrumental, electronic and electroacoustic music.

In the preliminary stage of the competition entrants must submit an audiovisual work the musical part of which they themselves have composed, by June 15th 2019. An international jury consisting by Simon Atkinson (composer and lecturer at Media School, DMU University Leicester, U.K.), Valentino Catricalà (curator and contemporary art critic – director of the Art section of Maker Faire – European Edition), Giulio Colangelo (composer, professor of Electroacoustic Music at the Conservatory of Lecce – artistic co-director of MAIN Matera Intermedia Festival), Francesco Giomi (composer, director of Tempo Reale-Center for Research, Production and Music Education, Florence and professor of Electroacoustic Composition at Conservatory of Bologna), Giulio Latini (audiovisual and film historian, professor of Multimedia Communication at University of Rome 2, Tor Vergata), Elio Martusciello (composer, professor of Electroacoustic Composition at Conservatory of Naples), Paolo Pachini (composer. video-artist and professor of Audiovisual Composition at Conservatory of Trieste), Michele Tadini (composer, coordinator at Irmus-Institute of Music Research, Milan, professor of composition and music informatics at Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon), Barry Truax (composer and professor at Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada), Roberta Vacca (composer, professor at Conservatory of L’Aquila) will then select three finalists among the entrants, who will be invited to create a soundtrack for a medium-length movie from the silent film era chosen by Edison Studio in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna.

This work must be completed and sent by 20th of October 2019. A second international jury consisting of Monique Veaute (president of the jury and president of Romaeuropa Art and Culture Foundation), Valentino Catricalà (curator and contemporary art critic – director of the Art section of Maker Faire – European Edition), Carlo Crivelli (composer, professor of Composition for images at Conservatory of L’Aquila), Martin Figura (painter and videoartist), Elio Martusciello (composer, professor of Electroacoustic Composition at Conservatory of Naples), Andrea Ravagnan (Cineteca di Bologna), will award cash prizes to the finalists during a public event scheduled for November 3rd 2019 as part of Romaeuropa Festival 2019 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Sala Cinema, Rome.

The total prize money to be awarded amounts to € 4,500. The competition is open to all composers of any nationality born after 31/12/1983. Participation in the competition can be either individual or collective and it’s free of charge.

Sounds of Silences organizers’aim is to stimulate the finalists to make a valid contribution towards redefining the meaning, aesthetics and conceptual structures of cinema before the advent of soundtracks, not simply by “accompanying” the images on the screen, but by revealing their original hidden content, thereby giving a new voice to what was previously silent.