IRCAM – Centre Pompidou

IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), which Pierre Boulez founded in 1970 and which has been headquartered since 1977 in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, devotes itself to the creation of contemporary music and scientific research. Today the Institute, which since January 2006 has been led by Frank Madlener, employs more than 150 staff members in the areas of artistic creation, research, and education. IRCAM provides a forum for international composers in residence who can avail themselves of the excellent conditions for creative work there. These include technological innovations in the area of music and sound. New ideas in acoustics, signal processing, and computer sciences (interfaces, data bases, and programming languages) are developed at IRCAM; in addition, research projects in the science, analysis, and perception of music are also part of this endeavor. The resulting discoveries are shared with students as well as with a non-professional public in regular courses and workshops, with an ongoing effort to bring composers and researchers together. A master’s degree in acoustics and computer science applied to music is offered in partnership with the University of Paris. IRCAM’s diverse activities are reflected in its annual concert season and in the Agora Festival, in conjunction with which the most recent creative output and developments are presented. Thanks to its numerous commissions, IRCAM also supports young composers and initiates interdisciplinary projects that link music, dance, video, theater, and film. In addition to producing the technical components for computer music and works with live electronics, IRCAM’s staff members are also involved in performing and implementing ambitious scores around the world, as for example this summer as they participate again in the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY.

August 2012