This year’s Arvo Pärt Centre residency scholarships have been awarded to British composer Graham Fitkin and poet and essayist Nikola Madzhirov from North Macedonia. A total of 116 creative professionals from 36 countries applied for the two scholarships. The highest number of applications came from Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Graham Fitkin composes orchestral and chamber music, as well as works for the performing arts, dance productions and installations. His work blends acoustic and electronic instruments with recorded sound. Fitkin has served as composer-in-residence for several orchestras, with commissions from the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestras, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and others. His cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma was featured in the BBC Proms, and he has collaborated with leading dance companies including the Royal Ballet, choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Pacific Northwest Ballet, New York City Ballet and the National Ballet of Portugal. His honours include three BASCA British Composer Awards, the international Grand Prix Dance Music Award (2000) and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award (2015).
Nikola Madzhirov is regarded as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary European poetry. His work is known for its lyrical depth, rich imagery and originality. His poems have been translated into 40 languages, and a selection of his work has been published in Estonian under the title Valgus ja tolm (Light and Dust). Madzhirov has received numerous accolades, including the international Hubert Burda poetry award, Macedonia’s most prestigious poetry prize – the Miladinov Brothers Award – and the N. C. Kaser Poetry Prize. He is also one of the leading figures behind the Berlin-based international poetry network Lyrikline.
The Arvo Pärt Centre has been awarding residency scholarships since 2021 to provide a peaceful and inspiring environment for creative individuals from various fields to explore and implement their ideas. The duration of the residency is from two to four weeks. The scholarship covers the resident’s transportation and accommodation costs and also includes a daily allowance.
The recipients of the scholarships so far have been Austrian composer Annamaria Kowalsky; Belarusian composer Volha Padhajskaya; Estonian stage director and theatre figure Ivar Põllu; Iranian composer and guitarist Golfam Khayam; German composer Sophia Jani; Estonian writer and translator Indrek Koff; French composer Benoît Sitzia; and Spanish poet Elena Medel.
Residency applications outside the scholarship programme may be submitted through the Arvo Pärt Centre’s website: www.arvopart.ee/en/residency/.