Call for applications 2025 This call for applications is aimed at artists residing in Canada

The CEM invites creators from Quebec and Canada to apply for a creative music production residency.

*Artists who have already completed a residency at the CEM are not eligible.

The offered conditions

The selected artists will receive, at the time of their residency, $3,200 in fees and royalties and will have full access to the center's facilities and equipment. They also will be lodging at CEM facilities, will receive daily buy outs for meals and will transportation is compensated. The CEM also has a considerable budget for hiring musicians. Residents will be able to rehearse with them on an almost daily basis.

The production project

Alongside musicians which are members of the CEM, the invited creators will be asked to perform, in front of an audiance, one or more works which will be shot with several cameras and recorded in multi-tracks to be broadcast on the web. The goal is to achieve, at the end of the residency, a completed musical performance ready to be captured. Composers are not required to play during the performance, but are invited to do so or to conduct the performance.

As for the musical style of the proposed project, the CEM is very open: contemporary, current, electronic music, modern jazz, rock, contemporary song or other unusual and unclassifiable musical forms. It’s not so much the style that matters, but hybridity and the renewal of practices, research and risk-taking. Thus, the residencies are open to creators from all backgrounds, as long as the proposal is innovative and forward-looking. Improvised forms of music are certainly welcome, provided that the creators have creative and structuring proposals regarding the approach and the themes.

These residencies require the composer to devote themselves entirely to the project for a month, and must take place in a constant back and forth between experimentation, writing, rehearsal, recording and discussions, so that the creation evolves according to the exchanges. As these residencies are production periods, the research-creation portion and/or the writing of music should be started before arrival in residency. The works produced as part of the residency must be unpublished (i.e. never played in front of an audience) and none of the music must have been recorded or been the subject of recordings which have been or will be released.

As for the duration or form that the performance will take, there are very few limitations : the high-quality facilities and equipment of the CEM as well as the budgets intended for hiring the best local musicians will provide an opportunity to create and experiment freely in stimulating professional conditions. Serving as a starting point or step for larger projects, these proposals aim to become productions actively supported and promoted by the organization.

You can view the results of the residencies carried out at the CEM at: https://cem.studio/en/node/146

The selection process

The deadline to submit your application is March 24, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. (Quebec time) and answers will be sent in the following weeks. A first residency could take place as early as March 2024, depending on the availability of the artists.

There is no fee to submit your application.

The creators will be chosen by a peer-review panel according to the following criteria:

• Originality and relevance of the project
• Quality of the applicant’s artistic background and supporting material
• Relevance of the residency in the artistic career of the artist
• Multiple skills and versatility (composer, instrumentalist, improviser)
• Place made for collaboration with musicians
• Men / women representativity

Should you have any questions, e-mail us at residences@cem.studio

How to submit an application?

We have chosen to simplify the deposit formula by eliminating the web form. From now on, candidates will simply have to send an email attaching the following information:

• A biographical note / text of artistic approach / Resume
• A text describing the project proposed to the CEM.
• Here are some questions to guide you in writing this text:
  • What does your production project consist of?
  • What are the musical styles that you want to explore and/or the influences that guide you?
  • How many works do you plan to create and their approximate length?
  • Is this a new project or something already started? Have you already obtained funding for this project (research-creation grant, etc.)?
  • What type of musical writing will you use (conventional scores, lead sheets, graphic scores, directed improvisation, other)?
  • What type of instrumentation and musicians do you want to work with?
  • What is the unique and innovative side of your project?
  • How important is this project in your career?
• A maximum of three web links to audios or videos of works you have created, as well as descriptions of them and how they support your application and are representative of the proposed project. Send links that allow you to watch or listen in “streaming”, without downloading, such as SoundCloud, YouTube or other platforms. The links must still be valid when the selection committee analyzes the files. If applicable, you can also provide the scores in PDF format.

Applications must be submitted by e-mail to the following address : residences@cem.studio

The CEM

To learn more about the CEM and its activities, please browsw our website at the following link : http://cem.studio/fr/mandat

This residency program is made possible through the support of the Conseil des arts de Saguenay, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.