IMZ Flying Academy 2021 Pilot: "Fostering digital creativity and innovation in the performing arts"

June 2021
First internal pilot in cooperation with Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

The IMZ Flying Academy is a visiting expert faculty, selected by the IMZ to offer bespoke courses in digital literacy, creativity and innovation for graduate and post-graduate students in conservatoires + arts universities.

With it's body of experience and contacts the IMZ Flying Academy aims at training conservatoires + arts universities to implement digital into their syllabus. Goal is to prepare students effectively for the challenges + opportunities presented by the digital world. This will happen by offering a bespoke programme from which conservatoires and universities can choose according to their needs, schedule and budgets, planned with and for members of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires.

For this first pilot, 12 students from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Royal Conservatoire of The Hague + the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and 5 experts met online, exchanging on digital innovation in the Performing Arts regarding ongoing projects.

Course aims

To give participants an overview of and deeper insights into current trends and best practice in the innovative + creative use of digital in the performing arts
To provide access to leading players in the world of media and performing arts
To form a connected community of post-graduate students from Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
To stimulate creative links and co-working between this cohort of students
To provide practical workshop exercise to stimulate and extend the digital creative practice of students
To give students the opportunity to develop their creative projects in a structured pilot phase with defined goals
To provide detailed feedback + assignments of those projects via an adjudication panel of media + music industry professionals.

EXPERTS

Peter Maniura

Freelance Director + Digital Strategist, IMZ Academy Director

Peter Maniura is an award-winning TV producer and director with more than twenty-five years’ experience in music + arts broadcasting at the BBC and the EBU. He is also a digital media consultant and guest lecturer. His most recent role at the BBC was Project Director, Classical Archive and Orchestras Digital Strategy for BBC Music; opening up the BBC’S unique music archive to the public in new ways. Prior to this he was Head of Digital Development for BBC Arts covering festivals, events and performances across the art forms. He was also commissioner for BBC Arts Online, which he launched in May 2014. Previously he was Creative Director and Curator of the new experimental BBC/Arts Council England digital online arts service “The Space” which launched in May 2012 promoting digital innovation and creativity in the arts.

Annastina Haapasaari

Project Manager Opera Beyond

As Project Manager, Annastina Haapasaari is leading the Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s Opera Beyond project that explores the possibilities of emerging technology for performing arts. Within the project, she’s been working on audience experience and several installation pieces, but also developing the workflows and the overall digital strategy of the organisation. 

Miranda Harmer

Chair of the Student Network at the Association of European Conservatoires

Nominated at “One to Watch” in the Northern Power Women Awards 2018, Mimi is a postgraduate student at Leeds Conservatoire, studying composition and cello performance. She is the current Chair of the Student and Alumni Network for the Association of European Conservatoires, as well as a board member for the Office for Students.

Kay Meseberg

Head of Mission Innovation at ARTE 

Kay Meseberg studied Political Science at University of Potsdam in Germany. He worked since the end of the 90ties on many award-wining digital productions and as a journalist. Since 2013 he is working for ARTE in Strasbourg, France. After his contribution for the world-first VR-documentary Polar Sea 360 in 2014 he is working on immersive media and other innovative forms and charing the ARTE group dedicated to upcoming technologies Mission Innovation. Kay is also a visiting lecturer for the Center of Collaborative Arts and Media at Yale University and Innovation Ambassador for the IMZ. 

Lilli Paasikivi

Artistic Director of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet 

In the past 25 years, Lilli Paasikivi has worked as opera soloist and for the last seven years as the Artistic Director of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. In 2019, Paasikivi launched Opera Beyond – a project which aims to give new, additional tools to opera and ballet.

Yury Revich

Violinist

In his twenties, violinist Yury Revich is already a multi-faceted artist of incredible depth, maturity and creativity. Winner of an ECHO Klassik 2016 “Newcomer of the Year” award, “Young Artist of the Year 2015” at the International Classical Music Awards and “Young Musician of the Year” by the Beethoven Center Vienna, he is one of the most expressive and versatile musicians of his generation. At the age of 18, Yury made his debut at Carnegie Hall with Daniil Trifonov, later on in La Scala with Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and his concerts since then have included performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, Zurich Tonhalle, Vienna Konzerthaus, Leipzig Gewandhaus, BOZAR Brussels and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall Moscow amongst many others. His recordings to date are featured on labels such as Sony Classical as well as a recording with ARS records, for which he won his ECHO Klassik Award. He also lives out his creativity in the film medium and has studied directing, acting and has already produced two short films of his own.