Palma Ars Acustica

The Jury of the 2025 Palma Ars Acustica met online on 23 June and designated this year's winner:

Isabelle Duthoit, Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz and Marijana Begović – Mallarmé Sonore, entered by HRT

Discover the 2025 Palma Ars Acustica entries in MUS under AA/2025/04/03/01-11.

The Palma Ars Acustica jury had this to say about the winning piece:

This piece, which lasts around 22 minutes, has a beautiful dramaturgical structure, is very dense in certain places and then becomes more delicate at other times. Excerpts from the poems of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé are also clearly recognizable. The combination of Isabelle Duthoit's impressive vocal performance, the sounds of the Sinkauz brothers and the audio mix by sound engineer Marijana Begović around Mallarme's poems has resulted in a powerful, finely crafted piece.

Even though the poetry of Mallarmé is in French, it’s really part of the sound and the poetry can still be heard, even if the language is not understood. The style and evolution of the human voice is really part of the dramaturgy. The dramaturgical structure is very present, and this feels very much like a collective work, not just between the artists, but between the producer and sound engineer too, working to create a beautifully crafted work recorded live in the studio. The jury noted that, somehow, the fact that it was created as a live session the day before a live performance at the venue clearly shows that improvisation and spontaneous creation are highly valuable.

This year, the jury noticed that the voice had a special place in the Palma Ars Acustica final, with all five finalists featuring vocalists of varying styles.

Reaction from Adriana Kramarić, winning radio producer, HRT:

Reaction from winning artist Marijana Begović:

Reaction from winning artist Alen Sinkauz:

The Prix Palma Ars Acustica (PAA) is an international competition organized by the Ars Acustica community to promote and honour outstanding productions of authors in the world of Ars Acustica: radio art, sound art, media art, text sound compositions, electroacoustic music, electronics, live electronica, etc. Candidates should be put forward by specialized producers from EBU radio organizations.

2025 Palma Ars Acustica Regulations