Associated with the Réseau Varèse since 1999

The IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), founded by Pierre Boulez and associated with the Pompidou Centre in 1977 under the tutelage of the Ministry of Culture, is now one of the greatest public research centres in the world devoted to musical creation and scientific research. As a research centre, the IRCAM covers a vast spectrum geared to musical composition: acoustics, musical cognition, research on sound signals and the area of symbolism, sound design, interactive technologies, etc. As a home of musical creativity, with a sustained policy of commissions and productions, the IRCAM welcomes composers from all over the world every year. In its capacity as a training institute, it offers a musical information technology curriculum for composers, professional internships, and university training in conjunction with the University of Paris 6.

Agora, the IRCAM festival started in 1998, is held every year for three weeks in June.

Franck Madlener

Managing director

After instrumental and music composition studies in France and Belgium, Frank Madlener was a 1995 laureate and Artistic Director of the European Mozart Foundation (Prague, Budapest, Krakow). From 1996 to 2005 he was successively the assistant conductor of the Antwerp Opera, Artistic Director of the Ars Musica festival in Brussels, Artistic Consultant of ProQuartet, and Artistic Director of the Festival Musica in Strasbourg. In 2005, he became the Artistic Director of the IRCAM and of the Agora festival, and was then appointed as the Managing Director of the IRCAM in 2006.

Frank Madlener is a founding member of the Réseau Varèse, and was its secretary from 1999 to 2002.