The Monodies Academy announces the application opening for its upcoming semester online composition masterclass.
The Composition Course led by Mehdi Hosseini focuses on creating and composing music that is steeped in the basics of oriental music theory, with a strong emphasis on writing and practical musicianship. This semester course will be of particular interest to young and emerging composers who are interested in or influenced by the philosophy and musical culture of the Far and West of Asia. Participants will explore alternative approaches in the art of music composition, preparing them for their next creative steps in learning and utilizing New Music styles.
Program Structure & Deliverables:
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- Individual Mentorship: The course provides participants with a minimum of 6 hours of individual lessons with Mehdi Hosseini. Each 1-hour lesson is conducted via flexible online platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype.
- Flexible Development: This online course gives participants the opportunity to work on their music compositions for several months, allowing students additional flexible time to focus deeply on their music writing.
- Professional Ensemble Performance: By the end of the course, participants’ final compositions will be professionally performed and recorded by world-class ensembles specializing in new music, including MCME, Vacuum, and Ensemble Répons.
Duration & Key Dates:
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- Course Timeline: January 21, 2027 – April 14, 2027
- Application Deadline: December 28, 2026
Tuition Fees & Payment Terms:
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- Course Fee: 580 Euros
- Payment Methods: The tuition must be paid fully up-front via a bank-to-bank money transfer or by credit/debit card.
- Policy: Paid course fees are non-refundable.
Submission Requirements
Due to the highly individual nature of the workshop, slots are strictly limited. To apply, please submit your registration materials, including your recent scores/materials and biography, via Monodies official platform:
Apply Online: www.monodies.com/academy
About Mehdi Hosseini
Mehdi Hosseini (Seyedmehdi Hosseini Bami), born in 1979 in Tehran, Iran, is a contemporary composer, music scholar, and institutional leader.
Hosseini began his musical training in Iran, studying Persian music and the fundamentals of composition under the guidance of Farhad Fakhreddini, the renowned Iranian composer and founder of the National Orchestra of Iran. Following his initial studies, Hosseini completed his Master’s degree at the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory under Professor Alexander Mnatsakanyan, a prominent pupil of Dmitri Shostakovich, and earned his Doctor of Music degree (DMA) in Composition under the supervision of composer Sergei Slonimsky. In addition, Hosseini studied the fundamental principles of musical composition with composers Gennady Belov and Vladimir Tsitovich, and investigated core problems of music theory under the direction of Professor Tatiana Bershadskaya.
His music and distinct aesthetic style demonstrate his creative capabilities as a composer alongside his extensive research background as an ethnomusicologist and theorist. Hosseini has written symphonic, ensemble, and chamber works for a wide range of performance mediums and genres. His catalog exhibits a profound monodic orientation, originally interpreted and incorporated into a deeply personal musical language.
He utilizes “Monodies” not only as a title for individual compositions but as an expansive conceptual framework extending historical monody into a contemporary compositional and analytical system. Within this system, single-voice structures are deployed as self-organizing structural principles adaptable to diverse musical textures and multidimensional sound worlds. At its core, his creative practice reflects an ongoing structural inquiry into the rich diversity of non-Western art music traditions—integrating the core structural architectures of the Persian dastgāh, the Arabic maqām, and the Indian raga, alongside the regional folk music of Asia, into contemporary cross-cultural composition.
In 2013, his portrait album Monodies was awarded “Best Album of the Year” by the Iranian House of Music.
His music has been commissioned and performed by leading orchestras and new music ensembles around the world, including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra (Russia), the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra (China), Ensemble intercontemporain (France), Ensemble Lemniscate, Namascae Lemanic Modern Ensemble, Ensemble Proton Bern, Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich (Switzerland), PluralEnsemble (Spain), the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Studio for New Music Ensemble (Russia), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn (Estonia), mmm… (Japan), unitedberlin (Germany), among others.
Alongside his active output as a composer and university pedagogue, Hosseini is an established institutional leader. He serves as the Founder and President of the St. Petersburg Contemporary Music Center reMusik.org, Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg International New Music Festival, and the CEO and Artistic Director of the International eLearning Institute for New Music (ILINM) in Switzerland.
His compositions are published globally by Compozitor Publishing House (Russia) and Donemus (Publishing House of Contemporary Dutch Music) (Netherlands).
