Name: Award for Innovation in Music 2026 - Innovation In Motion
Start: 2026-03-06T19:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-03-06T23:00:00+01:00
Location: Fr. Romanusweg 90

Award for Innovation in Music 2026: Innovation in Motion
On Friday 6 March 2026, Conservatorium Maastricht turns into a buzzing evening festival packed with fresh music, bold ideas, and creative performances. For this edition, we created a new concept. No classic award show this year, but an interactive event where audience and jury move from space to space, experiencing five unique acts that surprise, move, and inspire. The acts will be performed multiple times, so you can experience all of them during this dynamic evening.

The theme of the event is Innovation in Motion. Finalists have total freedom to build their own world. From powerful stories to daring musical experiments... anything goes!

Award for Innovation in Music 2026 is all about creativity, courage, and connection. At the end of the night, three awards will be handed out: The Goosebumps Creator, The Boundary Breaker, and The Storyteller. The total amount of € 5,000 in prize money is equally divided between these three categories, offering a reward of €1666,67 in prize money per category.

Up for an evening of new sounds, bold ideas, and creative energy? Mark your calendar!

Due to the dynamic nature of this edition, in which the audience and jury move through the building, there are limited seated options.

Reserve your free ticket here

Finalists:

Connloadh McDonagh
Plantelectra Space (Julia Van de Kar, Sara Carmona, Ananya Samyt, Nader Adabnejad)
Elena Stamatopoulou
Jón Kleinehanding
Nora Tarraf and Jeske de Haart
Anne-Lien Goeminne (selected)

Jury:

Renée Rousseau (founder of the Award for Innovation in Music)
Brigitte van Eck (Theather aan het Vrijthof)
Peggy van Sebillen (Bonnefanten)
Peter Peters (Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music)
Hon Ning Cheung (AIM alumnus)

More about the finalists - teaser videos below

Jón Kleinehanding - When walls fall down

Metallic rods hang from the ceiling, cold and rigid. Stubborn, like the walls we face in society and within ourselves, those invisible prison bars that hold us back… tell us ‘you can’t’, ‘you shouldn’t’. We’ve given up trying because; why talk to a wall? The performance ”When walls fall down”‘ poses the question: what if the walls are listening? What if our words and actions are never lost in an ocean of futility, but are the drops that quietly accumulate to form waves, to spill over and touch the other side.

Just you being there makes a difference. You are a piece of the puzzle. Three Stories written and intertwined by cause and consequence.

Isa Schmidbauer, Shana Brown and Jón Kleinehanding interact through the Qunitubular Theremin, a sound installation that senses and reacts to proximity. Movement alone can change sounds and unfold a different interpretation of the same secret.

Elena Stamatopoulou – Symvoles

Symvoles betekent de plek waar rivieren samenkomen en één worden.

Elke persoon is een rivier die door zijn eigen landschappen stroomt en onderweg een verhaal vormt. Toch wordt niet elk verhaal gehoord. Sommige worden te vroeg tot zwijgen gebracht. Sommige verdwijnen voordat ze volledig zijn verteld.

Dit project wordt de stem van degenen die niet lang genoeg hebben geleefd om hun eigen verhalen te vertellen. Door muziek ontwaakt de herinnering. Wanneer woorden vervagen, blijft het geluid — het herinnert, het stelt vragen, het verbindt.

De tijd stort in tot één enkel, urgent nu.

Compositie, Ud & zang: Elena Stamatopoulou
Piano: David Luca
Saxofoon: Mathias Palludan
Contrabas: Alex Chavez Erazo
Drums: Micky Laheij
Zang: Alexandra Soupourtzi-Michalaki, Eleni Dendrinou, Magda Kotsianidi, Niki Bravaki
Performers: Nina Moos, Lola de Jong, Estelle Krammer, Maxime Catalina

Plantelectra Space (Julia Van de Kar, Sara Carmona, Ananya Samyt)

We are Plantelectra Space, and we have created an immersive experience where, as a spectator, you can witness how plants become part of the ensemble and communicate in real time with the rest of the musicians. Plants possess nearly 20 sensory capacities that allow them to perceive their surroundings. They use these senses to process parameters such as gravity, electromagnetic fields, humidity, and nutrients. This is why your very presence directly influences the plants’ responses during the performance. Through this concept, we wish to share the following messages:

To raise awareness that although plants do not communicate in the same way humans do, they have much to teach us if we are willing to listen.
To demonstrate that nature can engage in a real-time dialogue with musicians.
To show that, just as trees are connected through their roots beneath the earth, we too are part of that same interconnected network.
To cultivate a vision of the planet in which technology, nature, and humanity coexist in harmony. This is why we facilitate a space that allows our audience to experience firsthand what emerges when these elements come together.

Meet the people behind the project:
Ananya Samyt: Translates the frequencies of plants into musical language with modular synths.Sara Carmona: Writes spatial compositions that react to the plant.
Julia Van de Kar: Theatre Director of the performance.

String Players:
Violin: Sinaí Gomez
Violin: Jose Luis Martinez
Viola: Maria Alejandra Martinez
Viola: Lidia Sanchez
Cello: Eric Diaz

Singers:
Soprano: Aga Bukowska
Soprano: Sanya Fernandes
Mezzo: Amélie Jost
Mezzo: Jasmine Amezian

We are excited to welcome you! Come listen, feel, and connect with us.

Nora Tarraf - Zanana

In Zanana زنانة wordt het publiek uitgenodigd om in de schoenen van de performers te stappen. Door deel te nemen zal het publiek beseffen dat niet alles is wat het lijkt. Nora en Jeske willen een oproep doen tot krachtig handelen en mensen aansporen om werkelijk stil te staan bij wat er in de wereld om hen heen gebeurt. Als de hele wereld een toneel is, dan moeten we ons bewust zijn van de rol die wij daarin spelen.

Nora Tarraf - concept, producer
Jeske de Haart - concept, producer
Sachit Ajmani - technische assistentie
Giannis Montesantos - app ontwikkeling

Connloadh McDonagh - Ciúnas : The Sound of Silence

Anne-Lien Goeminne

Onlangs selecteerden we uit 15 aanmeldingen onze finalisten. Anne-Lien Goeminne heeft zich door omstandigheden moeten terugtrekken en neemt niet deel aan de finale. Omdat zij wél is gekozen als finalist, willen we haar uiteraard wel vermelden tussen omdat een finale plek een prestatie an-sich is.