Sampo / Modalio Academy 2025 - Académie Sampo Modalio

Sampo & Modalio Academy 2025

Augmented instruments | Augmented organ | Mixed music | Improvisation

4th edition

14 – 20 July 2025

Auch, France

This international academy is aimed at musicians who wish to transcend the sound boundaries of their instrument. It offers a chance to discover the Sampo or the Modalio during seven days of intensive training, to transform one's instrument into an augmented one, and to introduce oneself to mixed music.

The Sampo and the Modalio are two extensions whose purpose is to widen the sound field of an acoustic instrument. They allow you to transform the instrument sound in real time or to trigger sound files.

Working with the Sampo or the Modalio does not require any previous experience in the field of electroacoustic or mixed music

It is the only academy to offer performers a means of augmenting their acoustic instrument in complete autonomy.

Sampo

Intended for performers of any acoustic instrument, the Sampo is a portable and universal extension that can be played in any place and in complete autonomy.
www.sampo.fr

Modalio

The Modalio is an extension dedicated to the augmentation of pipe organs. It lets you expand the organ's sonorities by adding new timbres played in real time.
www.modalio.fr

Program

The Academy program includes masterclasses, individual courses and collective workshops with the Sampo or the Modalio to familiarize with different aspects of augmented instruments. The academy takes place in a convivial atmosphere which fosters encounters with other musicians. The academy is aimed at students and professionals of all nationalities.

Objectives

During the academy, participants will acquire knowledge of augmented instuments and of mixed music, of the specificities of performing mixed music and of different kinds of works.

The participants will be able to work with electronics in complete autonomy.

The participants will have the opportunity to present their work during a public concert at the end of the academy.

A video recording session will also be proposed to each participant.

A comprehensive and intensive program

The Academy program will cover the following themes:

instrumental performance with electronics
improvising with effects
work on pieces with real-time sound processing
work on pieces with sound files
study of a score with electronics
mixed music and live-electronics
soundpainting and collective strategies
implementation of a concert with augmented instruments
multidisciplinary performances

Each participant will be offered one or more scores to prepare in advance. This will allow them to focus on the electronic part during the academy.

The first 5 to enrol will receive an instrumental prelude and instructions of sound transformation with Sampo written by composer Etienne Rolin.

duration 2 to 3 minutes
sent to the participant by July 1st
inscription limit: June 1 2025

These pieces will be used as a basis for the individual sessions and will form part of a collective piece to be performed at the Academy concert.

During the academy each participant will have access to a Sampo or a Modalio to prepare the suggested works.

Students on the Modalio course will also have the opportunity to work with the historic organs at Auch Cathedral.
(See website of the national organ inventory).

Team

Étienne Rolin

Performance and improvisation - Sampo

Composer, improviser and soundpainter Etienne Rolin is a specialist of the glissotar, basset-horn and Bansuri flute. He performs regularly with the Sampo, and his work in augmented music can be discovered in a series of albums available on Bandcamp and videos on Youtube.

biography

A Franco-American artist born in Berkeley, Etienne Rolin moved to France in 1974 to study with Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen and Iannis Xenakis, which led to a threefold career as a composer, instrumentalist and teacher. His catalogue includes more than 1,000 works performed all over the world. Passionate about multidisciplinary projects since 1992, he collaborates with actors, dancers, visual artists and poets.

From 1985 to 2018, he taught analysis, improvisation and Soundpainting - the language of signs for the performing arts - at the Bordeaux Conservatoire, which he also taught internationally, from Singapore to the United States, via Germany and Spain. He has been a trainer at the Pôle Supérieure de Musique/Danse since 1990.

A multi-instrumentalist, he has recorded over 100 albums on saxophone, basset-horn and bansuri flute. He is currently introducing the Glissotar, a new Hungarian hybrid instrument anufactured for him.

For 50 years, this ceaseless activity has reflected an artistic philosophy underpinned by a passion for disseminating new works. He is currently a programmer at L'Impromptu, a contemporary cabaret in Bordeaux, and undertakes in January 2025 a series of concerts in Bordeaux and Budapest based on the Sampo, an instrument for electroacoustic transformation.

Jean-Christophe Revel

Performance and improvisation - Modalio

Organist and composer Jean-Christophe Revel is a specialist of the Modalio - augmented organ, a series of videos of which are available on Youtube. He has also been introducing his students to the Sampo at the Paris Conservatoire since 2020. He is behind the idea of a permanent augmented organ, the first of which is in Auch.

biography

Jean-Christophe Revel discovered the early organ with Jean-Marie Meignien and became fascinated by the link between music and history. Trained by Odile Bailleux, he obtained a first prize in organ and specialised in early music. His encounters with Jean Boyer and Jean-Charles Ablitzer also left their mark on his career.

As a chamber musician and sound explorer, he plays alongside artists such as James Bowman, Josep Cabré and Marcel Pérès, and collaborates with many contemporary composers, including Jacques Lenot, Édith Canat de Chizy and Régis Campo. His work, at the crossroads of tradition and creation, leads him to explore new facets of the organ.

Invited to play at numerous festivals in France and abroad, he records for France Musique and television. His albums, notably Le Troisième Livre d’Orgue by Jacques Lenot and Le Second Livre by André Raison have won critical acclaim.

A renowned pedagogue, he heads the early music department at the regional conservatory of Paris and teaches at the Pôle Supérieur Paris Boulogne-Billancourt. Organist of the Jean de Joyeuse organ at Auch Cathedral, he is also director of the festival Claviers en Pays d’Auch. He also recently created the first augmented organ in France with organ maker Jean Daldosso and Alter Instruments (Teresa Rosenberg and Alexander Mihalič)

Alexander Mihalič

Technical aspects and working methodology - Sampo and Modalio

A composer and PhD in musicology, Alexander Mihalič is a specialist in the field of augmented instruments. Following his experiences with musicians during his work at IRCAM and with the aim of facilitating access to sound transformation technologies, he created the Sampo in 2014, then the Modalio in 2023.

biography

In 1992 Alexander Mihalič began working at IRCAM in the pedagogy department, where he assisted composers and performers with their live-electronic projects. He subsequently developed software for ‘Cyber’ instruments at IMEB and worked on data sonification at IMéRA in Marseille.

Passionate about the link between science and the arts, he created in 2014 the Art & Science Days festival and an electroacoustic composition competition.

He is particularly interested in gestural interfaces. His career in various musical research centres has led him to work with numerous composers and performers in the field of mixed and electroacoustic music, and to observe the difficulties often encountered in this area. These experiences prompted him to look for a portable and autonomous means of working with mixed works - research that led to the creation of the Sampo and, subsequently, the Modalio.

Today, Alexander Mihalič is dedicated to developing these two interfaces within Alter Instruments, a company of which he is chairman.

France David

Body warm-up and multidisciplinary performance

A contemporary dancer, France David regularly collaborates on multidisciplinary projects, including the project John Cage – As Slow As Possible with Jean-Christophe Revel in 2022. The performance was performed first with the Sampo, then with the Modalio.

biography

France David is a dancer, director and writer. After a solid training in classical dance, a brief stint with Bouglione and some experience within the community of contemporary dance, she had a decisive encounter with Clo Lestrade, for whom she auditioned at the Ménagerie de Verrein Paris, her home town.

As soon as she left the audition, she asked the owner of the venue for the contact details of Clo, who lives in the Gers region. Since then, she has considered herself a native of the region. There, over the last twenty-five years, she has performed all Clo Lestrade's choreographies, written several novels (published by Léo Scheer and Seuil, among others), as well as a number of plays, and directed shows that combine movement, music, silence and words in her own unique gematria.

Her mathematics for the stage is constructed through an unprecedented collusion between the literary works that are dear to her and movement, seeking to reveal the unsuspected: what remains of the memory of the centuries in the bodies of individuals, their history inscribed in that of their organs and different parts of the body. In this way, the body becomes the symbol of a state of the world.

Pía Alvarado Arróspide

Testimonial on composing for Modalio

Pía Alvarado Arróspide is a Peruvian composer of contemporary music and one of the first people to write for the Modalio. She has been invited to explore the augmented organ in Auch as part of a series of creative residencies. Her work can be discovered on her Youtube.

biography

Pía Alvarado Arróspide is a composer of contemporary academic music, specialising in chamber music, electroacoustics and opera. She holds a degree in music composition from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in composition with new technologies at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja.

Her work explores forms, textures and timbres to create unique atmospheres. Her music has been performed in Peru, Mexico, Spain, France and Germany in prestigious venues, and by renowned ensembles such as KNM Berlin, Ensemble Regards and Proxima Centauri.

A member of the Peruvian collective of women composers RETAMA, she has also taken part in numerous interdisciplinary projects and international festivals, including the Heroines of Sound festival in Berlin, the Sonomundo festival in Paris and Experimenta in Peru.

Her compositions have been played at a number of virtual festivals and cultural initiatives, reinforcing his presence on the contemporary music scene.

Teresa Rosenberg

Coordination

Co-creator of the Sampo and the Modalio, Teresa Rosenberg has been involved in organising cultural and educational projects and artistic residencies around Sampo for the last ten years.

biography

After studying literature and accounting and management, Teresa Rosenberg specialised in the coordination of cultural projects, artistic communication and administrative management within the Musinfo association. She co-organises the Journées Art & Science festival and is involved in the management of various cultural projects and artistic residencies, as well as the Sampo Academy.

Her varied career has enabled her to develop skills in complementary areas, with a predilection for creative tasks.

In 2022, together with Alexander Mihalič, she founded Alter Instruments, a company specialising in the creation of augmented musical instruments such as the Sampo and Modalio, which marry instrumental tradition with contemporary technology. As Managing Director of the company, she devotes herself to the development and manufacture of Sampos and Modalios, from design to product finishing, including communication and day-to-day management.

Practical information

Dates
____	from 14 to 20 July 2025 inclusive • arrivals on 13 July • departures on 21 July
Venues
	Music school of Grand Auch ^{1 rue Amiral Bugard, 32000 Auch}• Collective workshops • Individual working rooms with with Sampo
	Saint-Orens Church ^{Place du Sénéchal, 32000 Auch}• 1855 Poirier-Lieberknecht organ augmented with Modalio • Concert of the students
	Auch Cathedral ^{5 Rue Arnaud de Moles, 32000 Auch} • 1690 Jean de Joyeuse organ • 1860 Cavaillé-Coll organ
Accommodation
	Diocesan House ^{13 rue du Docteur Samalens, 32000 Auch} • Accommodation is available for 8 students at the Diocesan House of Auch • Studios, single bed, with fully equipped kitchen and private bathroom; bed linen and towels provided; breakfast not included. • Located around 20 minutes‘ walk from the music school and 10 minutes’ walk from Saint-Orens church. • Accommodation must be booked at the time of registration (choose option 1: Courses + accommodation).
Access
	Plane Toulouse-Blagnac Airport
	Train Auch railway station

The town of Auch

Centuries of history have left their mark on the heritage of Auch, which is revealed at the bend of many monuments, alleys and buildings of character...
Built on an old oppidum, the medieval town, which succeeded the ancient Roman Augusta Auscorum, forms today the historic heart around the complex consisting of the Cathedral, the Tower of Armagnac and the Prefecture (former Archdiocese), which overlooks the Gers and the lower town.
https://www.auch-tourisme.com/

Registration

For whom

The Academy is open to musicians of all nationalities and backgrounds. No previous experience of electroacoustic or mixed music is necessary.

Sampo course : open to musicians of any acoustic instrument
Modalio course : aimed at organists only

Number of places

In order to guarantee optimum working conditions, the organisation of the course prefers to limit the number of participants.

Sampo course : 14
Modalio course : 3

Registration fees

Two formulas:

1.	Courses + accommodation	435 €
2.	Courses only	250 €

When you register, you can choose to pay the full registration fee or a deposit of €200.
In both cases, the balance must be received by 7 July.

Your registration will become definitive once the balance has been paid.

Neither the deposit nor the registration fee are refundable in the event of cancellation by the participant.

Registration fees must be paid by bank transfer to:

Beneficiary	Alter Instruments
IBAN	FR76 1741 8000 0100 0078 1851 562
BIC	SNNNFR22XXX
Bank	Shine
Address of the bank	122 rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, France
(BIC of the partner bank for SWIFT transfers: TRWIBEB3)