Five from Poland, five from Lithuania, five from Italy — out of nearly 200 applications. The MOTIVE Open Call closes; the MOTIVE Collective enters training.
The numbers
200 applications. 15 names. Five each from Poland, Lithuania, Italy — those are the three partner countries in the consortium. An acceptance rate around 7.5% — for a first European Open Call this says the competition was real, not symbolic. The stylistic range is wide: from an electronic producer through a piano improviser to a violinist-songwriter.
Selection ran in two layers. National partners assessed local applications first. Then an international jury approved the final fifteen, balancing the 5/5/5 split and stylistic variety.
The Polish five
- Klara Wysocka — alternative music artist
- Damian Magrean — composer, piano improviser
- Natalia Jankiewicz aka nacy — musician and voice actress
- Łukasz Szczepanowski aka J. AfterwinE — music producer
- Lucyna Sycz aka LUCY BROWN — violinist, improviser, composer
Our side of MOTIVE — these are the names handled by the Polish partner in the consortium. Each already has a defined musical language; what interests us is how those languages will collide with the Lithuanian and Italian scenes during training.
The Lithuanian five
- Rugilė Norbutaitė aka thelastsunday — electronic music producer and sound engineer
- Rusnė Navickaitė aka Rusnė — actress and electronic music artist
- Agnė Vaitkevičiūtė aka AGN — singer and producer
- Liepa Kazlauskaitė aka Liepa Šermukšna — folk music artist
- Dominykas Bičkus — musician, composer, producer, songwriter
The Lithuanian lineup leans toward electronic music — with the exception of Liepa Šermukšna, who works in the folk tradition. That contrast is predictably interesting.
The Italian five
- Alessandro Stancato aka Alestan — singer and guitarist
- Evita Armienti — drummer
- Carmine Cipriani — guitarist and songwriter
- Andrea Fedele aka ANDREÏNS — singer and songwriter
- Rossella Quero aka Ross — violinist, singer, songwriter
The Italian lineup is the most traditional instrumentally — guitars, violin, drums, vocals. Not a single electronic producer. That’s also useful information about where the MOTIVE Collective can go acoustically.
The jury behind the call
Three names are listed in MOTIVE’s official announcement:
- Mario Rosini — professor of jazz vocal at Conservatorio di Musica “E.R. Duni” in Matera (Italy)
- Vincenzo Cipriani — lecturer at the same conservatory: piano, jazz, world music, ethnomusicology (Italy)
- Vladimiras Konstantinovas — Chief Chorus Master Conductor at Klaipėda State Music Theatre since 1992 (Lithuania)
Jury profile: strong representation of music academia and the choral tradition. A signal about how the consortium sees MOTIVE — not as an experimental showcase, but as a program with performance-craft infrastructure.
What’s next
The MOTIVE Collective is entering its training phase. On the schedule: cross-border workshops, mentoring sessions, joint composition. The full fifteen will work under the MOTIVE Collective banner — a group identity for the project, leading to a public premiere.
On Backstage, we’re starting a series on the Polish five — individual profiles, production decisions, how each of them adapts traditions from other countries into their own musical language. First profile next week.
Meet the participants and follow the project
Bios and photos of all 15 selected MOTIVE Collective artists, updates from rehearsals and concerts, plus the project’s official channels — all in one place.