The Association Provençale pour l’Art Contemporain et la Création Musicale (APACCM) is based in Aix-en-Provence, a renowned cultural center in southern France. Celebrated for its vibrant artistic scene, the city attracts some of the world’s leading musicians each year through internationally acclaimed events such as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence (Easter Festival), the Nuit Pianistique, and the La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival.
Rooted in this inspiring artistic environment, APACCM is dedicated to promoting the development of contemporary music and the arts. Through masterclasses, competitions, and other professional programs, the Association provides young musicians and artists with valuable opportunities to perform on European stages, engage with internationally recognized experts, enhance their artistic excellence, and expand their professional careers.
Leadership
The Association’s academic and artistic direction is led by two distinguished senior artists whose extensive professional experience and international perspectives provide a solid foundation for its educational and cultural initiatives.
Mission and Activities
Embedded in the rich artistic heritage of Provence, APACCM embraces both the preservation of classical traditions and the innovation of contemporary arts. It actively promotes interdisciplinary artistic collaboration by organizing a wide range of events throughout the year, including international competitions, concert series, masterclasses, academic seminars, and artist exchange programs.
Committed to nurturing emerging artistic talent and supporting the creation of original works, the Association draws upon its strong professional network and extensive international partnerships to build bridges for intercultural dialogue and collaboration. Through its dedication to artistic excellence, cultural innovation, and international exchange, APACCM plays an important role in fostering mutual understanding among cultures while contributing to the advancement of the global arts community.
Founder of APACCM
Jonathan Bell (born 1982) is a composer whose music explores the relationship between tradition and modernity. He graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he received four major distinctions, and subsequently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Since 2007, he has maintained a close collaboration with the vocal ensemble De Caelis. The ensemble has presented his works on major stages and at festivals across France, including the Île-de-France Festival and the European Church Music Festival, as well as on French radio. He has also collaborated with other ensembles and institutions, including Ensemble Sillages, Ensemble Links, and cathedral choir schools, in promoting and performing his music.
In Germany, Bell has received commissions from the Zafraan Ensemble in Berlin and the Stuttgart Ensemble. Between 2014 and 2016, he studied at IRCAM, where he developed SmartVox, a web-based application specifically designed for computer-assisted performance of polyphonic vocal music.
Since September 2017, he has served as editor-in-chief of the journal Music Education, as a lecturer in musicology at Aix-Marseille University, and as a researcher at the PRISM-CNRS Laboratory. In 2018, he was an artist-in-residence at the Casa de Velázquez / French Academy in Madrid.
As a recipient of the Young Researcher Award from the French Society of Computer Music, Bell has participated in numerous international conferences and workshops on computer music and music technology, including the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference, the International Conference on Music Multimedia and Computers, the Sound and Music Computing Conference, and TENOR.
From 2021 to 2022, he co-organized TENOR (International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation) and served as composer-in-residence with Ensemble Sillages in Brest.
Since 2024, he has been a Professor of Music at the American College of Provence / IAU, where he teaches the course “Opera, Women and Politics.” He also serves as a Student Life Assistant, contributing to student affairs and Franco-American cultural exchange programs.
Management team
Huihui Cheng is a composer based between France and Germany. She began studying piano at an early age and started composing at the age of nine. She studied at the affiliated secondary school of the China Conservatory of Music and later at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing before pursuing advanced studies in Germany.
She obtained the Konzertexamen / highest performance diploma in composition and a Master’s degree in Electronic Music from the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Her teachers and mentors have included prominent Chinese and European composers such as Xie Weiping, Zhu Lin, Fan Naixin, Jia Guoping, Marco Stroppa, Caspar Johannes Walter, and Hèctor Parra.
Her artistic practice combines contemporary music, electronic music, music theatre, and visual art. In recent years, she has been invited to participate in prestigious artist residency programs in Germany, France, and Italy, including Schloss Wiepersdorf, Schöppingen, Villa Massimo, and the Camargo Foundation.
Her orchestral work Shining won First Prize at the 2011 Isang Yun International Composition Competition in South Korea.
In 2016, her work Me Du Ça, for soprano and electronics, was premiered at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and received the Giga-Hertz Prize from the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in Germany.
Cheng also participated in the Musiktheater Heute music theatre program supported by the Deutsche Bank Foundation, where she collaborated with the creative team on the music theatre production Nacht der Seeigel. She subsequently worked with Oper Freiburg and the Deutsche Oper Berlin on new productions.
Her works have been released on Wergo Records and presented at numerous European festivals and cultural institutions. In 2023, she was invited to serve as a jury member for the international electronic music Giga-Hertz Prize.