TCU Composer Returns to International Festival for 10th Anniversary

For Martin Blessinger, returning to the Talis Festival & Academy this summer meant revisiting more than a familiar music festival. It gave him the opportunity to finish a composition he began 12 years earlier, bringing his experience with the international chamber music program full circle.

The professor of music and associate dean of faculty affairs and graduate programs in the TCU College of Fine Arts, Blessinger served as festival guest composer for the 10th edition of Talis, held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The international chamber music program brings together emerging and professional musicians from around the world for performances, lessons, master classes and collaboration.  

Blessinger has a unique history with the festival: He was its first guest composer when Talis launched in Switzerland in 2014.

“I came home and was super inspired by being there,” Blessinger said. “I started writing ideas down for this piece, and then life got in the way.”  

When organizers invited him back for the anniversary, those unfinished ideas finally had a destination. 

A Composition 12 Years in the Making 
The resulting work, Talisman, is a roughly 10-minute string quartet whose name offers a nod to the festival that inspired it. For Blessinger, returning to the material more than a decade later allowed him to reconnect with his earlier creative ideas while approaching them from a new perspective.

“It was fun to return to this material that I had sort of abandoned, although I always liked it and wanted to get back to it,” he said. “It allowed me to reinhabit that space when I was writing that piece.”  

Talisman opened the festival's first concert, performed by a quartet comprising both established festival artists and academy fellows. That combination reflects a defining philosophy of Talis: Musicians arrive from different countries and stages of their careers, but come together as collaborators rather than being divided into traditional faculty and student ensembles.  

Music Across Cultures 
Musicians from around the world participated in the festival, with performances welcoming local audiences in Sarajevo. For Blessinger, the setting added another dimension to the experience. Sarajevo's blend of Eastern and Western European influences provided a fitting backdrop for a festival built around international exchange.

“Everyone there is from somewhere else and getting together to have a shared experience and create music,” he said.  

In addition to presenting his own work, Blessinger taught composition lessons and master classes and guided student composers through rehearsals of their work. Now, he hopes Talisman will continue its life beyond its premiere, including potentially at TCU.  

For a composition that began with the festival 12 years ago, its premiere may represent another beginning rather than an ending.