Donaueschingen Music Days

Festival for New Music

Established in 1921, the Donaueschingen Music Days is the world's oldest festival for New Music and the most renowned of its kind in Germany. The festival has hosted the world premieres of many famous composers of the 20th century. Every October audiences can look forward to a wide selection of today's musical avant-garde.

The Donaueschinger Music Days will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2011. In the past 90 years, the festival has served as a laboratory for new sounds, unique contexts and experimental forms of presentation. From 14 to 16 October, the festival will present the German and world premieres of 20 works by composers from 16 different countries. The festival will open with the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s full-length “Composition for Ensemble and Orchestra” from his Séraphin cycle. The piece will be performed by the two main ensembles invited to this year’s festival, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg and the Cologne-based musikFabrik. The soloists of the musikFabrik will also perform Rebecca Saunders’ new composition “Neues Werk für Ensemble und Raum”. The concert by the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart will feature new works by four female composers from Germany, France and Ireland. In their new compositions, Clara Maïda, Sarah Nemtsov, Iris ter Schiphorst and Jennifer Walshe aim to strike a balance between compositional independence and interpretive freedom. SWR2 NowJazz Session has invited three of the most renowned, all-female, free-improvisation groups: “Les Diaboliques”, “Phantom Orchard” and “Spunk”.

The photo selected for this year’s Donaueschinger Music Days poster was conceived by the Mongolian artist Unen Enkh. The image depicts an artwork he created in 2008, titled “Holon”, made of horsehair and felt.

The Donaueschingen Music Days will take place from 14 to 16 October 2010.

Artistic director: Armin Köhler
Artists, Ensembles and Composers: ensemble recherche, Clara Maida, Sarah Nemtsov, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, musikFabrik, Wolfgang Rihm, François Sarhan, Rebecca Saunders, Iris ter Schiphorst, Erwin Stache, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Hans Thomalla, Jennifer Walshe, u.a.