ciphers – Kiel Days of New Music

The biennial festival ciphers – Kiel Days of New Music is one of 15 projects funded through the New Music Network. Following successful festivals in 2006 and 2008, this year’s event featured a wide range of concerts and performances by outstanding ensembles from Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin and Vienna. The highlights of the festival included the opening concert by the ensemble reflexion K and a concert by the Klangforum Wien, one of the world’s leading ensembles of New Music. The interplay between instrumental and live electronic music, and video and performance elements were the central theme of a concert by the chamber music ensemble Neue Musik Berlin. In addition to performing works by Luigi Nono and Gérard Grisey, the ensemble presented experiments with bird calls, the sound of gridlock in Buenos Aires, and the clicking of bicycle hubs. Ciphers lead audiences on a journey to unfamiliar realms of sound with a number of educational projects, as well, including “Crescendo”, “Tuchfühlung” and “Vibrations”.