WIEN MODERN

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of WIEN MODERN. The festival will be opened on 22nd October by a performance of Olga Neuwirth’s «Kloing! / Hommage to Klaus Nomi» at the Theater an der Wien. This is the first time that the opening night of the festival will be held at this venue and it's a coproduction between the two institutions. The Klangforum Wien will perform the work, conducted by Clement Power, with Andrew Watts (counter tenor), Marino Formenti (piano) and Lillevan (video and live video). In its jubilee year, WIEN MODERN is dedicating a major part of its programme to the work of the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

In this 25th edition of WIEN MODERN the artistic director Matthias Lošek has invited one of the co-founders of the festival and the grand seigneur of contemporary music, Lothar Knessl, to curate a special series of concerts. Knessl, who celebrates his 85th birthday in April this year, will follow his own personal guiding principles. He will present music from 24 years of WIEN MODERN «that should be performed again, and that has so far not yet been played» – a thrilling experience is guaranteed!

The 2012 Erste Bank Composition Prize was won by Beat Furrer, whose commissioned piece will be premiered on 3rd November by the Klangforum Wien in the Wiener Konzerthaus.

You can find all previous Wien Modern projects from past years in the archive.