This year’s festival theme, Zwei Gefühle, is inspired by Helmut Lachenmann’s work of the same name and reflects the contrasting yet resonant musical worlds of Arvo Pärt and Helmut Lachenmann, whose 90th birthdays are celebrated during the festival. Also honored are Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez, both marking their 100th anniversaries – towering figures of musical modernism.
Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli technique, deeply rooted in early Western polyphony, contrasts with Helmut Lachenmann’s radical musique concrète instrumentale, which consciously breaks with music history to embrace the entire spectrum of audible sound. Both composers, in true avant-garde spirit, have created their own unique languages.
AFEKT pays tribute to Pierre Boulez with a solo recital by pianist Michael Wendeberg, one of Boulez’s close collaborators both as pianist and conductor. Berio’s legendary Sequenzas will be performed by leading Estonian contemporary musicians.
This year’s lineup includes the renowned ensemble Musikfabrik, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO), conductor Susanne Blumenthal, pianists Michael Wendeberg and Tähe-Lee Liiv, Cyberstudio, AFEKT Soloists, mezzo-soprano Iris Oja, cellist Leho Karin, clarinetists Soo-Young Lee and Mirjam Avango, flutists Leonora Palu and Monika Mattiesen, poet Sveta Grigorjeva, EAMT’s students of Composition and Music Technology and Audiovisual Creation, etc.
The program features world premieres by Jüri Reinvere, Jānis Petraškevičs, Ailís Ní Ríain, and Estonian premieres of works by Georges Aperghis, Pierre Boulez, Jörg Widmann, Alexey Shmuraki, Maxim Kolomiiets, Katarina Gryvul, as well as works by Estonian composers Arvo Pärt, Liisa Hirsch, Sander Saarmets, Helena Tulve, Ülo Krigul, Mart Siimer, Arash Yazdani, and others.
Lectures and workshops will also be held at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
The artistic director of the festival is Monika Mattiesen.
More info: