Musik 21 Festival 2021

Musik 21 – Niedersächsische Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, Hanover, Germany

Focused around the REALITIES theme, Musik 21 Festival questions utopias and presents works from concert, performance and music theater that reexamine creation processes and coexistence: collective compositions, improvisational concepts or content-based approaches to social issues.

Forming the focal point of the festival are new short operas by Katharina Rosenberger, Elnaz Seyedi, and Ehsan Khatibi – bridging the gap between the now historical workers’ solidarity piece and contemporary discourses and social issues. Promising a special premiere is the collaboration of electric guitar duo AAA---AAA with the Pony Says trio, violinist/performer iSaAc Espinoza Hidrobo, and composer/choreographer Andreas Eduardo Frank – who conceive an audiovisual work in a collective process fusing composition and improvisation, sound and movement. London-based ensemble x.y is also hosted with their program TENEBRAE, addressing Jewish identity and spirituality in a globalized world while also allowing scope for influences from improvisation and jazz. Improvised sounds similarly feature in the contribution of Ensemble Megaphon, offering a collaboration of three female composers from three generations and three countries. In the process, an interdisciplinary concert framework is created that opens up multisensory and interactive approaches. The concert hall can also be experienced as a social sphere in The Noise of Germany by the CRISPR.Kollektiv, where musicians compete with solo pieces from the 20th/21st century which are then put to the audience’s vote. In the collaboration of Cologne quartet BRuCH with Thea Soti, the composer takes the stage as an improvising vocalist with a background in jazz. Finally, Belgian extreme pianist Daan Vandewalle performs Frederic Rzewski’s revolutionary song variations The People United. The 2021 festival is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Due to current situation there might be changes at short notice. For most recent information please visit musik21niedersachsen.de