Festival for new music

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Ultraschall Berlin - the festival has undergone many a metamorphosis. And yet it has remained true to its basic idea. From the very beginning, Ultraschall Berlin has been a festival that integrates recently created works into a music-historical context that goes back to the beginnings of the post-war avant-garde, a period that now spans more than 80 years. In such a historical echo chamber, aesthetic developments become recognizable and generational successions and cyclical movements can be better traced. Although the number of premieres and first performances has noticeably increased in recent years, this dual approach remains valid for the festival: to offer a forum for current trends in contemporary music and at the same time to locate these current productions in a music-historical continuum.

At the same time, distraction is increasing and social media are leading to a dissolution of what used to be called 'leisure'. New music is also affected by these trends. A festival like Ultraschall Berlin cannot and will not close its ears to such developments. Nevertheless, the festival deliberately sets a counterpoint to recent trends. Our aim is not the extensive temporal expansion of listening fields, but the intensification and concentration on precise listening - a commitment to 'critical listening', a self-confident and self-aware listening and understanding of what contemporary artists have to say. The quality of the musical performance is an indispensable prerequisite for this. Only the best possible interpretation makes it possible to understand what the artists - in the medium of music - are concerned with behind the immediate sound. Once again this year, the invited ensembles guarantee the interpretative quality that is always close to our hearts.

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Thu., 15.1. 17:00h - SMESCH

Eva Resch, soprano
Martin Smith, violoncello
Leon Daniel, video installation

Brigitta Muntendorf: hin und weg (2010) 12'
Georg Katzer: Ophelia (1994) 21'
Farzia Fallah: of asphyxia (2025) UA
Per Nørgård: Plutonian Ode (1982-84) 10'
Kaija Saariaho: Changing light. Version for soprano and violoncello (2005) 6'

Thu, 15.1. 19:00h - Kafka Fragments

Johanna Vargas, soprano
Ilya Gringolts, violin
Angelika Luz, Johanna Vargas, director

György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments 60'

Thu., 15.1. 21:00h - Accordion

Margit Kern, accordion
SWR Experimental Studio
Thomas Hummel, sound direction

Charlotte Seither: Never real, always true (2008) 11'
Birke Bertelsmeier: New work (2025) 10' UA
Eun-Wha Cho: New work (2025) 10' UA
Dániel Péter Biró: Hagirot (2025) 28' UA*
*financed by the Norwegian Composers' Fund

ultraschallberlin.de