| Donaueschinger Musiktage 2025: “Voices Unbound” From 16 to 19 October the festival celebrates the diversity of voices in contemporary music with 23 premieres and first performances / 75 years of SWR at the Donaueschinger Musiktage / Programme is online / Advance ticket sales have begun |
| The title of the 2025 Donaueschinger Musiktage programme is “Voices Unbound”. In 14 concerts, performances and installations with 23 world premieres and first performances, the festival puts the spotlight on composers who raise their voices, both literally and figuratively. “We are celebrating the manifold artistic voices even more resolutely as current political developments threaten this flow of expression. 2025 presents a difficult picture for the arts worldwide in the face of often radically reduced funding and growing culture tensions – including in Germany, despite its relatively privileged position,” says Lydia Rilling, artistic director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage. “German public radio, a key supporter of contemporary music, is confronted with challenges to its acceptance and cultural mission. It is therefore all the more important to honour 75 years of SWR at the Donaueschinger Musiktage this year and from here to look to the future. After all, SWR has recently sent out flashes of optimisms through clear commitments to contemporary music at the SWR Experimentalstudio and the Donaueschinger Musiktage.” Structure and deviation, pedestrians, dreams and objets trouvés The long festival weekend starts on Thursday (16 Oct) with the opening of four sound installations: In the Orangerie, Nika Schmitt stages an electromechanical chain reaction that reveals itself to be a composition of structure and deviation, presence and memory. In the Alte Molkerei, Félix Blume gives form to the rhythm of Donaueschingen’s pedestrians.His installation creates a pulsating score that makes audible our human presence in its most everyday motion: walking. In Blume’s installation in the Fischhaus, people from São Paulo share their dreams and invite us to compare them to our own. At Museum Art.Plus, Ewa Jacobsson and trumpeter Hilde Marie Holsen draw on Jacobsson’s “knowledge archive” in their jointly developed installation. The sounds of objets trouvés are combined with recordings of Holsen’s trumpet and the Geneva-based Ensemble Contrechamps, with field recordings and recited texts, all resounding from inside the objects. Official ceremony, opening concert and turntables at the Fürstenschloss SWR joined the Donaueschingen Musiktage 75 years ago and transformed it into a major orchestral and vocal showcase with its ensembles. This anniversary will be celebrated in a ceremony with different perspectives on the history and future of the Musiktage, as well as musical contributions from Jermolai Albiker, concertmaster of the SWR Symphonieorchester, and turntable artist Mariam Rezaei (Fri 17 Oct, 17:00). In the subsequent opening concert with the SWR Symphonieorchester under the direction of François-Xavier Roth, three composers will make their (orchestral) debut in Donaueschingen: in his strongly autobiographical work, Philippe Leroux makes the topography of Paris palpable through the spatial electronics of the IRCAM. Imsu Choi, whose compositions focus on timbre, draws on the orchestra’s extensive palette. In the first concerto written for clarinetist Carl Rosman, Turgut Erçetin draws acoustically on models of Anatolian architecture from the 12th century. And finally, Mark Andre pays tribute to Pierre Boulez to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth (Fri 17 Oct, 20:00). Mariam Rezaei concludes the evening in front of the impressive backdrop of the Fürstenberg Palace. For the 75th anniversary of SWR in Donaueschingen, she draws on the extensive SWR archive of recordings from the Musiktage in her newly composed performance for four turntables (Fri 17 Oct, 23:00). Debuts, sound-space choreography, harmonicas, and haikus Tabea Zimmermann makes her debut at the Musiktage together with the vocal ensemble EXAUDI in Georges Aperghis’ virtuoso chamber play “Tell Tales” (Sat 18 Oct, 11:00 & 20:00). In a concert-length sound-space choreography of Hanna Eimermacher, the musicians of the Klangforum Wien ensemble, the composer and the two mobile conductors Vimbayi Kaziboni and Xizi Wang “create” a “sound embrace” for the audience positioned in the centre (Sat 18 Oct., 11:00 & 20:00). From Trossingen via the US, the harmonica comes to the Donaueschinger Musiktage by way of the New York composer Tristan Perich with his new work for five harmonicas and 1-bit electronics, presented by the French ensemble HANATSUmiroir (Sat 18 Oct., 14:00 & 17:00). Slovenian musician Kaja Draksler’s latest project for her long-standing international octet is called “Bare, Unfolding”, inspired by poems by haiku master Matsuo Bashō (Sat 18 Oct, 14:00 & 17:00). Making her first appearance in Donaueschingen, Sarah Hennies concentrates on melodies for the first time in her artistic development in her two-hour work for violin and piano for Sarah Saviet and Joseph Houston. (Sat 18 Oct, 22:00). Voice production and solely for orchestra In the second concert by Klangforum Wien under the direction of Vimbayi Kaziboni, multi-faceted dimensions of the voice unfold. Together with soprano Johanna Vargas, Francesca Verunelli explores the moment in which the vibrations of the vocal chords become song. In its “Tower of Babel” project, Klangforum also gives voice to three composers from the post-Soviet space: Anna Korsun, Koka Nikoladze and Alexander Khubeev (Sun 19 Oct, 11:00). In a minimalist format, Polish drummer Szymon Gasiorek and Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler create darkly cheerful sound stories from texts as well as instrumental and electronic sounds in real time in their duo Czajka & Puchacz (Sun 19 Oct, 15:00). To mark the 75th anniversary of the SWR Symphonieorchester at the Musiktage, the orchestra takes centre stage at the closing concert with works solely for orchestra. Elena Schwarz makes her debut conducting the orchestra. Mirela Ivičević raises her voice to celebrate, in light of her own multi-ethnic background, how multiple identities can be organically interwoven in a single person resisting clear categorisation. Naomi Pinnock explores the tactility and materiality of handwriting and drawing in her search for an abstract, gestural landscape. Hanna Hartman develops an experimental approach to “instrumental electronics”, supported by the SWR Experimentalstudio. Laure M. Hiendl applies digital methods to the orchestra by sampling late-Romantic music to create a static-spatial composition as if through a long process of copy & paste (Sun 19 Oct, 17:00). Extensive supporting programme New to the Musiktage’s extensive supporting programme is a taster programme in which regular festival-goers can invite curious Donaueschingen visitors to attend a concert together, as well as a guided tour of the city for the Musiktage audience. Once again, there will also be artist talks, guided tours of all sound installations, workshops for students of Fürstenberg-Gymnasium and Realschule, the “Next Generation” programme for students, the “New Music Adventure” seminar for teachers and students as well as the sheet music and book exhibition. And the Kommunales Kino guckloch will be showing the film “Pierre Boulez – Der Weg ins Unbekannte” by Thomas von Steinaecker as well as a recording of Pierre Boulez’s 60th birthday concert with the SWF Sinfonieorchester. The programme can be found online, and advance ticket sales have started The detailed programme of the Donaueschinger Musiktage can be found at SWR.de/donaueschingen. The programme brochure is also available here for download. Advance ticket sales have begun, online at littleticket.shop, via the ticket hotline +49 (0)221 91409830, and at the local tourist information centre in Donaueschingen. The Kulturamt der Stadt Donaueschingen will send the programme brochure on request (Tel. +49 (0)771 857 266, email: info@musikfreunde-donaueschingen.de). Special prices for residents of the Schwarzwald-Baar county This year, all residents of the Schwarzwald-Baar county will receive tickets for all events at the special price of EUR 12. Tickets can only be purchased at the Tourist Information Centre of the town of Donaueschingen and at the box office on presentation of appropriate identification. Limited free tickets for freelance musicians The festival provides a limited number of free tickets for freelance artists for each concert. These are available online at littleticket.shop. The Donaueschinger Musiktage is organised by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in cooperation with the city of Donaueschingen, Südwestrundfunk and the SWR Experimentalstudio. Supported as a cultural beacon by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. This is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Other supporters are the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. |
Donaueschinger Musiktage 2025: “Voices Unbound” / 16 to 19 October 2025 / Programme is online / Advance ticket sales have begun.
Hallo Musiktage!
Leider muss ich in Englisch schreiben!
I am coming from England to Donaueschingen for the Musiktage Festival, which I have wanted to do for years – very excited.
Flights and accommodation are booked, but when I tried to buy Festival tickets, I was shocked. Half already sold out ! (Ausverkauft)
I am writing to ask if there is anything like a waiting list, or spare tickets, or any other way you know that we (two of us) can get to some of these events?
Events that we do already have tickets for :- 3, 4, 6b, 9, 10, 2nd Film and 13.
Tickets we would love to find:- 5a, 7 a or b, 8 a or b, 1st Film (Saturday), 12.
As this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two lovers of Contemporary Music, I hope you may have some suggestions about what we can do to find these tickets.
Hallo Musiktage!
Leider muss ich in Englisch schreiben!
I am coming from England to Donaueschingen for the Musiktage Festival, which I have wanted to do for years – very excited.
Flights and accommodation are booked, but when I tried to buy Festival tickets, I was shocked. Half already sold out ! (Ausverkauft)
I am writing to ask if there is anything like a waiting list, or spare tickets, or any other way you know that we (two of us) can get to some of these events?
Events that we do already have tickets for :- 3, 4, 6b, 9, 10, 2nd Film and 13.
Tickets we would love to find:- 5a, 7 a or b, 8 a or b, 1st Film (Saturday), 12.
As this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two lovers of Contemporary Music, I hope you may have some suggestions about what we can do to find these tickets.
Thank you very much.
Dave Wallace
+44 7767 623576
you very much.
Dave Wallace
+44 7767 623576