KONTAKTE '15
International Festival for Electronic Music and Sound Art
25.–27. September 2015
KONTAKTE is the new festival hosted by the Studio for Electroacoustic Music at the Akademie der Künste. As a network of experimental and established structures, KONTAKTE is located at the interface of sound art, composition, film, performance and discourse. The three-day programme not only showcases works by young composers and world premieres, but also such celebrated post-war avant-garde pieces as Stockhausen’s Kontakte and Blacher’s Multiple Perspektiven.
The first edition of this Berlin festival explores today’s internationally profiled positions in electroacoustic music and sound art. KONTAKTE takes its inspiration from the Berlin Inventionen festival for new music, which ran for twenty years until 2010. KONTAKTE not only offers a spectrum of music from world premieres, classic avant-garde works, and chamber music to live electronic and performative formats, but also includes artists in conversation and a panel discussion, as well as the exclusive presentation of Georg Katzer’s CD Elektroakustische Kompositionen aus vier Jahrzehnten (Electroacoustic compositions from four decades). Throughout the three-day festival, the entire Akademie building at Hanseatenweg is dedicated to concerts, sound installations, performance and films.KONTAKTE is informed by the leitmotif of building bridges between the traditional and the modern. Valerio Sannicandro’s Ephemeris is being premiered in the Studiosaal at the Akademie der Künste. This work, which oscillates between a stage piece and an installation, can be heard and seen from both sides of the auditorium. Mazen Kerbaj, Lebanese improvisation musician and guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme in 2015, is also presenting a new work at the festival. In addition, KONTAKTE is staging a highlight concert with works by some of the most renowned twentieth-century composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Boris Blacher and Georg Katzer. The up-and-coming generation of artists are given a voice through Open Calls and composition prizes offered by the Studio for Electroacoustic Music and partner institutions. The prize-winning works will also be integrated into the programme.
KONTAKTE is supported by a network of partner institutions including the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik (DEGEM), the Artists-in-Berlin Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK), the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the TU Berlin.
KONTAKTE '15 is funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
Introduction und Programme (pdf Download)