9th impuls . Festival for Contemporary Music is happening from the 17th – 28th of February 2025 in Graz, Austria. Get all the info on this internationally renowned festival below.
Now for the 9th time, the impuls Festival will offer a rich and versatile daily music and discourse program. Contemporary music, presented in diverse formats and settings also beyond traditional stages (such as MinuteConcerts, staged and installative concerts, or Late Nights) will hereby be brought to various venues in the City of Graz – from small informal locations and galleries (such as kunst.wirt.schaft, Museum der Wahrnehmung, Haus der Architektur a.o.), to esc medien kunst labor and Forum Stadtpark, up to concert halls, such as MUMUTH or Helmut List Halle. Different venues at Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG) will of course play a central role, also for the Academy activities.
In February 2025 impuls once more welcomes internationally renowned top formations (amongst others Klangforum Wien, Quatuor Diotima, Trio Accanto, Trio Sun-Weiss-Fussenegger), tutoring, rehearsing, producing and performing on spot. Besides, further young and rising ensembles (amongst others NAMES, Schallfeld Ensemble, Chaos String Quartet, Kandinsky Quartet) as well as individual musicians, electronic performers, vocalists and of course also composers will offer an intense inside view in the richness and diversity of contemporary music by presenting works composed in the 20th and 21st century, amongst them also an impressive number of world and Austrian premieres, and many of them produced specifically for and during impuls. During the first three days of the festival, a special focus is put on the Austrian music scene with a variety of concerts also during the day, while on the following, equally dense festival days, productions by international artists will take over.
On top, lectures, discussions, composers’ talks and other music communication programs enhance the impuls Festival program and the Academy alike. This way new music, be it classical modern or most current one, can be experienced first hand both in theory and practice, discourse and sound.
program
17.2., 20.00 Opening Concert | The space between us | NAMES – Döttlinger | Grill | Iannotta | Sharafi
18.2., 11.00 Open Spaces. Tracing the Architecture of Time – Rykova | Seidenberg | Toro Pérez
18.2., 17.00 Judith Fliedl – Gadenstätter | Gander | Haas | Saunders
18.2., 19.00 Chaos + Lux I | Chaos String Quartet – Haubenstock-Ramati | Hauer | Kurtág | Ligeti | Verunelli | Webern
18.2., 21.00 Chaos + Lux II | ensemble LUX – Furrer | Neuwirth | Wally
19.2., 11.00 Daniel Lercher – Lercher
19.2., 14.00 Spectrum Saxophonquartett – Cerha | Haas | Neuwirth | Preinfalk | Yu
19.2., 18.00 Kandinsky Quartet – Haas | Iannotta
19.2., 20.00 KORPUS I | Schallfeld Ensemble – Bauckholt | Bertrand | Khubeev | Mochizuki | Panariello
20.2., 19.30 2×1 + 2×3 | Tutors´ Concert I – Dierstein | Hodges | Trio Accanto | Trio Sun-Weiss-Fussenegger – Bianchi | Giger | Klartag | Mochizuki | Saunders | Seyedi | Vassena
21.2., 18.30 Music and Words | Tutors’ Concert II – Gagliardi
21.2., 20.00 Quatuor Diotima | Tutors’ Concerts III – Amman | Dusapin | Mochizuki | Streich
22.2., 10.00-23.00 impuls MinuteConcerts
23.2., 11.00 Piano Recital
23.2., 14.00 + 16.00 Speculative Sound Synthesis – Alphart | Apel | Dal Rí | Grossi | Marentakis | McCormick | Speda | Tobera | Tuchel
23.2., 18.00 Strings . Double Bass in Dialogue – a.o. Saariaho
23.2., 20.00 Joy Time Ride | IEMA-Ensemble 2024/25 – Chen | Czernowin | Hurel | Shlomowitz
24.2., 16.00 + 19.00 Team Composition
24.2., 19.00 Vocal Summit
24.2., 22.00 Late Night I – Schick
25.2., 14.00 Instant Composing
25.2., 18.45 + 19.30 Composers´ Talk + Laureate Concert | Klangforum Wien – Gorandi | Jeong | Louilarppasert | Phungula | Sheehan
26.2., 17.00 3×4 . String Quartets – Chaos String Quartet | Kandinsky Quartet | Quatuor Diotima
26.2., 19.30 Trios . Quartets . Quintets …
26.2., 22.00 Late Night II – Jodlowski | Mayr | Preinfalk | Sheehan
27.2., 14.00 + 16.30 Digital Dialogues – Bañados Russell | Eilam | Lee | Liao | Savagnone
27.2., 14.00 + 16.30 FLUXES | PPCM-Ensemble – Jodlowski | Torres | Cano Valiño | Jodlowski
27.2., 18.00 Track 3 – a.o. Illés
27.2., 20.00 IEMA-Ensemble 2024/25 – Brokshtain | Caneva | Eylam | Iturregi | Sayer | Wang
28.2., 16.00 + 18.15 Intermedia Collaboration – Arafah | Bapbacı | Pentassuglia | Valkonen | Zach
28.2., 18.00 Solos . Duos . Trios
28.2., 18.30 zone expérimentale basel
28.2., 19.45 PPCM-Ensemble – Andre | Bedrossian | Black | Gadenstätter
More details and the full program can be found here.
Composition Competition Composers 2025
Damián Gorandi (*1991, Argentina)
Jieun Jeong (*1992, South Korea)
Piyawat Louilarpprasert (*1993, Thailand)
Njabulo Phungula (*1993, South Africa)
Kelley Sheehan (*1989, USA)
These five composers will take part in the upcoming impuls Composition Workshop in Vienna and Graz with Klangforum Wien coming along with commissions by impuls to write new pieces for the ensemble, that will be premiered in Graz at the impuls Festival in February 2025.
