Donaueschingen Music Festival

The Donaueschingen Music Festival is one of the oldest and most time-honoured festivals of New Music in the world. Established in 1921, the festival has been organised by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in cooperation with the radio broadcaster SWR and the city of Donaueschingen since 1950. Since its early days, it has significantly shaped the history of Western art music and helped numerous composers gain international fame, such as Paul Hindemith, Pierre Boulez, Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Rebecca Saunders and Francesca Verunelli. 

Internationally recognised as a festival of world premieres, its spectrum ranges from large orchestral and ensemble concerts to electronic performances and sound art. The festival regularly cooperates with the renowned SWR Symphony Orchestra, SWR Vocal Ensemble and SWR Experimental Studio. In so doing, the festival brings century-old orchestral and choral music culture together with the latest innovations in technology and media. Even outside the German-speaking world, artists and audiences regard the festival as the year’s foremost meeting place in the New Music scene. With the appointment of its new artistic director Lydia Rilling, the Donaueschingen Music Festival is undergoing a comprehensive process of revitalisation, involving efforts to network and expand internationally, artistically, aesthetically and medially. In 2023 the festival organisers decided to curatorially focus on a central theme each year. The purpose is to underscore how deeply contemporary music is rooted in modern society and how it can touch on and explore current issues – at times in an obvious and audible manner, and other times, more subtly. In 2023, for the first time in its history, the festival focused on works by women composers; 70 percent of the featured world premieres were written by women. 

The festival also plans to broaden its musical programme aesthetically and engage in transcontinental partnerships and new European networking formats. The educational programme in Donaueschingen itself will also be strengthened. For example, in composition workshops, school classes will have the opportunity to write their own music and have it performed in concert during the festival. The organisers also plan to stage participatory projects throughout the city. The project “Next Generation” will offer around 100 students the chance to attend the festival at a reduced price and participate in their own workshop programme. Building on experience gained during the pandemic, the Donaueschingen Music Festival will continue to take advantage of digital space without diminishing its in-person character. The festival is far more than merely a venue of multiple world premieres – it is a social event and, above all, a place to intensively discuss, experience and reflect on music.