Dear Friends of the Festival,

The end is in sight: for the finale, we invite you to creative programming combinations, great musical tradition from Vienna, choral song from the Baltic and a musical portrait of Italy. 

The finale of the series FUTURE NOW Musical Diaries features &ñịoن  – and the term “&ñịoن“ not only looks unusual, but might be read as “new”: a fitting name for an ensemble dedicated to new musical encounters.

Yours, the Young Euro Classic Team

Surprising connections

Today, the Slovenian Youth Orchestra makes its debut: music full of contrasts, quick changes and surprising connect ions. The Slovenian composer Matija Krečič opens the evening with his new work Fast Break, inspired by sports, or basketball to be more specific. Krečič is equally at home in film and theatre as in contemporary classical music. The Finnish electric guitarist and composer Lauri Porra combines heavy metal and symphonic sound in a virtuoso manner. And for the finale, Beethoven’s Fifth unfolds in all its splendour – with lyrical moments and temperamental outbursts.

Musical discoveries in cinemascope

The Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker, the summer academy oft he Vienna Philharmonic, brings young talents from all over the world to the stage on Aug. 14. Beethoven’s Fourth and Wagner’s “Siegfried-Idyll” is Viennese classical music at its best – and Anneleen Lenaerts, the principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic, will give a brilliant rendition of Glière’s Harp Concerto. And the composer Konrád Varga, only 20 years old, delivers a colourful accent with his “3 Paranoide”. 

An absolute premiere 

An absolute first at Young Euro Classic: the Estonian National Opera Boys’ Choir brings the fascinating choral culture of Estonia to the Konzerthaus on August 15. Sacred works meet artful arrangements of Estonian folk songs – from an Ave Maria by the national composer Eduard Tubin to Andres Lemba’s Dona nobis pacem. A multi-faceted portrait of Estonia’s famed choral culture!

A musical declaration of love

Italy as a red musical thread: another Young Euro Classic debut, the Italian youth orchestra AYSO – Accademia Youth Symphony Orchestra presents works by composers inspired by the country’s beauty – this is the final concert on August 16. From Walton’s spirited “Scapino” Overture to Martucci’s “Notturno” and Respighi’s “Pini di Roma” and Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio italien”. Domenico Turi has dedicated his new work “Ritual” to his native Apulia – a musical declaration of love for Italy.

Before the second half of the concert, the winner of the European Composition Award will be announced by Berlin’s Secretary of State for Youth and Families, Falko Liecke.

A Journey through cultures and genres

If you feel like expanding your festival experience with new sounds, we recommend the ensembles ni-va and &ñịoن, featured in the programme of FUTURE NOW. On the weekend at 4.30 pm at the Werner-Otto-Saal.

The ni-va Ensemble from Buenos Aires and Stellan Veloce from Deutschland combine live electronics, improvisation and algorithmically produced sounds on Aug. 15. The soundscapes of their performance oscillate between the familiar and the unfamiliar, questioning the process of listening itself: with live improvisations on synthesizers, sequencers and samplers, they explore their sound in real time.

The FUTURE NOW Ensemble, in which different musical worlds come together, invite you to share collective sound experiences. It brings together musicians from Vietnam, Germany, Argentina and Egypt. Their name, &ñịoن , which might be pronounced as “new”, points to their goal of finding new musical ideas. Vinh Tran, Laris / Lara Bäucker, Hatem Hamdy and Joaquín Macedo meet and create instrumental, electronic and vocal soundscapes in the present moment. The result is a new sound – direct, open and unflinchingly in the present moment.

Photographs: Kai Bienert