Ich sitze zwischen schweigenden Menschen auf einer Turnmatte, um uns Wände aus zerkrumpeltem Papier. In den ausgesparten Ecken spannen sich, knapp überm Boden, segelförmige Stücke aus weiß schimmerndem Material über Lautsprechern. Wie Häute sehen die Zuschnitte aus, die mit Drahtseilen an ein Metallgerüst gespannt sind. Hinter den Häuten und Wänden schwach erleuchtete Scheinwerfer. Eine unwirkliche Szenerie gruppiert sich um die Ansammlung allzu wirklicher Turnmatten: Ich befinde mich im Zentrum von Ashley Fures Konzertinstallation „The Force of Things".

Am Donnerstag, 11. August 2016, kam das neue Stück „Tolerance Stacks" der kanadischen Komponistin Annesley Black (*1979) bei den Darmstädter Ferienkursen zur Uraufführung. Leider scheiterte die Produktion – eine Hypothese!

Steven Takasugis Sideshow bei den Darmstädter Ferienkursen 2016

In den letzten Minuten der Aufführung von Sideshow, dem jüngsten Musiktheater des amerikanischen Komponisten Steven Kazuo Takasugi, gab es ein Missgeschick: Drei Mal ging das grellweiße Bühnenlicht aus und an – nicht ganz synchron mit den wohl dazu gehörenden Bassdrum-Schlägen. Eigentlich hätte das Licht erst am Ende des Stückes ausgehen sollen. Die Panne verstärkte allerdings die gewollt bedrohliche Atmosphäre noch. In diesen Schlussminuten zitterten die acht Musiker auf ihren Stühlen, ihre gefletschten Zähne klapperten, und sie blickten mit leblosen Augen anklagend ins Publikum. Das Bild war das einer Hinrichtung.

What Are You Doing presents a final daily show, with Brian Ferneyhough on bad food, Mark Andre on digital natives, the ASMR Weather Girl, Schallfeld Ensemble and a new music fan from Darmstadt itself.

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Andrew Chung presents a special feature on the New Discipline manifesto, what it means, and doesn't mean for musicians and composers today. Featuring Jennifer Walshe, Natacha Diels, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Mocrep Ensemble and Brian Ferneyhough.

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Maya Shenfeld and the Writing Workshop team tell the story of this year's focus at Darmstadt on Gender Relations, from the hard facts of historical gender imbalance, to what can be done as individuals and institutions for a fairer, braver and better new music world. Featuring Georgina Born, Jennifer Walshe, Ashley Fure, Stella Veloce and Louis D'Heudieres, Madeleine Johnsson Gille and Thomas Schäfer.

With thanks to all the participants.

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One of Europe's most important contemporary music festivals, Darmstadt's International Summer Course for New Music grapples with the future of gender equality in new music, with the release of composer Ashley Fure's archival data on women's role in the festival's past and present.

When American composer Michael Pisaro's sparse Concentric Rings in Magnetic Levitation for piano, percussion, and live electronics, settled over the audience at Darmstadt's Centralstation Halle on August 8, the Distractfold ensemble channeled the radical silences and long-duration stillness of the Wandelweiser Group's post-Cagean aesthetic.

Friday on Darmstadt Radio: Expanding the Field with Celeste and Miika! The Darmstadt Melting Pot! Falafel Philosophy! Weather with Withers! Competitive Queueing! Attacking the Future! Mocrep! Magic! Music! #darmstadtradio

In her lecture about her recent work, composer Chaya Czernowin invites the audience to rethink the relationship between voice and breath, to see the complexities revealed when slowing down the singing process, two concepts she examines further in her upcoming opera Infinite Now.

Das Setting ist perfekt durchdesigned. Im Rahmen der Darmstädter Ferienkurse spielte am Mittwochabend (03.08.16) das Brüsseler ICTUS-Ensemble zusammen mit der Wiener Composer-Performerin Eva Reiter deren Werk The Lichtenberg Figures im Frankfurter LAB. Eva Reiter mit ihren Crossover-Performances, die die alte, die Neue und die Popmusik einbeziehen, und das LAB, das immer auch ein paar szenefremde Studenten mit Sinn fürs Außergewöhnliche anzieht, das passt zusammen: Experimente ohne Risiko, Pop ohne Unterschicht. Das Ensemble ist stufenartig um die singende Eva Reiter gruppiert, die im Dämmerlicht der Coolness über allem thront.

Today on the official unofficial radio show of Darmstadt Summer Course: Hugs, lip-synching and floor-sliding! Alex and Maya in the confrontation zone! A sweaty studio! Heloisa Amaral feeds back! Ulrich Mosch in the musicology zone! The weather brought to you by Samuel Beckett! Max goes mental! #darmstadtradio

Composer David Helbich's and Jennifer Walshe's composer perfomer workshops is redefining the classical music's traditional roles

In recent years the title composer performer has become more and more common. Together with Irish composer Jennifer Walshe, the Brussels based artist David Helbich leads this year's performer composer workshop at the Darmstadt International Summer School. I met up with him to reflect on how composers and performers can merge into one entity, and to hear more about their workshop.

The "I Have Good News" Episode: The Writing Workshop English Faction returns with their daily cabbage patch of Neue Musik insights including: MOCREP members speak! Ine Vanoeveren plays! Wieland Hoban translates! Krzysztof Marciniak and Monika argue! Plus Alex returns with a metereological smorgasbord, and Thomas Schäfer has good news!

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A blistering 25 minutes of white-hot Neue Musik radio from the IMD Writing Workshop! Featuring Jennifer Walshe and Ashley Fure in interview! the politics of getting in to concerts! live music from New Zealand! Reflections on Douglas Barret's lecture! A message from Chaya Czernowin! Concert reviews! The weather!

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"What Are You Doing Here?" Episode two of the official unofficial Darmstadt Radio Show - featuring violinist Keir GoGwilt performing Carolyn Chen live, Georgina Born on GRID, Klaus Lang on Harmoniums, robust discussion and the weather forecast.

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Percussion concert showcases theatre and extremity

The four percussion pieces that comprised the Centralstation concert on 1 August were so hugely divergent in style and substance that experiencing them all within the space of a single evening was tantamount to whiplash. Performers Håkon Stene and Christian Dierstein offered a fascinating contrast. Dierstein's playing was extremely introverted, almost mime-like, as if performing a series of sacred rituals. Stene was the diametric opposite, manic and flamboyant, recklessly hammering wine glasses and cracking Noh-like facial expressions. Both were fascinating to watch, and obviously devoted a great deal of time, effort, and patience into their performances. It paid off.

Ladies and gentlemen, a brief silence before we begin...

Pianist Stèphane Ginsburgh steps onstage the second evening of the Darmstadt Fereinkurse to perform one of the first concerts of the festival calendar. The three completed works of Stefan Prins' Piano Hero (2011-2016), an ongoing cycle of works for keyboardist, live electronics, and video, unfold in a deeply paranoid reflection on surveillance and the extension of the performer through media technology. Prins' work joins the stream of socially critical events programmed for this year's 70th anniversary Ferienkurse.