Academy

Open-minded, virtuosic in performance and aurally perceptive, Klangforum Wien – one of the internationally most renowned ensembles for contemporary music – devotes itself to the artistic interpretation and expansion of experiential space. A performance of Klangforum Wien is an event in the best sense of the word; it offers a sensual experience, immediate and inescapable; and the novelty in its music speaks, acts and beguiles.

Ever since it was founded by Beat Furrer in 1985, the ensemble – which, over the years, has received a great number of awards and distinctions – has written music history: It has presented around 600 world premieres of works by composers from four continents; it boasts an extensive discography of more than 90 releases, and is part of the major music festivals in Europe, America and Asia: Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern, Holland Festival, Ruhrtriennale, Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, Biennale di Venezia, Festival d’Automne Paris, and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Warsaw Autumn among others. Klangforum Wien frequently performs at the most important concert and opera venues such as the Wiener Konzerthaus, Musikverein Wien, Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ (Amsterdam), Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Teatro Real (Madrid), Opéra national de Paris, Library of Congress (Washington DC), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), or Tongyeong Concert Hall. In a mutually rewarding collaboration with many of the world’s leading composers, the ensemble has formed a great number of formative artistic friendships, and it enjoys working with the most eminent conductors of our time – including Sylvain Cambreling, Péter Eötvös, Pablo Heras-Casado, Susanna Mälkki, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Matthias Pintscher, Emilio Pomàrico, Simone Young – as well as with leading stage directors like Luc Bondy, Frank Castorf, Claus Guth, Jan Lauwers, Christoph Marthaler, or Peter Sellars.
Since 2009, the musicians of Klangforum Wien have devoted themselves to sharing their comprehensive mastery of playing techniques and forms of expression with a new generation of artists in the context of their collective professorship at the University of Music, Graz.

Klangforum Wien is made up of 25 musicians from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. From the start of the 2018/19 season until summer 2022, Bas Wiegers was Klangforum Wien’s Principal Guest Conductor, taking over from Sylvain Cambreling who, however, has maintained a close relationship with the ensemble as its Principal Guest Conductor Emeritus. Per 1 January 2024, Elena Schwarz and Vimbayi Kaziboni serve as the new Conductors in Residence. Peter Paul Kainrath has been the ensemble's director since January 1st, 2020.
Klangforum Wien has its own annual concert series at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Every year, the ensemble commissions composers and gives numerous world and territorial premieres. The repertoire choice and the ensemble’s intense understanding of the pieces contribute to diversity, and are matched by the flawless execution of the music.
Honorary members of Klangforum Wien are Georges Aperghis, Sylvain Cambreling, Friedrich Cerha, Barbara Fränzen, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Lothar Knessl, Bernhard Lang, Olga Neuwirth, Peter Oswald, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino.

 

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In February 2025, Klangforum will be busy with intensive rehearsals in Vienna as part of the impuls Composition Workshop, leading to premieres of five new pieces, commissioned by impuls in the framework of the international impuls Composition Competition, at the impuls Festival in Graz on February 25th. On February 26, the ensemble offers Reading Sessions at the impuls Academy.