Musical Utopias | A festival of Sonic Embrace

Following the success of its first edition, Musical Utopias returns! This year delivers two days of sonic embrace. The festival explores humankind’s relationship to society, the environment, and social and political activism, with 2019’s edition focusing on self-reflection and inner clarity that drives a sharper broader perception. Musical Utopias is an invitation to share in this hopeful journey into the unknown, a journey that looks optimistically to the future.

Ensemble Klang and Korzo bring together music-makers and artists striving to build new worlds. The program reaches across multiple genres: expect profound sound meditation, deep and dark sonic baths, award-winning documentary films, contemporary music, minimalism, electronica, and ritualistic dance grooves.

Friday 20 Dec | 20.30 | Midori Takada & Ivan Vukosavljević
Two contrasting sets launch the opening night of Musical Utopias 2019: one set sounds a light, visible space, the second burns a lucid visceral darkness.
Tickets

Saturday 21 Dec | 15.00 | Presence of Absence
Oscar Bettison, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Michaela Riener, Ensemble Klang, Matangi Quartet
Equal parts doom prophecy, howl of remorse, and stoic resignation, Oscar Bettison’s Presence of Absence is a penetrating work for voice and ensemble.
Tickets

Saturday 21 Dec | 20.30 | Music for the Longest Night
Ensemble Klang, Michaela Riener, PolyBand
Marking the winter solstice Musical Utopias brings an evening of music to take us into the deepest and longest night of the year. The program takes in works unearthing inner demons, poetic reflections on the moon, incluiding a world premiere of Maarten Altena’s Full Moon, and ends with eternal, ritualistic, dance riffs that carry us into the tender embrace of the long dark night.
Tickets

Early Bird passe-partout €35,- (valid until December 6)