MaerzMusik 2025 challenges dichotomies and dualities by presenting a multitude of multidisciplinary works and concerts that offer new, networked perspectives in music and sound worlds.
In addition to various German and world premieres, invited works are expand to sonic relaties through theatre, electronic and digital experiments, but also movement and dance. The 24th edition of the festival opens with the experimental music theatre show “MELENCOLIA” by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In a series of immersive soundscapes, the musicians of the Ensemble Modern and the Apollo Choir take the listeners with them to explore the transformative power of melancholic worlds.
At the Haus der Berliner Festspiele American composer and vocalist Joan La Barbara, will present a programme of her own works. Composer, performer and media artist Pamela Z will bring twelve of her own works and a composition by Meredith Monk with live electronic. In “CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness” artist and fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme Susie Ibarra explores traditional Filipino love songs. Composer and singer Laura Bowler will premiere three multimedia solo pieces for singer and live electronics, Delve deeper into the riches of the percussive arsenal: In the work “POETICA” by composer Chaya Czernowin, the solo percussionist and vocalist Steven Schick is accompanied by four members of Les Percussions de Strasbourg, pre-recorded strings and electronics, including an audio immersion of sounds recorded at protests in Paris, Tel Aviv and the USA by the composer.
In his composition “Streik” (Strike) for ten drum sets German composer Enno Poppe explores the sound and narrative spectrum of this special instrument. With its special line-up of two percussion sets and two pianos, the New York-based ensemble Yarn/Wire celebrates its Berlin debut with four commissioned works by Sarah Davachi, Jad Atoui, Clara Iannotta and Catherine Lamb – exploring the intimacy, focused and micro-listening.
Also appearing at the festival for the first time is the Swiss-based Ensemble Nikel, that presents two performative concerts at Radialsystem. In combination, and performed for the first time in Germany, the composition “limina” by Berlin-based American composer Mark Barden juxtaposes with the solo dance piece “Sensation 1” by American choreographer Ligia Lewis. In collaboration with dance artists from Chiang Mai in Thailand the new commission “Drifting to the Rhythms at the Southeast of Nowhere” by Nguyễn + Transitory is being developed. In the German premiere at Radialsystem.
For the finale, entitled “I AM ALL EARS”, the audience can move freely on the stage of the Festspielhaus and explore the experience of listening anew with works by Wojtek Blecharz, Corie Rose Soumah, Pauline Oilveros, Tom Johnson, Sam Dunscombe, Jennifer Torrence and others.
