Biography

Klangforum Wien

Current as of February 2024

Open-minded, virtuoso in playing and aurally perceptive, Klangforum Wien, one of the most internationally renowned ensembles for new music and with an unmistakable sound, is dedicated to artistic creativity and the expansion of experiential space. A performance by Klangforum Wien is an event of sensual experience whose immediacy cannot be replicated. The novelty of Klangforum Wien’s music speaks, acts and beguiles.

Since its foundation by Beat Furrer in 1985, this multi-award-winning ensemble has shaped contemporary music history, with world premieres of around 600 compositions by composers from four continents, an extensive discography of more than ninety recordings and appearances at the most important concert halls and opera houses, as well as participation in youthful initiatives and major festivals in Europe, the USA and Asia.

The ensemble has its own concert series in the Vienna Konzerthaus. Since 1993, Klangforum Wien has been a guest at the Salzburg Festival almost every year, giving the world premieres of Luciano Berio’s Cronaca del luogo (1999), Enno Poppe’s Salz (2005), Georges Aperghis’s Contretemps for soprano and ensemble (2006), Olga Neuwirth’s Eleanor-Suite (2015) and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Agitato cantabile – Capriccio sulla lontananza (2020).
Over the course of its history, the ensemble has formed deep artistic friendships through mutually enriching collaborations with the world’s leading composers. Since 2009, the ensemble and its members have shared their mastery of playing techniques and forms of musical expression with a new generation through a collective professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.
Klangforum Wien is made up of 24 musicians from Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA. From the start of the 2018/19 season until summer 2022 Bas Wiegers took over as principal guest conductor from Sylvain Cambreling, who remains principal guest conductor emeritus. Peter Paul Kainrath has been director of Klangforum Wien since 1 January 2020.
Klangforum Wien performs thanks to the kind support of Erste Bank.

read more collapse

Photos and Videos

Klangforum Wien
open gallery
open gallery