Klangforum Wien

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). Most recently in 2025 it participated in Sciarrino’s Macbeth and as the enlarged Klangforum Wien Orchestra in Peter Eötvös’s Three Sisters.

Every year the ensemble commissions new compositions and gives numerous world and Austrian premieres. Klangforum Wien’s mutually enriching collaborations with leading composers have led over the years to the development of deep and formative artistic friendships. Honorary members of Klangforum Wien have included Georges Aperghis, Friedrich Cerha, Barbara Fränzen, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Lothar Knessl, Bernhard Lang, Olga Neuwirth, Peter Oswald, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders and Salvatore Sciarrino.

Klangforum Wien is made up of 25 musicians from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, 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. On 1 January 2024 Elena Schwarz and Vimbayi Kaziboni took up the new roles of conductors in residence. Peter Paul Kainrath has been director of Klangforum Wien since 1 January 2020.

Since 2009 the ensemble has dedicated itself to passing on forms of expression and playing techniques to a new generation of artists, through a collective professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.

In September 2025 Klangforum Wien was awarded the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in the category ‘Orchestra’ for its artistic radicalism and international appeal.

Klangforum Wien performs thanks to the kind support of Erste Bank.