SWR Experimentalstudio

The SWR Experimental Studio sees itself as an interface between compositional ideas and technical implementation. Every year several composers are offered work-scholarships to enable them to realize their compositions in dialogue with Studio staff. In addition to its production work, the Studio is also active as a performing ensemble. Since 2022 Joachim Haas has been the director of the Experimental Studio, following Hans-Peter Haller, André Richard and Detlef Heusinger.

In its 50 years on the international music scene, the SWR Experimental Studio has established itself as a leading ensemble for works with live electronics, and is a regular guest at nearly all the leading international festivals, among them the Berliner Festspiele, the Wiener Festwochen, the Salzburg Festival, the Festival d’Automne in Paris and the Venice Biennale. In addition, the Studio performs at numerous renowned opera houses and concert halls, including La Scala, Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Teatro Real in Madrid and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Among the outstanding productions in the history of the SWR Experimental Studio are works by leading composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono, who created almost all his late works in close collaboration with the Studio. Nono’s ‘tragedy of listening’ Prometeo has been realized more than ninety times by the Experimental Studio since its world premiere in 1984, and can be considered a milestone in 20th-century music history. Of the younger generation who have produced groundbreaking work with the studio, particularly notable composers include Mark Andre, Chaya Czernowin and Georg Friedrich Haas.

The performers who have and have had a close relationship with the Studio include outstanding musical personalities such as Claudio Abbado, Irvine Arditti, Daniel Barenboim, Peter Eötvös, Roberto Fabbriciani, Gidon Kremer, Maurizio Pollini and Carolin and Jörg Widmann.

The SWR Experimental Studio has received several international awards for its exemplary work, including the annual German Record Critics’ Award for its production of works by Luigi Nono.