For over a century, the Donaueschingen Music Days have been a seismograph for new music trends. In 2025, the small town on the edge of the Black Forest will once again be the epicenter of international sound experimentation. Under the motto "Voices Unbound", festival director Lydia Rilling focuses on composers who raise their voices - poetically, politically, performatively.
One of the most striking positions is British turntable performer Mariam Rezaei, who is known for her energetic sets. With radical collages of vinyl samples, she combines club aesthetics with improvisational acuity. Croatian composer Mirela Ivičević, one of the most distinctive voices of her generation, creates orchestral works that combine urgency with subtle tonal differentiation - often with a critical view of socio-political tensions. New York sound artist Tristan Perich, a pioneer of minimalist electronics, combines the precision of his 1-bit compositions with the unexpectedly delicate timbres of harmonicas in Donaueschingen. Hanna Eimermacher from Berlin, on the other hand, understands the human voice as a spatial instrument and invites the audience into an immersive "sound embrace" that creates closeness and intimacy.
Tabea Zimmermann © Marco Borggreve
The joint debut of the internationally acclaimed violist Tabea Zimmermann and the London vocal ensemble EXAUDI promises to be an outstanding highlight. Zimmermann, who has been one of the defining musical personalities of her generation for decades, is known for her unmistakable sound culture, technical brilliance and deep musical expression. EXAUDI, founded in 2002 by James Weeks, is one of the leading vocal ensembles for contemporary music and impresses with an extraordinary stylistic range - from medieval polyphony to complex avant-garde. Together they present a new work by the French composer Georges Aperghis, which combines vocal virtuosity, rhythmic precision and theatrical tension. Klangforum Wien is also shaping the 2025 program with two projects that focus on voices from the post-Soviet space - works that tell of war, political pressure and forced migration. The 75th anniversary of the SWR at the Donaueschingen Music Festival also has a special focus. With the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Experimental Studio, the program will span an arc - from historical milestones of the post-war avant-garde to the latest experiments in sound research.
The Donaueschingen Music Days thus remain what they have been since 1921: A laboratory and resonance chamber at the same time, a place where musical visions unfold, free of boundaries, but open to new voices - unbound, uncomfortable, touching.
October 16 to 19, 2025
www.swr.de/donaueschingen
Mirela Ivicevic © Rui Camilo
