[15.06.2012] George Benjamin’s new opera Written on Skin receives its premiere on  7 July at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. The composer conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a production by Katie Mitchell. The centerpiece of this major, full-length opera for five singers and orchestra, is a Provençal legend from the 13th century which tells of the horrifying death of a troubador – a multi-layered parable about the limits of power. The production will then be staged at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Covent Garden London, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Wiener Festwochen and Munich Opera Festival. (Photo: Maurice Foxal)

(20.11.2012) The extended version of Matthias Pintscher’s Uriel for violoncello and piano  receives its premiere by Alisa Weilerstein (violoncello) and Inon Barnatan (piano) at the Alte Oper Frankfurt on 13 january 2013. Pintscher, recently appointed new artistic director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, has just been guest composer and conductor at the Huddersfield Festival. He travels to the USA in December to conduct at the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Curtis Institute Philadelphia, immediately following the premiere of his Chute d’Étoiles, written for the Roche Commissions 2012, at Carnegie Hall New York

[15.06.2012] The composer Charlotte Seither and her varied output are the focus of a special concert series in St. Martin’s Kassel. As an accompanying project to dOCUMENTA (13), a series of portrait concerts entitled “Weg mit Abschied” will be given beginning on 17 June 2012. These feature 23 works by the composer including four premieres: Gehen lassen. Feinstaub for voice with hand percussion, Cry for violin solo, Fünf Stücke um den Fluss zu queren [Five pieces to cross the river] for orchestra, and the sound installation Crossing/Space will be premiered as part of the concert series in St. Martin’s. The Artistic Director of the project series is Eckhard Manz.

[15.06.2012] Miroslav Srnka has composed Eighteen Agents for nineteen strings for the Munich Chamber Orchestra, a multi-perspective exploration of string sound. Following his major music-theatre works of recent years, this piece is a concentration on the potential string instruments have for blending sound – from unison writing to the complete sharing out of the parts. The premiere on 21 June in the Prinzregententheater Munich was conducted by Alexander Liebreich.

[16.2.2012] Ein Gedicht des russischen Futuristen und Sprachkünstlers Viktor Chlebnikov aus dem Jahr 1918, ein beinahe unübersetzbares Kunstwerk in einer deutschen Nachdichtung von Alexander Nitzberg, wird zum Ausgangspunkt von Philipp Maintz’ Komposition für Bariton und Orchester. Wenn steine sich gen himmel stauen wird am 25. März beim Printemps des Arts Monte Carlo von Otto Katzameier (Bariton) und dem Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo unter Leitung von Jean Deroyer uraufgeführt. Kurz zuvor, am 10. März, präsentiert Garth Knox (Viola) die Uraufführung eines Neuen Werks für Bratsche und Live-Elektronik sowie Stephane Ginsburg (Klavier) die revidierte Fassung von gelände/zeichnung. musik für klavier und live-elektronik beim Festival Ars Musica in Brüssel. In Paris spielt das Ensemble Alternance die französischen Erstaufführungen von tourbillon und NAHT (yo no pido a la noche explicaciones).

Bereshit is Matthias Pintscher’s new composition for the Ensemble Intercontemporain. It takes as its starting point the first word of the Torah, the Old Testament. “In a beginning …” refers to the biblical creation myth. Matthias Pintscher’s composition for large ensemble deals with nothing less than the act of creation, the formation of the natural, from a “beginning of a beginning from absolute darkness and shapelessness ...” Bereshit receives its premiere in May 2013 by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer.

New productions of Manfred Trojahn’s operas can be seen in two musical capitals:  the first night of a new production of Limonen aus Sizilien takes place on 12 February 2017 at the Vienna Volksoper. “Drei italienischen Geschichten” to a libretto by Wolfgang Willaschek after Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo de Filippo is directed by Mascha Pörzgen. The conductor of the nine performances at the Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz is Gerrit Prießnitz. Two weeks later at Zurich Opera, Hans Neuenfels directs the Swiss premiere of the music theatre work Orest. The first night on 26 February 2017 and six further performances (2.3., 7.3., 10.3., 12.3., 19.3., 24.3.2017) are conducted by Erik Nielsen; Georg Nigl performs the title role.