Contemporary music worldwide and virtually

Held annually since 1923, the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Musicwhich ISCM World New Music Dayswill take place in Auckland and Christchurch (New Zealand) from August 23 to 30, 2022. They were postponed from 2020 to 2022 due to the Covid pandemic. The ISCM World New Music Days 2022 overlap with the Asian Composers League ACL festival, which runs from August 28 to September 2. The local organizers of the double festival, the Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ) and the ACL, will hold the 2022 festival at the same venues, largely retaining the 2020 program. Switzerland will participate with the work Guarda i lumi will be represented by Esther Flückiger at the ISCM World New Music Days.

The ISCM World New Music Days in Shanghai and Nanning, postponed from 2021 to March 2022 due to corona, have been canceled again due to the Covid pandemic - the city of Shanghai is currently in lockdown - or postponed until further notice. According to the ISCM, details of the postponement date will be announced at a later date. At the ISCM World New Music Days in Shanghai and Nanning, the electroacoustic composition Glass Body programmed by Karin Wetzel.
 

The ISCM defies the corona pandemic. In the absence of concert performance opportunities, it launched the ISCM Virtual Collaborative Serieswhere works by composers from all ISCM sections are presented online twice a week.

The aim of the project is to promote the online presence and coverage of contemporary music via social media, building bridges between the different types of contemporary music being composed and performed in different regions of the world. The works will be documented with recordings and detailed biographies and promoted on the pages and social media channels of the ISCM and its country and local sections.

Due to the current situation, these weeks will focus on works by Ukrainian composers, including Oleksandr Kozarenko, the recently deceased Hanna Havrylets, Olexiy Voytenko, Alla Zagaykevych, Ivan Ostapovych and Julia Gomelskaya.

A total of 126 compositions have been presented since the start of the program. From the Swiss selection of over 40 proposed works, the ISCM jury has so far included 9 works by Swiss composers in the ISCM Virtual Collaborative Series selection. These are (in alphabetical order):

Heidi Baader-Nobs – Evasion
Arturo Corrales – Flow
Aglaia Graf – Birth of Gods
Klaus Huber – Tenebrae
Sachie Kobayashi – Les cieux roulent des yeux
Hanspeter Kyburz – Cells
Ulrike Mayer-Spohn – fKFW
Abril Padilla – Grimja
Karin Wetzel – Glass Body

The entire ISCM Virtual Collaborative Series Selection can be found under the following links:
https://iscm.org/iscm-activities/collaborative-events/iscm-virtual-collaborative-series-2020/
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=ISCMSwitzerlandOFFICIAL&set=a.2741059042811093
https://www.facebook.com/international.society.for.contemporary.music

For the selection of Swiss works for the ISCM's Virtual Collaborative Series at the World Music Days, the Swiss ISCM Section (Swiss Society for Contemporary Music / ISCM Switzerland) responsible. David Rossel, Antoine Fachard, Arturo Corrales and Javier Hagen (President) currently serve on its Board of Directors.
 

Picture: ISCM

Current Swiss participation in the ISCM Virtual Collaborative Series Selection (from left to right and top to bottom): Heidi Baader-Nobs, Aglaia Graf, Abril Padilla, Klaus Huber, Hanspeter Kyburz, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, Arturo Corrales, Sachie Kobayashi, Karin Wetzel