Gottstein remains director in Donaueschingen
SWR (Südwestrundfunk) has extended the contract with Björn Gottstein as Artistic Director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage for a further five years until 2025. The SWR2 editor took over the management of the world's oldest and most traditional festival for new music in 2015.
Under Gottstein, the festival has opened up further, writes SWR. The number of composers' countries of origin has increased significantly. While women were rarely represented with their works in earlier times, the number of female composers represented has now multiplied. The Donaueschingen Music Days have become more discursive with discussion events and lectures. The research/concert project Donaueschingen Global 2021 addresses issues of post-colonialism in contemporary music.
The Donaueschingen Music Days 2019 will take place from October 17 to 20. The program includes new orchestral works by Saed Haddad, Michael Pelzel, Gérard Pesson, Eva Reiter, Matthew Shlomowitz, Simon Steen-Andersen and Lidia Zielinska. In addition to the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Experimentalstudio and the SWR Vokalensemble, the SWR Big Band will also be performing in 2019. The Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Phace Ensemble and Ensemble Resonanz will also be performing. Mark Andre, Johannes Boris Borowski, Beat Furrer, Herbordt/Mohren, Gordon Kampe, Bernhard Leitner, Nicole Lizée, Alberto Posadas, Kirsten Reese and François Sarhan have been commissioned to compose works.
Björn Gottstein, born in Aachen in 1967, is an editor for new music at SWR in Stuttgart. From 2013 to 2014, he was one of the artistic directors of the Eclat Festival Stuttgart and the SWR concert series Attacca. He has taught at the TU Berlin, the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, the Hochschule für Musik Basel and the Berlin University of the Arts. From 2009 to 2013, he was chairman of the board of the Initiative Neue Musik Berlin.
