European new music festivals have served as international spaces and platforms for exchanges of musical, cultural and political dimensions through contemporary art music, including musical influences from the sphere of popular music and from other continents. They shaped – and are continuing to do so – national and transnational cultural memories, establishing East-Western European political and cultural cooperation and networks between musicians, composers, the festivals‘ curators and their audiences.
The international conference European New Music Festivals as Agorai: Music, Creativity, Politics and History aims to discuss European new music festivals and the international scene of contemporary art music during the last decades in new comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. One main focus will be three main contemporary music festivals in European metropolises: Festival d’Automne à Paris (France), Warszawska Jesień (Warsaw, Poland) and Wien Modern (Austria). Bringing together scholars, composers, musicians and festival organizers in lectures and panel discussions, the conference also takes a closer look at the festivals‘ role in recent developments of creative practices. This includes perspectives on their mediating position between contemporary art music, its composers and performers, and the festivals‘ metropolitan audiences as well as their transition into an „agora“ function in the musical and culturalized „creative city“.

Programme: http://www.w-k.sbg.ac.at/vermittlung-zeitgenoessischer-musik/aktuelles/details/article/787/european-new.html