This year's festival composer is Olga Neuwirth (born August 4, 1968 in Graz), Austrian classical composer, visual artist, multimedia artist and author. She first attracted attention with operas and musical theater works, which often deal with current and political themes such as identity, violence and intolerance, but has so far written over 100 works in many different genres. From the age of 16, Neuwirth has worked closely with the Nobel Prize winner in literature, Elfriede Jelinek. She has been a featured composer in concert halls and festivals all over Europe for the last thirty years, and we are delighted that she is able to play such a major role in this year´s festival.

The major international event will be the world premiere of Neuwirth´s Double Concerto for Cello, Percussion and Orchestra. The Double Concerto was commissioned by the Norwegian percussionist Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen and we are thrilled that the World Premiere will be held as a part of the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, in co-operation with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. «With two such fantastic performers as Sørensen and the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff we will be guaranteed a musical event of international format» says Festival Director Sigmund Tvete Vik.

Of great interest is also the silent movie showing of «Die Stadt ohne Juden» (The city without Jews). Neuwirth has written the music (in 2018) for this bitter, satirical film from 1924. Nearly 100 years after the film was made, the story is unfortunately still frighteningly relevant for today - systematic racism, people fleeing injustice and how this affects a community. The Trondheim Sinfonietta will be playing Neuwirth´s music live, accompanying the film, which promises to be a unique experience.

Since 1999 the festival has yearly presented a living composer. Our goal is to play as broad a spectre of the composer’s music as possible throughout the week and at the same time include and inspire the local music life. We believe that the barrier to new music is reduced when you meet a living composer who also can explain his or her own work. We are very proud to have had the following composers at the festival;

Foto: Harald Hoffmann