Music

BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now recording of the ACF's contemporary music platform Soundings concert at the Wigmore hall on December 12 2009 was broadcast on 27 February 2010. More information on this programme's works and composers at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes.

In the framework of the 8th International Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” (February 8-16, 2012), the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) organizes an international Competition for Composition. The prime aim of this competition is to create new works for Piano Trio. Click here for more information.

The Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth has been awarded the highest arts prize by the Austrian government (Grosser Oesterreichischer Staatspreis).  In addition to her compositions Neuwirth also works in Film and Performance Art and has received several other distinguished prizes including the South Bank Show Award for her opera Lost Highway in 2009.

Three giants of the Austrian music scene, HK ‘Nali’ Gruber, Kurt Schwertsik and Friedrich Cerha, together with the BBC Philharmonic, honour Gustav Mahler in his anniversary year with a season of concerts. The opening concert on Saturday 16 February 2010 premiered Kurt Schwertsik’s Nachtmusiken to a packed hall – and to rapturous and critical applause!

“...the most rewarding part of the concert was its first half - the world premiere of Kurt Schwertsik's Nachtmusiken, the first of the pieces commissioned to stand alongside the Mahler symphonies in the Manchester cycle.” Robert Beale, City Life (Manchester)

Read a Guardian review of the event.