July 12-26, 2009
Glatt&Verkehrt Music Festival
"A world journey for our souls." (Die Presse, 2008)
Krems - Tradition and innovation, the old and the new are as closely linked as the stitches in a knitting pattern. This is the philosophy behind the Glatt&Verkehrt. The festival's name translates to "knit and purl," a semantically multilayered term in German that has the connotation of opposites complimenting each other.
For thirteen years now, the unique festival has brought together original and exciting aspects from the broad genre of music drawing on ethnic traditions. The performing artists come from all around the world and have backgrounds ranging from traditional folk music to jazz, classical music, and the avant-garde. The common thread that unites them is their deep interest in their musical origins.
The two-week festival at the end of July features an extraordinary selection of world music and attracts some 5,200 visitors each year.
www.glattundverkehrt.at
August 27-30, 2009
30th Saalfelden International Jazz Festival
Saalfelden - The first Three Days of Jazz in Saalfelden was staged at the Ranch in 1978. After a few years, the festival moved to a tent city in Ramseiden. The tent era ended in 2006, when the festival relocated to the center of Saalfelden. In the past three decades, the International Jazzfestival Saalfelden has become one of the most important festivals in Europe of its kind for musicians, journalists, and of course its audience.
Thirty-two concerts in four days on seven different stages cover the full gamut of current developments and trends in the cutting-edge jazz and improv scene. A big highlight at the 30th festival in Saalfelden is a performance with one of the real legends of free jazz, Ornette Coleman. Coleman has influenced the history of jazz more than almost any other. His album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, published in 1960, he had a major impact on the atonal avant-garde and unintentionally established a whole new genre. His concert in Saalfelden will be his first in Austria in 14 years.
www.jazzsaalfelden.com
September 10-27, 2009
KLANGSPUREN 2009
Focus Latin America
Schwaz - The 16th edition of Klangspuren Schwaz is dedicated to aspects of contemporary music from Latin America, a region that is increasingly finding its own voice in the arts.
This year's program of this widely renowned festival for new music features premiers by Jorge E. López, Jorge Sánchez Chiong, Cergio Prudencio, German Toro-Perez, Daniel de la Cuesta, and many more.
The Bolivian ORQUESTA EXPERIMENTAL de INSTRUMENTOS NATIVOS can be expected to give a spectacular performance, and ensemble on_line will provide an insight into the Latin American scene in Austria. Composers in residence J.M. Staud and Martin Matalon work with highly talented young musicians from the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt, Germany. Finally, Baroque ecclesiastical architecture will serve as a backdrop for contemporary music in another round of the successful "musical pilgrimage" event, featuring linked performances at multiple venues in and around Innsbruck in the course of a weekend.
www.klangspuren.at
