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MaerzMusik

Key Visual MaerzMusik 2025

Concerts, Performances, Installations, Discourse Formats

MaerzMusik 2026

The 2026 MaerzMusik will take place from 20 to 29 March. The programme will be published in January.

Crossing Boundaries, Composing Futures

MaerzMusik word mark on a dark blue background

Trailer MaerzMusik 2025, Design: 3pc

© Berliner Festspiele / MaerzMusik

MaerzMusik cherishes a legacy of boundary-crossing creativity, thriving between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the classical and the postmodern, fixed genres and genre-bending. This year, the festival also responds to socio-political, cultural and ecological urgencies, demanding new ways of co-existing. In a moment where continuation in old forms is in question, how do we compose otherwise, in a way that is viable for the future?

Over ten days composers will explore soundscapes and narratives in works crafted for unique constellations of instruments, ensembles and performers. The festival opens with the German premiere of “MELENCOLIA” by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck in cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Ensemble Modern. “Streik” for ten drum sets by Enno Poppe and “POETICA” by Chaya Czernowin featuring solo percussionist Steven Schick delve deeper into the riches of the percussion arsenal. Diverse compositions for brass instruments by Liza Lim, Raven Chacon, Wadada Leo Smith and many others were commissioned as part of the projects Global Breath and The Monochrome Project, both initiated by Marco Blaauw. They stretch classical paradigms, inviting audiences into evolving performative realities.

Various projects with multidisciplinary approaches unfold through dismantled hierarchies in music and beyond. Ensemble Nikel presents Mark Barden’s composition “limina” in combination with the German premiere of the dance solo “Sensation 1” by choreographer Ligia Lewis. “Minor Characters” by Matthew Shlomowitz and Jennifer Walshe is a “song cycle for the 21st century” that examines how the internet communicates reality to us, while Nguyễn + Transitory’s collaboration with Thai dancers embodies vulnerability through an interactive, touch-sensitive instrument.

Works by Ute Wassermann and others challenge thresholds of perception, the “Salon of Touch”, conceived by Bastian Zimmermann, discovers immersive sound and tactile experiences, and the works presented by Yarn/Wire on their Berlin debut focus on micro-listening. A cross-generational perspective on the voice is present in performances by Joan La Barbara, Pamela Z, Ty Bouque and Laura Bowler. Each encounter explores the unique textures and expressive potential of the voice, pushing the limits of its artistic use. The festival finale, co-curated by Wojtek Blecharz, explores listening as a relational practice and redefines normative ways of presenting music.

We look forward to welcoming you to the festival!

 

Kamila Metwaly
Artistic Director
MaerzMusik

Matthias Pees
Director
Berliner Festspiele

Library of MaerzMusik

Now in its third year, the Library of MaerzMusik will be open throughout the festival as a place for gatherings and collective reflection, facilitating encounters between artists, audiences and a range of content. Offering interactive formats, talks and artistic interventions, it aims to create a space for the exchange of knowledge and shared experiences that is open to the public free of charge.

To the library
People reading sit on sofas in the upper foyer of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Library of MaerzMusik, 2023

© Berliner Festspiele, photo: Camille Blake

Festival Magazine 2025

88 pages, German an English

“Towards Sonic Manifolds” is the title of the magazine that accompanies this year’s MaerzMusik while it also reads like a motto for the entire festival. The magazine brings together essays, artists’ conversations and different positions on the themes and protagonists of the programme. Delve deeper into the background and sonic spectrum of MaerzMusik.

Please note: The pdf is not barrier-free.

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Downloadmagazine (pdf, 2.1 MB)

In the Media Library

Find out more about some of MaerzMusik’s artists: talks, interviews and a portrait will be published regularly in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library.

To the Media Library
Pamela Z uses gestures to control music controllers on a stage.

Pamela Z

© Gretchen Robinette

MaerzMusik 2025

Impressions

  • Musicians of the Ensemble Modern on stage. In the background, a video projection shows a greatly enlarged image of a musician playing the flute.

    MELENCOLIA

    © Anja Koehler / Bregenzer Festspiele

  • Jennifer Walshe performs on stage, in the background three musicians from Nikel

    Minor Characters, Ensemble Nikel & Jennifer Walshe, Les Docks 2024

    © Valentin Bonadei

  • The four musicians of Nikel are sitting at a table. In front of them is a window that distorts the view.

    Ensemble Nikel

    © Amit Elkayam

  • Five performers are located in a hall and assume various dance postures in a row that goes into the depths.

    Drifting to the Rhythms at the Southeast of Nowhere, MAIIAM, Chiang Mai, 2025

    © Asarela Orchidia Dewi

  • Portrait photo of Yarn/Wire

    Yarn/Wire

    © Mark Sommerfeld

  • Two glowing green aquariums in a dark room

    The Art of Camouflage, Ute Wassermann

    © Monica Garcia

  • Pupils perform theatre, wearing masks, standing in a circle. In the background is a screen with their uncovered faces.

    Performance as part of QuerKlang and QuerKlang+, 2024

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Camille Blake

  • Percussionist Steven Schick in action on the drums

    Steven Schick, POETICA by Chaya Czernowin, performance at Espace de projection, IRCAM, 2024

    © Hervé Veronese / Centre Pompidou

  • The artist, standing behind a music stand, thanks the technicians and the audience at the end of the performance by pointing with her right arm into the auditorium.

    Joan La Barbara, performance of Double Rainbow, composed by Alvin Lucier, Zurich, 2016.

    © Ellen Rietbrock

  • Enno Poppe conducting

    Enno Poppe

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

About MaerzMusik

MaerzMusik sees itself as a place to exchange artistic knowledge(s) through new encounters and collective experiences. The festival is rooted in the multimodality of listening, contemporary music, and sound, employing concerts, performances, installations, music theatre, film screenings, and discursive formats to open up a space where life, art, and theory can co-exist.

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