Music Section

The Music Section has been exploring the topic of diversity in contemporary music for a number of years, looking at gender, genre, ethnicity and cultural practices. This has given rise to three “Curating Diversity” symposia, a collaborative undertaking organised together with field notes / initiative neue musik berlin e.V. and the Ultima Festival; the “Memory of Hearing” concert series; the “Memories in Music” festival, which was dedicated to the cultural memory of music for different sound languages; and the transcontinental project Oscillations: Cape Town – Berlin. This last was developed cooperatively with the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town and Deutschlandfunk Kultur and culminated in a sound exhibition that ran for several weeks in 2024.

One of the section’s major interests is in the complex issues relating to climate, the environment and sustainability, which have informed its programming since 2022. In 2023 the section organised the “Time to Listen” festival, which featured concerts, a symposium, an exhibition of sound art, a community day and workshops. The festival explored the idea of climate justice, while reflecting on sound’s ability to touch and on the (cognitive) power of listening and its capacity for evoking empathy. The “Time to Listen” symposium was planned together with field notes / initiative neue musik berlin e.V.; two-day events are to take place each year until 2026, with musicians and interested parties invited to engage with the topic and work in open formats to develop strategies for achieving a climate-just future.

In addition, members of the public are invited on a regular basis to join experts in the Climate Café (as part of the European Alliance of Academies). A climate salon is held at regular intervals conducted by Iris ter Schiphorst and Kirsten Reese.

In 2018 the section launched the “Winter Music” festival, which takes place every two years in December, curated by different members of the section in alternation and based on works created by other members. This is an opportunity to introduce new members to the public and to dig out old works by long-standing members. The programme is presented by ensembles and musicians from the independent scene.

There have been some outstanding recent productions in connection with exhibitions staged by the Akademie der Künste. The concert series on major undertakings like “Kunst und Revolte ’89” (Art and Revolt ’89, 2009) or the Cage Year “A Year from Monday. 365 Tage Cage” (365 Days of Cage, 2011/12) have been followed by extensive musical and performative programmes in the form of “Music in Vertigo of Reality” (2014), “Music for Everyone” (2015) and “Decentralised Music” (2016).