Musik 21 Festival
Starting from 2021, Eloain Lovis Hübner is the artistic director of the Musik 21 Festival for contemporary music in Hanover and Lower Saxony. The network project Musik 21 Niedersachsen has been in existence since 2008 and is supported, organized and implemented by the non-profit association Musik 21 - Niedersächsische Gesellschaft für Neue Musik e.V. (Musik 21 - NGNM e.V.). Currently, the network project with more than 40 partners from all over the federal state of Lower Saxony is in its fourth funding period 2020 to 2023 and is committed to the sustainable networking of Lower Saxon artists and institutions in the field of contemporary music, the strengthening of framework conditions for the presence of contemporary music in the federal state, the implementation of 40-60 events per year to attract a broad audience for new music, the discourse on contemporary music and its cultural purpose in society, as well as projects in the Musik 21 Niedersachsen young talent area for children, teenagers and young adults in education.
Since its beginnings, Musik 21 Niedersachsen has held a festival every two years in Hanover and in the surrounding areas of Lower Saxony in the years in between, in keeping with the respective network theme of the year. Geographical and cultural conditions are taken into account in the planning of the varied programs. The festival, which depending on the theme and edition includes concerts, performances, outdoor projects, installations, audiovisual works and lectures, has established itself as a permanent fixture in Lower Saxony’s musical life.
The first Musik 21 Festival “REALITÄTEN | REALITIES” curated by Eloain Lovis Hübner (September 9-12, 2021, Kulturzentrum FAUST, Hanover) questioned contemporary music for utopias and presented works from concert music, sound art, performance and music theater that rethink creation processes and living together: collective compositions, improvisational concepts or content-based approaches to social issues. Ensembles from Lower Saxony (e.g. Ensemble Megaphon, Hanover), Germany (CRISPR.Kollektiv, Essen) and abroad (Ensemble x.y, London) created with interdisciplinary concert concepts a multisensual access to new sound worlds and invited the audience to experience the concert hall as a social place.
The Musik 21 Festival “RADIKALE | RADICALS” (September 22-25, 2022, Wilhelmshaven), with the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven as its festival center, opened up to the public space in particular. In addition to a top-class concert program of professional, youth and inclusive ensembles from the region and beyond, a wide spectrum of installations, interventions, performances, film works, etc. represented the full range of formats of sounding contemporary art.
The Musik 21 Festival “KIPPPUNKTE" | "TIPPING POINTS” approached the topic with a wide variety of artistic approaches in concert, music theater, installation and performative intervention. Reference was made to the systemic, political and ecological as well as the personal and biographical aspects of the word. Not only did vocal music (with Sophia Körber & Yun Qi Wong, Irene Kurka and the Voktett Hannover) play an important role in the festival for the first time, but there was also a particularly wide-ranging and international program with guests from Berlin, Leipzig and Stuttgart (Ensemble Mosaik, Contemporary Insights, sh|ft ensemble) as well as from Denmark and Norway (Andreas Borregaard, Blomsterbed), some of whom were making their debut in Hanover.
The next Musik 21 Festival will take place from November 7 to 10, 2024 under the motto “ÜBERGÄNGE | TRANSITIONS” at various locations in Helmstedt.