PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

 

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

 

Reality is malleable until it isn’t anymore – systems and orders teeter between fragile equilibria. Crises, social inequalities, climate change, and migration reveal new fault lines, while the digital information overload questions whether we can still trust our own eyes and ears. In THE UNSTABLE REAL, we invite you to experience this unstable reality, to perceive its fractures, and to rethink them – aesthetically, emotionally, socially, and politically. With Georgia Koumará, who explores a network of relationships, dynamics, and interdependencies, and Clemens Gadenstätter, who makes the interactions between the individual and the environment tangible over time. Eva Reiter uses utopian sound apparatuses to investigate the transformative potential of rituals, before Philip Venables holds up a merciless mirror and shatters the hypocritical illusions of our society with provocative, sexual directness. In between, the series is brimming with new material, sonic treasures, and music that challenges reality.

Dates in this series

#1 FR 27.11.2026 ⎹   STATES OF INTERMESHING
    #2 MI 26.01.2027 ⎹   FACES
        #3 DI 09.03.2027  ⎹   RITUS
            #4 DI 25.05.2027  ⎹   ILLUSIONS

With works by Matthias Kranebitter, Corie Rose Soumah, Davor Vincze, Georgia Koumará, Manuela Kerer, Rafał Ryterski, Clemens Gadenstätter, Eva Reiter, Philip Venables, Marco Döttlinger, Alexander Schubert. 

Michael Wendeberg, conductor

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

It is a “story of emotions” that unfolds musically and visually: faces become visual voices that participate in the ensemble and open up their own narrative level. In FACES, Clemens Gadenstätter explores the interactions between the individual and the environment as a socio-musical sculpture in time. Stage, space, and sound intertwine — connected by taut metal wires, functioning simultaneously as instrument and sculptural object — into a mobile space-time sculpture in which perception, space, and time can be experienced anew, and existing orders are liquefied and reconceived, perhaps only for the duration of the performance. In the new work Maserholz, Rafal Ryterski examines the eponymous proliferating phenomenon in wood growth, which simultaneously represents deformation, healing, and homeostasis. Burl wood becomes a metaphor for organic processes in which growth and injury collide, intertwine, and lead to impressively interwoven results. Manuela Kerer‘s epicyclic noise (as a revised version from 2018/26) takes up the epicycle theory, which, despite some inconsistencies, served for a very long time as an explanatory model for the movement of celestial bodies. Sound sources, sound-noise acrobats, and a string quintet revolve around an imaginary center, complementing and opposing each other simultaneously, while the center is gradually undermined and ultimately loses its influence entirely.

PROGRAMM

Manuela Kerer
epicyclic noise für Sound-Noise-Acrobats, Streichquintett und Zuspielung, 2018/2026

Rafał Ryterski
Maserholz für verstärktes Ensemble, 2026
Kompositionsauftrag von Radio Österreich 1 in Kooperation mit ORF musikprotokoll für PHACE

P A U S E

Clemens Gadenstätter
FACES für Ensemble, Elektronik, Raum und Fotofilm 2025/26  (UA)
Fotofilm: Otto Saxinger
Kompositionsauftrag von PHACE und Wiener Konzerthaus

Helēna Sorokina, voice

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

In Illusions, Philip Venables, together with LGBTQIA+ performance artist David Hoyle, has developed a multimedia work for speaker (video) and ensemble. Hoyle’s video performance confronts the audience with a torrent of political tirades, personal attacks, grotesque humor, and provocative sexual directness. He attacks hypocrisy, social inequality, toxic masculinity, and consumerism, shifting linguistically between bitter seriousness, deliberate taboo-breaking, and cabaret-style mockery. And the music? It reacts with equal intensity: rhythmically aggressive, eruptive, then shimmering and disconcertingly smooth. Soundscapes and gestures function like distorted advertising messages or political slogans, interlocking with the images in a jerky, almost violent interplay that inevitably draws the audience in. Illusions is a merciless mirror that puts the audience to the test, questioning their attitudes as well as their role as consumers of art. New works by Alexander Schubert, who in AUTO FICTION blurs the line between documentary and fiction, wandering through an altered archive of the most formative, intense, and outstanding memories, and Marco Döttlinger promise a captivating and likely also haunting listening experience. The eleventh movement of Corie Rose Soumah’s States of Intermeshing series also thematically completes the cycle, bringing it full circle to its beginning. xi. épilogue explores eschatological forces, ecological crises, and self-discovery. “There are flowers blooming in Antarctica” – a poetic, fragile, sonically sensual piece, like a strangely peaceful echo after the catastrophe, revealing a glimpse into another fragile reality.

Philip Venables
Illusions (feat. David Hoyle) for ensemble und video, 2017 (ap)

Marco Döttlinger
New Work, 2026/27 (wp)
Commissioned by PHACE

Corie Rose Soumah
States of Intermeshing: xi. épilogue for violin, cello, piano and electronics, 2024 (ap)

P A U S E

Alexander Schubert 
AUTO FICTION for voice, ensemble, electronics and video, 2026
Commissioned by Radio Österreich 1 in cooperation with ORF musikprotokoll, PHACE and Biennale Zagreb

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

 

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

 

Matthias Kranebitter startet ein musikalisches Experiment über Wahrnehmung im Zeitalter akustischer Überforderung. Mit einem maschinellen Hörsystem, das in Echtzeit Ensembleklänge und Alltagsgeräusche analysiert, wird, inspiriert vom „Cocktailparty-Effekt“,  das scheinbare Klangchaos zum Modell für Aufmerksamkeit und Selektion. Corie Rose Soumahs States of Intermeshing, viii. what is past is prologue verbindet Klang und politische Reflexion. Das Werk beleuchtet die Verflechtung von kolonialer Geschichte, apokalyptischen Diskursen und gegenwärtigen Machtstrukturen. Mit Anklängen an Soul und R&B und Texten von Achille Mbembé wird Musik zum Raum für Erinnerung, Widerstand und postkoloniale Befreiung. In QUEE(n)R macht Davor Vincze „Bohemian Rhapsody“ zum Ausgangspunkt einer offenen Improvisation. Fragmente des Originals werden zerlegt, neu kombiniert und in Bewegung gehalten, während auf visueller Ebene mit Hilfe von KI-Bildgeneratoren die Ambiguität und das queere Potential von Gesichtern hervorgehoben wird. Ein Spiel mit Identitäten und Bedeutungen – fluid, vielstimmig und voller überraschender Wendungen. Ein neues Werk von Georgia Koumará vereint viele Themenstellungen des Abends. Darin erforscht die Komponistin Kommunikation, Empathie und Macht als dynamische Kräfte. Musikalische Prozesse entwickeln sich, kollidieren und verändern einander – ein klingendes Netzwerk von Beziehungen, das gesellschaftliche Strukturen hörbar macht

PROGRAMM

Matthias Kranebitter
28 Auditory Scenes for investigating cocktail party deafness for ensemble and electronics, 2022

Corie Rose Soumah
States of Intermeshing: vii. what is past is prologue for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello, electronics and additional instruments, 2025 (ap)

Davor Vincze  
QUEE(n)R for flute, saxophone, percussion, keyboard, electronics and video, 2023 (ap)

P A U S E

Georgia Koumará
New Work for ensemble and electronics, 2026 (wp)
Commissioned by PHACE & Wien Modern

Michael Wendeberg, conductor

 

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Alvaro Collao Leon, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Igor Gross, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Sarah Dragovic, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Manuel Mayr, double bass

 

Somewhere in the distance, where the sea meets the horizon, the sonic worlds of three very different works converge in this concert, yet find some common ground. In from shore to shore, Sarah Nemtsov traces a multi-perspective musical stream of consciousness that oscillates between moods of light, impressions of nature, memory, and identity. Inspired by 10 lyrical interludes in Virginia Woolf’s novel “The Waves” (1931), the composer creates a vividly dynamic, wave-like sound language and, through subtle nuances, permuting rhythmic patterns, and friction-laden microintervals, explores the inner states of mind of the novel’s six protagonists. Beat Furrer also casts a metaphorical gaze into the distance in linea dell’orizzonte. Simultaneous doubling and distortion, similar to what can be seen at the edges of a shadow, form the fundamental musical structure of the composition. Voices intersect, interrupt, negate, and contrast with preceding structures, ultimately creating a distorted sonic shadow from these contradictions. Thomas Wally constructs spiraling, intricate sound structures in his Concertino around the expressive possibilities of the violin, while the bass-heavy ensemble provides a contrasting space. It is a virtuosic, at times wild, ride, a constantly self-referential conversation between violin and ensemble, characterized in sonic and harmonic terms by overtone resonances, harmonics, and Shepard tones.

PROGRAMM

Sarah Nemtsov
from shore to shore for ensemble (2024/25)
commissioned by PHACE, in cooperation with Osterfestival Tirol,
sponsored by  

~ P A U S E ~

Beat Furrer
linea dell’orizzonte for ensemble (2012)

Thomas Wally
Concertino for violin and ensemble (2024)
Commissioned by PHACE, with support by BMKOES und SKE-Fonds

Michael Wendeberg, conductor

 

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Roland Schueler, cello
Manuel Mayr, double bass

At the end of June 2025, the aspekteFESTIVAL Salzburg and PHACE, in cooperation with Ö1, issued a call for scores to the four music universities (Mozarteum University Salzburg, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and Anton Bruckner Private University). Professors from the respective composition classes could each nominate two students for participation.

In a clear and unanimous jury decision, four composers were selected from 16 submissions (2 female composers, 14 male composers) and commissioned to create a new work for the AspekteFESTIVAL.

PROGRAMM

Dominik Wilnauer-Leitner
Friendly Machines für Flöte, Bassklarinette, Posaune, Schlagwerk und E-Gitarre, 2025/26 (UA)

Egemen Kurt
Tertium Datur für Flöte, Klarinette, Violine, Violoncello und Klavier, 2025/26 (UA)

Noh SeungJu
Studie I für Trompete, Percussion, E-Gitarre, Klavier und Cello, 2025/26 (UA)

Parham Behzad
Enough? für Flöte, Posaune, E-Gitarre, Klavier und Kontrabass, 2025/26 (UA)

Jury:
Ludwig Nussbichler (artistic director aspekteFESTIVAL Salzburg),
Reinhard Fuchs (artistic director PHACE)
Mathilde Hoursiangou (PHACE, pianist & MDW, Institut für Neue Musik)
Rainer Elstner (Music editorial Ö1) and Co-Curator of ORF musikprotokoll)

Zara Ali, Komposition, Konzept, Text
Hannah Dübgen, Bühnenfassung, Konzept
Florentine Klepper, Deva Schubert , Regie
Hansjörg Sofka, Musikalische Leitung
Wolfgang Menardi, Set- und Kostümdesign
Julia Spinola, Dramaturgie

PHACE
Walter Seebacher, Klarinette
Michael Krenn, Saxophon
Mathilde Hoursiangou, Keyboard
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, Percussion
Francesco Palmieri, E-Gitarre
Roland Schueler, Cello
Alexandra Dienz, Kontrabass

Nontobeko Bhengu, Sopran
Florian Stern, Tenor
Julien Horbatuk, Bariton
Andrea De Majo, Musical, Tänzer, Countertenor

Zara Ali
Codeborn – musc theatre (2025/26, wp)

In “Codeborn,” the world is exposed to an artificial intelligence. An unstoppable transformation process begins, defying all explanation and simultaneously evoking fascination and unease. Power fantasies escalate to boundless proportions, old hierarchies crumble, and impossible encounters become reality.

Zara Ali’s music theater rejects both apocalyptic sentiment and cultural pessimism—it is neither utopia nor dystopia. Her music encompasses the full spectrum of upheaval and makes the unimaginable audible.

A co-production of the Munich Biennale and the Tyrolean State Theatre Innsbruck, in cooperation with the Bavarian State Opera, Ars Electronica Linz, and Klangspuren Schwaz. Commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale.

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Roland Schueler, cello

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

As the fast-paced and eventful year of 2025 draws to a close, we at perfect contradiction look back and forward. It’s a diverse musical year-end celebration, carefully designed to highlight contrasts and forge a harmonious (almost perfect?) interplay from them. A flexible field of tension weaves between the sensuously meandering fragments and saxophone lines of Ivičević and the muted, stopped grooves of Cheng, is drawn into uncharted instrumental and virtuosic territory and transformed in a variety of sonic directions.

But this evening isn’t just about inspiration; leisure is also on the agenda. With a relaxed atmosphere and culinary accompaniments (the salad in the picture is symbolic and serves a more musical purpose), we aim to provide a delightful and entertaining finale and whet your appetite for the coming year with PHACE.

Programm

Mirela Ivičević
Lil für E-Gitarre, Saxophon, Cello und Elektronik, 2022

Murmureln by Beatriz Ferreyra, 2003

Sarah Nemtsov
Kadosh für (verstärkte) Violine solo (mit Effektpedalen), 2021

peripheries, piece nr.5 by Katharina Klement, 2014 4’40

Kaija Saariaho
Cendres für Altflöte, Cello und Klavier, 1998

Yan Maresz
Metallics für Trompete solo und Elektronik, 1995

Growth by Natasha Barrett, 2021

Huihui Cheng
Sonic leak für Saxophon, E-Gitarre, Klavier und Percussion, 2020

Pierre Jodlowski, concept – composition
– video – lights
Frank Witzel, text
Louise Sari, stage design

Polish translation: Zbigniew Naliwajek

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Roland Schueler, cello
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Alfred Reiter, sound design

Voice Performers
Véronique Caye, Frank Smith, Maria Cristina
Mastrangeli, Xavier Maurel, Ulysses Mengue,
Vanessa Bettane, Philippe Langlois

Camera crew
Pierre Jodlowski
Markus Bruckner
Michael Eder

Video extras
Barbara Eder, Michael Eder, Reinhard Fuchs,
Petra Fuchs-Jebinger, Simone Göbel,
Nikolas Heep, Mia Kim, Maximilian Ölz,
Wolfgang Winter, Elfriede Wuschko

Production
Reinhard Fuchs, artistic director PHACE
Markus Bruckner, production PHACE
Emilie Roupnel, production éOle

Pierre Jodlowski

INSULÆ for six musicians, video, lights and electronics, 2024/25
commissioned by PHACE and éOle studio de création musicale & with the support of the

   and   

a production by PHACE & éOle in co-production with Warsaw Autumn, Wien Modern, Osterfestival Tirol and GRAME – Centre National de Création Musicale

In 1940, Adolfo Bioy Casares published The Invention of Morel, a visionary novella released at a time when Hollywood cinema was flourishing. Around the world, movie theaters were multiplying, and with them emerged a new form of human connection: the ability to share emotions, stories, and attachments with fictional beings—with images, simply projected onto a screen.

Since then, humanity has entered an era where our relationship to images has become central—eventually blurring the line between reality and its representation. This confusion, now intensified by digital networks and our growing desire for virtual existence, raises a question already posed by Casares: Can one fall in love with an image?

Autor Frank Witzel greift diese Frage auf und komponiert ein literarisches Palimpsest, das Fragmente von Casares mit Echos von  Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, Deleuze, Augé, Baudrillard usw. vermischt. Er führt uns auf eine Insel außerhalb der Zeit, gefangen in einer Endlosschleife, wo drei Figuren – ein Mann und zwei Frauen – versuchen, einer instabilen Welt durch die Auseinandersetzung mit ihren Gedanken und Gefühlen einen Sinn zu verleihen. Wie in Tarkowskis « Solaris » ist der Ozean hier kein natürliches Element, sondern ein denkender Organismus, eine mentale Projektion, die ein Eigenleben entwickelt hat.

Martin Matalon, conductor

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Elena Arbonies Jauregui, clarinet
Edurne Santos Arrastua, bassoon
Reinhard Zmölnig, horn
Milica Zakić, piano
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Tina Žerdin, harp
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Igor Gross, percussion
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Leo Morello, cello

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

Martin Matalon

Foxtrot Délirium for 12 instruments and electronics, 2015
Music for the silent film

Die Austernprinzessin (1919) Director: Ernst Lubitsch, Script: Ernst Lubitsch, Hanns Kräly

This early silent film by master director Ernst Lubitsch already demonstrates his tremendous talent for timing. With a light touch and exuberant inventiveness, he staged the fast-paced, satirical social comedy genre for the first time, perfecting it.

The extremely wealthy American businessman Quaker has earned his fortune from seafood and is therefore known everywhere as the Oyster King. His spirited daughter, the “Oyster Princess,” is determined to marry a European nobleman. This leads her to the penniless Prince Nuki, who first sends his servant Josef ahead. Believing she has a real prince on her hands, the impetuous millionaire’s daughter marries the servant at the first opportunity. In doing so, she sets in motion a turbulent chain of events…

Musically, Martin Matalon exploits the entire spectrum of possible relationships between music and images, between the editing of the film and the articulation of the music: from the most dependent parallelism to the most complete divergence. From the points of contact between music and image, a third, independent work emerges that carries an important aspect of Lubitsch’s film into the present: social criticism through comedy and humor. Humor, which is all too often lacking in contemporary music, enables us to deal with important, often profound things with wit and lightness.