PHACE | THE UNSTABLE REAL
our series at
Wiener Konzerthaus
2026/27
our series at
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.
Abonnements & Ticketpreise
Secure your subscription now and become part of the PHACE community!
As a subscriber, you will receive detailed information about each concert by mail one week before each concert.
Subscription 114,- Euro
Special tickets and discounts are available on the Wiener Konzerthaus website.
Single tickets for each concert 30,– Euro
INSULÆ
31.Mar.2026 // 19:30
Osterfestival Tirol,
Innsbruck, Congress
21.09.2025 Warschau,
Warschauer Herbst (UA)
05.11.2025 // 19:30
Wien,
Wien Modern, MuTh
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.
Auch die Musiker sind Teil dieser seltsamen Welt – durch ihren Klang, ihre physische Präsenz und ihr Bild. Nach und nach erscheinen weitere Figuren auf der Leinwand. Sind es Projektionen? Werden reale Menschen in Simulakren verwandelt? Nichts ist sicher. Was hier verfolgt wird, ist eine starke Mehrdeutigkeit, die zu einer unmöglichen Gewissheit über die Definition dieser Präsenzen führt.
Diese Aufführung lädt uns ein, die durchlässigen Grenzen der Realität und die Monstrosität von Bildern zu hinterfragen – jene, die wir endlos neu erschaffen, bis wir nicht mehr wissen, was real ist.
Pierre Jodlowski is a composer, performer and multimedia artist. His music, often marked by a high density, is at the crossroads of acoustic and electric sound and is characterized by dramatic and political anchor. His work as a composer led him to perform in France and abroad in most places dedicated to contemporary music as well as others artistic fields: dance, theater, visual arts, electronic music. His work unfolds today in many areas : films, interactive installations, staging. He is defining his music as an “active process” on the physical level [musical gestures, energy and space] and on the psychological level [relation to memory and visual dimension of sound]. In parallel to his compositions, he also performs on various scenes (experimental, jazz, electronic), solo or with other artists.
Since 1998 he is co-artistic director of éOle (research and production studio based in Toulouse) and since 2019, he has become Artistic Director of Musica Electronica Nova Festival, produced by the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland. He is currently the associated composer for the Composition Cursus at IRCAM.
ensemble & WKH series
SALON PHACE
45 minutes prior to every concert
at the Wiener Konzerthaus / Zyklus PHACE
ARTISTS
Roland Schueler & Juliana Hodkinson
SALON PHACE
25.11.2024 – 20:15
In dieser Salon PHACE Sonderausgabe präsentieren wir das Stück “Nothing breaking the loosing” von Juliana Hodkinson unter Beteiligung des Publikums.
Live-Performance: Roland Schueler, Juliana Hodkinson
Der Salon hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren zu einem festen Bestandteil der PHACE-Zyklusabende im Wiener Konzerthaus entwickelt. In einer informellen, offenen Gesprächsrunde diskutiert Juri Giannini (Institut für Musikwissenschaft, MDW Wien) die aufgeführten Werke gemeinsam mit den KomponistInnen, InterpretInnen, DirigentInnen und anderen Mitwirkenden. Anhand dieses Formats möchten wir dem Publikum Zugänge auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen eröffnen, sei es durch Einblicke in den Entstehungsprozess, die Probenarbeit, die Klangvorstellungen, die musikalischen und außermusikalischen Bezüge oder die ganz persönlichen Kontexte der Beteiligten.
Wir freuen uns auf zahlreiche Teilnahme, angeregten Austausch und inspirierende Beiträge!
Eintritt frei!
In the Blink of an Ear
3. Oct. 2023 // 18:30
SUSSUDIO
Wolfgang-Schmälzl-Gasse 19, 1020 Wien
Improvisations and Compositions
Free entrance
PHACE
Roland Schueler, cello
JSX, Turntables
“Excuse me, do you say in English, ‘I look at the window,’ or do you say in English, ‘I look out the window’?” In Jim Jarmusch’s film Down By Law, the Italian drifter, Bob (played by Roberto Benigni), draws a window on the wall of his windowless jail cell. Bob, who speaks little English, asks his cellmate, Jack (played by John Lurie), which preposition to use when speaking of his window. Jack replies, “In this case, Bob, I’m afraid you’ve got to say, ‘I look at the window.’” (Seth Kim-Cohen, ›In the Blink of an Ear‹) …
From September 20, 2023, the exhibition BLINK OF AN EYE can be seen at the artspace SUSSUDIO. It brings together new location-specific works by Kaja Clara Joo and Michael Kienzer in order to trace elective affinities and interactions and to create an exciting dialogue at the interface between sculpture and installation. As part of the exhibition, PHACE will connect with the works of art on October 3rd with a performance by Roland Schueler and Jorge Sánchez-Chiong in order to trace the above relationships and effects inside the sonic art space.
When In the Blink of an Ear minimalism and maximalism merge, lowercase and hyperpop collide, Schueler & Sánchez-Chiong are playing and listening, , to paraphrase Seth Kim-Cohen, definitely “out of the jail cell”. It is another facet in PHACE’s regular collaboration with Jorge Sánchez-Chiong and his incomparable mix of musical spontaneity and boundary-pushing understanding of sound – as a composer, on the turntables or in educational projects – and also a foretaste to PHACE | ANIMAL SMILEYS , our cycle concert on May 7th, 2024, where we will once again deepen our collaboration with Sánchez-Chiong.
In the Blink of an Ear
Improvisations and Compositions by Schueler and Sánchez-Chiong
PHACE
Roland Schueler | Cello
JSX | Turntables
Exhibition: BLINK OF AN EYE 20.09.—11.10.2023, Sussudio, Wolfgang-Schmälzl-Gasse 19, 1020 Wien
ensemble & installation
PHACE | BLUR
28.Mrz.2023 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal
PHACE Series 22/23 – N°3
ARTISTS
Yalda Zamani, conductor
PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Iva Kovac, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Leo Morello, cello
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Samuel Toro Perez, electric guitar
Alfred Reiter, sound design
PROGRAM
Hristina Šušak
ANIMA for trombone, cello, piano, e-guitar and percussion (2018/19) (Austrian premiere)
Katharina Rosenberger
blur for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello (2019)
Reinhold Schinwald
campi deserti for ensemble, 2022 (wp)
Commissioned by PHACE, with support by the SKE-Fonds and Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien MA7
Maurizio Azzan
Wasteland_not yet, for nine spatialized and amplified musicians, 2022/23 (wp)
Commissioned by PHACE with support by Wiener Konzerthaus
In Katharina Rosenberger’s piece, blurred contours emerge from the noise, like a late-night taxi ride in the unsteady light of neon signs and traffic lights. blur smudges the edges and contours but still remains in a defined form. ANIMA by Hristina Šušak finds similarities in the very opposite emotions of laughter and crying. The piece shows the sonic differences and similarities as the boundaries blur and raises questions about the dualistic view of emotions. They are joined by Reinhold Schinwald and Maurizio Azzan with exciting new works commissioned by PHACE.
Prior to each concert, at 18:45, Juri Giannini will discuss the music with the composers within the setting of “Salon PHACE”.
Abonnements & Ticketpreise
Get your ticket now and become a member of the PHACE-Community!
As subscriber you will get detailed information sent by post mail one week before the concerts.
Subscriber Price
members EUR 75,10
regular price EUR 91,-
Wheelchair space + accompanying person members
members EUR 81,50
regular EUR 89,50
youth subscription
regular EUR 48,-
Prices of single tickets are available as from fall 2022!
chamber ensemble & installation
PHACE | CHROMA
31.Jan.2023 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal
PHACE Series 22/23 – N°2
ARTISTS
PHACE
Concert-installation with works by Maurizio Azzan, Clara Iannotta, Peter Jakober, Sarah Nemtsov and performative sound-sculptures by Andreas Trobollowitsch.
PROGRAM
Maurizio Azzan
Monochrome for string trio (2018) (Austrian premiere)
Stefan Prins
Mirror Box (Flesh+Prosthesis #3) for saxophone, piano, percussion and electronics (2014)
Andreas Trobollowitsch
sägezahm (panorama version 7)
performative sound installation for 7 mechanical turntables, saw blades and acoustic guitars (2022-23)
Peter Jakober
Vom Kreis brechen for bass clarinet and string trio (2011)
Clara Iannotta
Limun for violin, viola and 2 page-turners (2011)
Sarah Nemtsov
Seven Colours for cello, e-bass, prepared piano with keyboard, drum set and electronics (2018) (Austrian premiere)
Sound and noise viewed from all sides and in all facets – Maurizio Azzan‘s monochrome, closely linked to the private dimensions of music, grown out of the restrained feeling of playing just for oneself and discovering sounds, meets Stefan Prins‘ mirror box, in which musical extensions of the body trace the phantoms of electronic sounds. Both Peter Jakober and Clara Iannotta step into sonic spaces that are characterized by a self-contained, inwards turning logic. While the viola and violin circle each other in Limun with a lot of friction, the instruments in Jakober’s piece rock each other up until the fracture, already announced in the title. In Seven Colours, Sarah Nemtsov dedicates herself to the artistic work of her mother and her memories in a wide range of sound worlds and seven earth-colored shades.
Prior to each concert, at 18:45, Juri Giannini will discuss the music with the composers within the setting of “Salon PHACE”.
Abonnements & Ticketpreise
Get your ticket now and become a member of the PHACE-Community!
As subscriber you will get detailed information sent by post mail one week before the concerts.
Subscriber Price
members EUR 75,10
regular price EUR 91,-
Wheelchair space + accompanying person members
members EUR 81,50
regular EUR 89,50
youth subscription
regular EUR 48,-
Prices of single tickets are available as from fall 2022!
Ensemble, Installation, Raum
PHACE | REGEN
22.March 2018 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal
PHACE Series 17/18 – N°3
conductor
Lars Mlekusch
soloist
Mathilde Hoursiangou, harmonium / piano
Berndt Thurner, percussion
concept & dramaturgy
Reinhard Fuchs
PHACE
PROGRAM REGEN (rain)
Innumerable waterdrops, 8 glass tubes, a buzzing bow, rushing of leaves, birdcalls, a music box, a waterphone, interrupted by the piercing holler of a Toulouhou, and instruments spread across the whole space: These are the ingredients of our third concert in the TRANSIENCE-series, transforming the concert venue into a pervasive sound installation.
Amongst others, we will perform works by Peter Ablinger, Francesco Filidei, Beat Furrer and Einar Torfi Einarsson as well as the world premiere of Klaus Lang’s new piece for harmonium and ensemble.
Peter Ablinger
WEISS / WEISSLICH 31e, Membrane, Regen
concert version with 8 glass tubes, 2002
Francesco Filidei
Finito ogni gesto for 5 instruments
Beat Furrer
3 Klavierstücke für Klavier, 2004
Einar Torfi Einarsson
Tendencies for oboe, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin & double bass, 2009
Klaus Lang
die schlafende kuh for harmonium and ensemble (UA)
commissioned by PHACE and Wiener Konzerthaus
Single Tickets for REGEN
Pre-Sale for single tickets (2017) at the
Wiener Konzerthaus starts in December 2017
CHAMBER MUSIC – ENSEMBLE
SONGLINES #2
28.July 2017 // 18:00
Ossiach, Carinthischer Sommer
Stift Ossiach
conductor
Ernst Kovacic
soloists
Steven Schescharegg, baritone
Thomas Fleissner, trumpet
PHACE
Sylvie Lacroix, flute
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Christof Dienz, bassoon
Thomas Fleissner, trumpet
Reinhard Zmölnig, horn
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Krassimir Sterev, accordion
Ivana Pristasova, violin
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Alfred Reiter, sound
PHACE and the Carinthian Summer invite to the second edition of SONGLINES. The audience will be taken on a musical journey through Stift Ossiach, where extraordinary perspectives of historic architecture and contemporary music are provided.
With works by Peter Ablinger, Daniel Serrano, Francesco Filidei, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino and Yan Maresz.
Programme
STATION 1 – STIFTSHOF
Peter Ablinger
WEISS / WEISSLICH 31e, Membrane, Regen concert version with 6 glass tubes (2002)
STATION 2 – BAROCKSAAL
Daniel Serrano
„Asterión“ – Monodram für Bariton und Ensemble (UA)
1. Preis beim 3. Internationalen Nikolaus Fheodoroff Kompositionspreis, vergeben vom Land Kärnten
STATION 3 – STIFTSKIRCHE
Salvatore Sciarrino
Trio 2 for violin, cello and piano (1987) D: 12‘
conversation with the musicians
Rebecca Saunders
Fury 2 for contrabass solo and ensemble D: 14‘
Interactive performance and participation of the audience
for 6 performers and audience
STATION 4 – STIFTSHOF
Yan Maresz – Metallics for trompet solo and electronics D: 11‘
STATION 5 – WERKSTATT
Francesco Filidei – Finito ogni gesto
for flute, clarinet, horn, drums, violin and cello (2010) D: 14‘
Framework Programme
installation (Stiftshof)
Peter Ablinger
WEISS / WEISSLICH 31e, Membrane, Regen conert Version with 8 glass tubes (2002)