AUSTRIAN MUSIC
THEATRE DAY
IMPORTANT: Both days in the festival hall of the Amtshaus Alsergrund, Währinger Straße 43, 1090 Wien
IMPORTANT: Both days take place at the Councilhouse Alsergrund at Währinger Straße 43, 1090 Vienna
Connect with Europe's most inspiring music theatre makers
The AUSTRIAN MUSIC THEATRE DAY was launched in 2015 as part of the MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN and has been held in cooperation with mica - music austria/Austrian Music Export since 2018. The AMD offers space for professional exchange with national and international organisers and for presentations of works and projects by artists based in Austria.
AUSTRIAN MUSIC THEATRE DAY 2023
Under the theme "Fluid Spaces - New Music Theatre in the Era of Machine Learning" we will discuss advanced digital concepts and its impact on new music theatre at this year's conference on 20. and 21. September. In addition to impuls talks from researchers and artists, we will hear from international music theatre producers, explore various aspects of AI in music theatre as part of a World Cafe and present selected projects from music theatre makers working in Austria.
16:00 Welcome & setting the scene "FLUID SPACES - NEW MUSIC THEATRE IN THE ERA OF MACHINE LEARNING".
- Sabine Reiter, mica - music austria/Austrian Music Export
- Thomas Cornelius Desi, MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN
- Georg Steker, MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN
16:30 Keynote "THEATRE & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE"
- Fabian Offert, University of California - via live video presentation
17:00 Keynote "CURATORIAL COMPANIONSHIP. INTERDISCIPLINARY COOPERATION IN TIMES OF GENERATIVE AI".
- Thomas Ballhausen, University Mozarteum Salzburg
- Stefan Gindl, Research Studios Austira FG
17:30 NETWORKING
Canapés & drinks
19:30 INVITATION TO JOIN A MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN PRODUCTION
Please register your participation at amd23@mttw.at to secure a seat
21:30 CLUB MOSAIK with Barbara Maria Neu & Jorge Sánchez Chiong
Bringing together artists from different MTTW productions to create a concert evening together with colleagues from other festival projects or the Viennese music theatre scene. Join us at Spitzer at the Odeon Theatre to conclude the first day of the AMD conference 2023.
10:00 Producer Pitches "A BIRD'S VIEW"
- Désirée Meiser, Gare du Nord Basel & Creators Connection Programme
- Vendula Nováková & Chris Grammel, Network for Independent Music Theatre Germany
- Michael de Cock, KVS - Royal Flemish Theatre
- Maurice Lenhard, Volksoper Vienna
- Thomas Cornelius Desi, MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN
- Georg Steker, MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN
11:30 MORNING COFFEE
11:45 World Café "MUSIC THEATRE AND "INTELLIGENT" TECHNOLOGIES"
5 topics - 5 hosts
- AI challenges aesthetically, artistically, legally, morally
- VR, AR and deep fake in times of AI
- Fields of use: creation, research, curation, documentation
- Use of AI in production?
- Music production and AI in music theatre
12:45 RECESS
13:00 WORLD CAFÉ REPORT OUT TO THE GROUP
5 hosts
13:30 LUNCH
Buffet lunch at the venue
14:30 Artist Pitches "MADE IN AUSTRIA"
Moderated by Ulla Pilz
Nominated by Irene Suchy (Austrian Broadcasting Service), Manuela Kerer (Conservatory "Claudio Monteverdi"), Bernhard Günther (WIEN MODERN) and Georg Steker (MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN):
- Belma Bešlić-Gál
- Angélica Castelló
- Matthias Kranebitter
- Brigitte Wilfing & Jorge Sànchez Chiong
Selected from the AMD Call by Désirée Meiser (Gare du Nord), Manuela Kerer (Conservatory "Claudio Monteverdi") and Thomas Cornelius Desi (MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN)
- NO DISTANCE LEFT TO SOUND - Alexander Chernyshkov
- RUNAWAY GIRL + SEHNSUCHT - Katharina Gross
- SUBTERRANEAN - Emre Sihan Kaleli, Teresa Doblinger & Sara-Lisa Bals
- SPECULUM MAIUS - Wen Liu
- CHANGE EFFECT - Pia Palme
15:45 AFTERNOON TEA
16:00 Panel discussion "FLUID SPACES"
Moderated by Ulla Pilz with:
- Stefanie Meisl, C'QUENCE
- Ramona Kandinger, Guiding Light
- Robert B. Lisek, Artist, mathematician and composer
17:30 RÉSUMÉ
Georg Steker & Thomas Cornelius Desi (MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN)
19:30 INVITATION TO JOIN A MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN PRODUCTION
Please register your participation at amd23@mttw.at to secure a seat.
- Screening of COLLAPSOLOGY II: Fire's Turning Point, Spitzer at the Odeon Theatre
- PANDORA, Odeon Theatre
- GHOST, brut northwest
THOMAS BALLHAUSEN: Writer, literary and cultural scholar, Senior Artist at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. He researches, among other things, on mediality and text, media
pedagogy and digitality as well as technology in artistic contexts.
BELMA BEŠLIĆ-GÁL: Composer, pianist, curator, artist. Draws on various forms of contemporary music with an emphasis on avant-garde concepts of intermedia music theatre. Her compositions range from orchestral, chamber, and solo works to installation art, media art, and literature. belmabeslic-gal.eu
ANGÉLICA CASTELLÓ: Composer, sound artist. Has created numerous compositions for orchestras and ensembles as well as fixed media, radio works and installations. Her compositions, abstract improvisations and electroacoustic works move at the interface of music, performance and visual art. castello.sounds.org
ALEXANDER CHERNYSHKOV: Composer, performer, improviser. Experiments actively in building unique new instruments of strictly acoustical and mechanical origin using long tubes to transform the wind instruments or using motors, relays and electromagnets as vibrating sources.
THOMAS CORNELIUS DESI: Author, director, composer and artistic director of MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN. He developed a "music theatre of encounters" based on social effects of aesthetics as a play arrangement, in his more than fifty theatre productions. His works have been seen at the Bregenz Festival, the Thalia Symphony Space, the Center for Contemporary Opera New York, the Linz Landestheater and various theatres in Vienna and Germany, among others. thomasdesi.com
STEFAN GINDL: Data scientists and software developers with a strong academic background and expertise in natural language processing, text mining, sentiment analysis and machine learning in general.
CHRIS GRAMMEL: As a creative allrounder, award-winning producer and dramaturg, cultural manager, systemic coach and change manager he has been realising artistic projects with a focus on contemporary music theatre, performance art and post-dramatic theatre as well as corporate brand productions for the past 15 years. Since 2014 he co-organises the Music Theatre NOW Network, a worldwide music theatre competition. dergrammel.de
KATHARINA GROSS: Cellist, composer, performer. Realises interdisciplinary projects around new compositions for cello and electronics, performance/music theatre and visual arts. Her work merges research into phenomena from (depth-) psychology with
literature and music. katharinagross.at
EMRE SIHAN KALELI, TERESA DOBLINGER & SARA-LISA BALS: Kaleli (composer, performer), Doblinger (clarinettist, dancer, choreographer) and Bals (interdisciplinary artist in performance, space and media) co-created a music theatre piece that combines influences from club music with experimental sounds and that grapples with the underlying mechanisms of structures.
MATTHIAS KRANEBITTER: Multiple award-winning composer who works with electronics and new media. His music addresses aspects of our media society with its flood of information. Co-founder of the Unsafe+Sounds Festival and artistic director of the Black Page Orchestra. matthiaskranebitter.com
MAURICE LENHARD: His work as a director has taken him to companies including the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Aschaffenburg State Theatre, the Rüsselsheim Theatre and the Belvedere Studio Theatre Weimar. After serving as assistant and revival director by Stuttgart State Opera for 2 years, he worked as dramaturg in Ballett am Rhein's artistic team followed by Lydia Steier's production of Salome at the Paris Opéra. In autumn 2023 he will become the artistic director of the newly founded opera studio of Vienna Volksoper. mauricelenhard.com
WEN LIU: Composer, media artist. Known for her experimental, research-based practices that explore quantum physics, neuroscience, occultism, consciousness and artificial intelligence. Her work combines music, visual elements, dance, projections and interdisciplinary art forms. wenliu-music.com
DÉSIRÉE MEISER: Initiator, co-founder and artistic director of Gare du Nord. She worked as a singer, actress and/or director, mainly in the field of music theatre. Since the opening of Gare du Nord in 2002 she has been its artistic director. Over the last 15 years, she has also staged several music theatre productions and successively established the Gare du Nord as a venue for contemporary music theatre with the "Musiktheaterformen" series. garedunord.ch
VENDULA NOVÁKOVÁ: Music theatre producer and activist, co-founder of the Hamburg music theatre collective DU#ENDE and artistic director of the "Stimme X Festivals" for contemporary music theatre. Her work focuses on contemporary music theatre and collective development processes with composers. She regularly works with the Bremer Philharmony and since 2019, she is teaching at the University for Music and Theatre in Hamburg.
FABIAN OFFERS: Assistant Professor for the History and Theory of the Digital Humanities at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2020. His research focuses on visual digital humanities, epistemology and aesthetics of computer vision and machine learning. Fabian holds a PhD in Media Arts and Technology and until 2018, he realized a number of music theatre projects and worked for several German cultural institutions, including Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts and the Goethe-Institut. centralworkshop.org
PIA PALME: Composer, performer, curator, artistic researcher. Focuses on experimental and contemporary fields of music. Her work often involves interactions with electronic music, text, video and visual art. It is characterised by the physicality of performance, a theme she regularly re-visits with her bass recorders. piapalm.at
SABINE REITER: Director of mica - music austria since September 2009, board member of the Network for Independent Theatres Austria, board member of Vera - the Centre against Harassment and Violence in Art, Culture and Sports Institutions, advisory board member of the Arnold Schönberg Center Foundation. She studied musicology and art history and holds an MBA in general management. musicaustria.at/team/sabine-reiter
GEORG STEKER: Artistic Director and Managing Director of MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN. Lecturer, coach, consultant and speaker in the field of cultural management. Previously: Founder and artistic director of the music theatre company progetto semiserio, director
of the artistic operations office of the Schauspielhaus Wien, production manager for Linz09-Cultural Capital of Europe and the Vienna Festival, among others. georgsteker.at
BRIGITTE WILFING & JORGE SÁNCHEZ-CHIONG: Wilfing (choreographer) and Sánchez-Chiong (composer) teamed up in 2019 to found andother stage - a transdisciplinary assemble for choreographic composition and artistic research.