Studio New Music

As a network for and by the students: those studying composition as well as those in the master and concert examination in New Music in particular, but also for all instrumentalists, vocalists, music teachers, up to performing artists.

As a network for colleagues who constantly ask themselves whether, where, how, and why New Music (and early...?) can and should play a role today.

As a network not only within the university, but also in contact with institutions such as the Donaueschingen Music Days (maD), the SWR, Musik der Jahrhunderte, the State Gallery, but also with life "outside," beyond the Stirling Tower.

The Studio New Music hosts the ensembles for New Music - especially the echtzeitEnsemble as a student experimental ensemble for werk_statt_festivals at the university or external performances like the off-concerts of the Donaueschingen Music Days as well as the Stirling Ensemble Stuttgart [SEnS] as an ensemble academy, led by teachers and conductor Christof M Löser. It conceives, coordinates, and realizes various event packages related to New Music.

A new direction is being taken by the HMDK Stuttgart with the "Landeszentrum" CAMPUS GEGENWART initiated by the SNM, a transdisciplinary platform for music students - especially in composition and Master in New Music - the performing arts of the HMDK and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart (ABK) with two new professorships in contemporary aesthetics and performance.

LABOR Aufführungspraxis Neue Musik | especially for students in the Master New Music, open to interested parties: analytical, aesthetic, interpretative, performance, vocal, movement, acting, performance, listening, communication, media practice, etc.

meisterKonzerte | Renowned interpreters of New Music come to courses and concerts, mostly with premieres from the composition classes, such as in June 2017 with the Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Internal Collaborations | Studio Electronic Music (daily), Studio for Speech Arts / New Music Theater, Studio Early Music, Drama School, Puppet Theatre, Opera School, Elementary Music Pedagogy, Jazz & Pop Institute, Musicology and of course – the indispensable core! – the instrumental classes of the university and colleagues!

Ensemble Collaborations | Gelber Klang, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, ascolta, Le Balcon, ensemble recherche, Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Musikfabrik and others.

Partner Institutions | State Gallery, Donaueschingen Music Days/maD (music academy Donaueschingen), Music of the Centuries, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, SWR, Netzwerk Neue Musik Baden-Württemberg, Landesjugendensemble Neue Musik Baden-Württemberg, Kunstschule Waiblingen, Haus der Geschichte BW, among others.

External Concerts | Münster St. Paul Esslingen, Elektrominibarklingelton, student premieres with ensembles such as Philharmonia Chor, ensemble cross.art, Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra and others.

In everyday life: the constant networking of ideas and creators, composers and musicians, musicians to ensembles, cooperation partners and students, projects, people, spaces and times – in the cafeteria, on the stairs, in the elevator, between coming and going and all chairs.

On current occasions such as anniversaries, official university acts, award ceremonies, competitions, state holidays, scholarship actions, university partnership activities, city cultural days/nights, etc., the New Music Studio contributes with its sense of possibilities.

Complementary to individual instrumental or vocal training, the Studio New Music for Master's students in New Music serves as a framework, platform, meeting point, communication forum, and stage for ensemble, chamber music, and performance practice, artistic project development, networking for post-university life, and aesthetic discourse. The utilization of the offerings and active participation can blend seamlessly with one another.

For young composers, the Studio New Music is intended to be more than just the activities of composition classes; it should primarily serve as a forum for presenting new compositions, as well as for experimenting, trying out, and discussing. Strong support for the new and occasional resistance or criticism are two sides of the same coin.
In addition to the perhaps already overly standardized performance opportunities that are offered, students should gladly demand their creative freedom and propose and advance their own projects.

New music activity at the University of Music and the Performing Arts Stutgart since the 1950s was associated with names such as Erhard Karkoschka (who, teaching since 1948, founded the Ensemble Neue Musik in 1962 and led the Electronic Studio until his retirement in 1987, engaging in both scholarly and ensemble work, as well as in educational activities, all alongside his composition class, which produced musicians like Mathias Spahlinger), Bernd Konrad (who led the Ensemble for New Music from 1979-86), Hanna Liska-Aurbacher, Werner Taube, many others, and of course – from 1981-99 – Helmut Lachenmann, whose former students, including Mark André, significantly influenced concert life and music universities nowadays.
In 2008, Caspar Johannes Walter became the first head of the newly founded Studio New Music, which was conceived not as a representation of composers' interests but rather as a network spanning the (new) faculties and subjects, propelled by the university law but mostly by the self-conception of the HMDK and its members dedicated to New Music. Since then, it has been natural that projects in composition, theory, practice, science, and pedagogy are developed, realized, and reflected upon hand in hand.
With the new life that entered the composition classes, ensemble work was also strengthened, and collaboration with instrumental teachers and their classes was intensified.
External projects, such as providing music for a major Cage exhibition in Waiblingen in 2009, concerts in Basel, Esslingen, annual off-concerts at the Donaueschingen Music Festival since 2009, at the State Gallery, with the Kunstakademie, the Academy Schloss Solitude, with guest ensembles like ascolta or Le Balcon, film, and literature, culminated in the extensive Microtonality Congress in 2011 after years of preparation. Here, artistic research and production intertwined with analysis and scholarship, experimental musical practice, teaching and mediation, historical and contemporary aspects, making it audible, experiential, and comprehensible for a broad audience in seminars, workshops, and sold-out concerts.