ORF musikprotokoll 2026

Supernova​
8.10.–11.10., Graz

When we look up at the stars, we are looking into a mirror: We find the seemingly infinite depth of the universe within ourselves as well, because the elements that make up us and our fellow beings were created either shortly after the Big Bang or through nuclear fusions inside stars.

This year, ORF musikprotokoll embarks on a quest for origins. In numerous world premieres, the invited artists explore the connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm. The exhibition Supernova and the symposium Space, Time and Material: Trajectories between Art and Science—featuring lecturers, researchers, and students from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and the University of Graz—serve as nodes. They were inspired by a field trip to the SciArt Dialogue Week 2026 at CERN.

The Supernova exhibition takes place at the Folk Life Museum, which serves as a festival hub this year. In Worlds / Graz, Natasha Barrett, among others, searches for dark matter. The performance Das relativ wohltemperierte Klavier (The Relatively Well-Tempered Clavier) demonstrates that a piano can never be completely disconcerted or out of tune—not even when it has been dismantled.

The first concert evening takes place at Dom im Berg, where Marcus Schmickler and Chris Henschke, among others, try to get closer to quantum physics, and Elisabeth Schimana invites the audience on a journey into the sun. With S.E.T.I., the search for extraterrestrial intelligence becomes a means of introspection.

Various connections between the microcosm and the macrocosm can be found not only on a scientific or philosophical level but also on the sociopolitical one. What risks is an individual willing to take to have an impact on society? On several occasions, ORF musikprotokoll has drawn attention to the Belarusian civil rights activist and flutist Maria Kalesnikava. Following her release from five years of political imprisonment in December 2025, she now performs with the ORF RSO Wien at Helmut List Halle.

Helmut List Halle is a second central venue. In Jennifer Walshe’s multimedia performance THE GREATER NOISE, the universe shrinks to the size of the concert hall. The program also features performances by the ensembles Zeitfluss, PHACE, and Cantando Admont. Under the direction of Cantando Admont, more than 250 singers—professionals, youth, and amateurs—dedicate themselves to a musical deciphering of Leonardo da Vinci’s prophecies, performing, among other works, Beat Furrer’s choral cycle ENIGMA.

You can experience all this and more during this ORF musikprotokoll week, which concludes with Alexander Chernyshkov’s chamber opera Heute schrieb ich nix. This work was awarded the Johann-Joseph-Fux Prize. And finally, back to the beginning: Strictly speaking, this year’s festival-within-a-festival begins on 3 October with GRAZ spielt STEVE REICH (Graz Plays Steve Reich), a twenty-four-hour celebration organized by STUDIO PERCUSSION graz to mark Steve Reich’s ninetieth birthday. Around ninety musicians and one extreme athlete shape this unique event, which leaves the traditional concert hall behind and turns the city itself into a stage.