Hard to believe, but it’s already the fifth time our ambitious festival will take place! Back somewhen in 2006, the decision to do a festival dedicated especially to young and emerging composer’s works was more of a crazy idea than an actual plan – we were still students at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and we were thoroughly fascinated with the seemingly unending stream of musical ideas, sounds and thoughts for new pieces brought about by all those young and enthusiastic composers from all over the world. That much, we knew, and then, all of a sudden, we had the organisation of a whole big festival going on. Some years later, we did already four editions of the thing, and this year, better than ever, is the fifth edition. Wow!

The thing, for those of you who don’t know, is a tour de force of young contemporary music – a marathon deserving this name. The idea is to present as much music as possible, aiming for as broad a scope as possible, trying to neglect curational concerns which would exclude, for instance, certain pieces because of their musical language, certain composers because of their love for so and so harmonies, or because their scores don’t look interesting enough, etc. Our festival aims for quite the contrary: we see our marathon as an utopian platform, where we try, however limited our ressources are, to play what we can, no matter what.

And limited indeed they are – still though, it is the second part of that sentence that actually matters, and we see it as a big success to be able to present around 40 pieces out of a total of more than 500 applications from all over the world in our festival. There will be solo pieces, smaller and bigger ensembles, electronics, percussion ensembles, dictation machines and motors, hairdryers, conductors and hammered dulcimers, voices and reverb, a harp, and…"

Marathon V – Festival for young contemporary music
Sep 29th ­– Oct 5th 21013

This fifth edition of an ambitious and in many ways unprecedented project by the Vienna-based group and new music ensemble "Platypus" (platypusensemble.wordpress.com) offers a fantastic opportunity to get in touch with very new and often unheard of music by young(est) composers from all over the world. Set in four different locations in Vienna, the festival makes an effort to cover as many varieties of contemporary music as it is understood and written today as possible - ranging from motors & tubes, low-fi electronics and music for percussion quartet and mobile phone apps over explorations into the true nature of silence up to a slightly melancholic piece for harp and tenor saxophone, among many others. In the concentrated span of less than a week's time, around 50 pieces, many world-premieres and commissions for the festival which have been selected from some 500+ submissions for the event, can be heard – in other words, something definitely not to be missed!

Dates & venues:

2013 09 29 20:00 Uhr
Neue Musik in St. Ruprecht / Ruprechtskirche Ι ensemble conflusio
www.neue-musik.at

2013 10 03 20:00 Uhr
echoraum Wien Ι impro & beyond
www.echoraum.at

2013 10 04 20:00 Uhr
Alte Schmiede Ι hand werk (Cologne)
www.alte-schmiede.at

2013 10 05 16:30 bis ca. 23:00 Uhr
Wiener Konzerthaus / Berio Saal Ι marathon @ marathon
Platypus Ensemble Ι KonsPercUssion Ι and many, many others
www.konzerthaus.at