about the festival

The second edition of the international festival Showroom of Contemporary Sound will take place from May 7 to May 10, at the Student Centre venues: &TD Theatre, MM Center and the backyard of SC. During four days of this year’s festival more than 80 participants from 7 countries will present their work through 30 programmes that include concerts, artist talks, audiovisual projects, a lecture and sound installations.

Showroom of Contemporary Sound is developing in the same direction it took on its first edition. General program guidelines, endeavor, focus and goals have remained the same, continuing to explore and discover the new, encouraging collaboration and dialogue, as well as insisting on an open approach to contemporary music of today. This year’s Showroom has grown in number of participants, countries represented, festival partners, etc., but more importantly, it grew in quality, visible in the content, that is, in the program. Apart from the festival’s representative character, its initiatives are of great importance, as well as its connecting character, whether it is the musicians who are connecting or the festival’s networking with other institutions, initiatives and/or individuals who work in the field of contemporary music. In this aspect, guest performances of the Dutch percussionists, members of the top music ensemble Slagwerk den Haag, deserve mentioning, especially their collaboration with our percussionists Kaja Farszky and Nenad Kovačić. We are continuing collaboration with the Austrian label for new and experimental music GOD Records and with the Slovenian Sploh Institute, presenting the accordion player Luka Juhart, member of the younger generation of Slovenian musicians, passionately dedicated to contemporary music repertoire. As a part of his performance, we will hear first performances of three new pieces by Demetz, Fuentes and Šaljić Podešva. In collaboration with the Belgrade international festival of New music Ring Ring, we are presenting the musician, composer and sound artist Svetlana Maraš, as well as the video artist Incredible Bob and the experimental guitarist WoO, the duo that will present their new expanded cinema project, Peoplemeter.

There are several new collaborations on national level: together with the Multimedia Institute we are presenting Kontakt der Jünglinge, with the Radiona association, Kontejner and Močvara Gallery we will be organizing the Noisy Textiles Workshop of the multimedia artist Afroditi Psarra, and the performance of the renowed British pianist John Tilbury at the opening of the festival is organized in collaboration with the Music Biennale Zagreb. There will be a concert organized and performed by the students of the Music Academy in Zagreb, presenting the pieces by their fellow colleagues – students of composition (Antonio Babić, Sara Glojnarić, Franjo Klinar, Marko Slaviček, Ivan Violić, Juraj Marko Žerovnik).

Part of the programme of the Showroom is also a part of the International Composers’ Exchange platform – project of the four member countries of the International Society for Contemporary Music: Estonia, Croatia, Sweden and Great Britain – through which, in co-production with the Croatian Composers’ Society, we will be hosting two composers from each of the member-countries in the project.

We hope the second festival edition, through its programme and atmosphere, once again demonstrates that the Showroom is needed, from the aspect of the audiences, but also to the participants, and in this way it is becoming an important segment of the Croatian contemporary music scene. A small one, but a very active one.

Entry to the entire program of the Showroom of Contemporary Sound is free.

Enjoy the four days of contemporary sound!