Sergej Newski started his three months residency at the Villa Aurora in California in July 2014. During his stay he will compose a new music theater piece based on the novel Pazifik Exil by Michael Lentz. The work will be premiered at UltraSchall Festival Berlin 2015 before having its American premiere at the Villa Aurora in March 2015.

On our blog, our contemporary composers present their favorite work from our catalogs. This time: Hubert Stuppner writes about Inverno-in ver by Niccolò Castiglioni.

This 47th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt features the world premiere of Fabien Lévy’s ensemble work à tue-tête. The festival also presents a symposium on Giacinto Scelsi and performances of compositions by Georges Aperghis, Franco Donatoni, Dai Fujikura, Enno Poppe, Gérard Grisey and many more.

Baptiste Trotignon’s first sonata for flute and piano will be premiered by Jean-François Heisser and Philippe Bernold at the Château d’Hardelot on August 3, 2014. In this video interview, the composer tells us more.

The newest opera from Pascal Dusapin, Penthesilea, will have its world premiere at La Monnaie in Brussels in March 2015. Now a suite for mezzo and orchestra derived from this work will be heard in Tokyo this summer.

Together Casa Ricordi and the Rossini Foundation began work on the monumental critical edition of the works of Gioachino Rossini in the early 1970s. The preparation of every score has been accompanied by  study of Rossini’s compositional practice, the performance practices of the time and a comprehensive examination of the sources.

Contemporary composers derive inspiration from one of the most famous mystics of the Arab world: martyr and Sufi master Husain ibn Mansur Al-Hallağ. Samir Odeh-Tamimi also drew on personal experience for his new work for chorus and orchestra Mansur.

Simon Mayr’s comical opera L'avaro is based on Molière’s play and was premiered in 1799 in Venice, the place that was his starting point to become one of the most performed opera composers of his period. A new production of L'avaro was just performed in Arosa in Switzerland and can now also be seen in the composer’s hometown Ingolstadt on August 2 and 3. For more information about Simon Mayr, please click here.

“The composers of our time should study Mayr’s operas. They would find there everything what they are looking for and what would be useful for them.” (Gioachino Rossini)

Graham Fitkin’s orchestra work BIRCH 1871 will be premiered in Sweden on August 28, 2014. The composition has been commissioned by Umea City of European Culture. In this interview, Graham Fitkin tells us more.