Musical dialogues beyond the canon

Since 2021, this dynamic festival has demonstrated just how much new musical territory remains to be discovered beyond the familiar canon. Founded by pianist and chamber music teacher Biliana Tzinlikova, it has established itself as a space for curious exploration and vibrant collaboration among faculty, students, and guests. The festival is dedicated to Erika Frieser (1927–2011), the first woman to hold a professorship (1973–1995) in piano chamber music as well as vocal and instrumental accompaniment at the Mozarteum University.

Biliana Tzinlikova describes how closely the programme concept is linked to a personal journey of discovery: “After recording a solo piano CD in 2019 featuring works by Louise Farrenc—whom I had come to know through her wonderful chamber music—I suddenly felt as though I could see twice as much in the musical landscape, as if through a new lens. I kept coming across new chamber music works by female composers and wanted to share them with colleagues and students at our institution.”

Held approximately every year and a half, the festival deliberately focuses on rarely performed composers and seeks to expand the boundaries of what is heard “always and everywhere”. Three concert programmes explore the diversity of chamber music ensembles, ranging from duos to expanded quartet and ensemble formations. The festival presents a panorama of chamber music dialogues through various perspectives: between instruments and voices, between historical and contemporary works, and between different aesthetic approaches and “topics of conversation”. Following its success in 2021, 2022, and 2024, the festival continues in 2026 under the direction of Biliana Tzinlikova, in collaboration with the Institute for Chamber Music and the Strings Department.

Tzinlikova also emphasises that the festival’s distinctive character emerges through dialogue: “Its unique character develops through exchange—with colleagues, with Iris Mangeng, and with the questions one must ask when putting together a programme: Which instruments have been included so far? What is missing? Which works and ensembles are suitable for the three concerts? This is followed by the process of searching, selecting, reaching out to colleagues, and allowing a solution to emerge organically. We are very fortunate—and this is perhaps one of the nicest aspects of the EFKMT—that, from the very beginning, people have rarely declined my invitations. Quite the opposite: everyone is delighted to take part, and over the years, some true artists-in-residence have emerged. Isn’t that wonderful? I am incredibly happy and grateful for that. There will be plenty of topics for discussion—not least because two living composers will be joining us in the audience.”

On the opening day, the concert “Duo” makes this sense of dialogue almost tangible: nuanced French songs by Poldowski, Elsa Barraine, Nadia Boulanger, and Rita Strohl create finely balanced “conversations” between voice and piano. In Kaija Saariaho’s Tocar, touch becomes a compositional principle in its own right, while Jessie Montgomery’s Duo offers a lively musical ode to friendship. Rebecca Clarke’s neoclassical pairing of clarinet and viola, Germaine Tailleferre’s scintillating waltz for two pianos, and Luise Adolpha Le Beau’s opulent cello sonata continue this thread: touch and boundaries, lyricism and structure, intimacy and formality all come together in a dialogue among many voices.

In the second concert, “Trio”, the focus widens to explore the many possibilities of the trio formation. Four works offer different perspectives on this chamber music constellation and present both 20th-century and contemporary voices. Amy Beach’s Piano Trio combines late Romantic expressivity with impressionistic colour, while Claude Arrieu’s trio for wind instruments captivates with its neoclassical clarity and playful wit. Noëmi Haffner and Julia Purgina create contemporary sound worlds in which colour, texture, and energetic contrasts reinterpret the classical piano trio model.

In the third concert, “Quartet Plus”, the dialogic space of chamber music coalesces into a complex tapestry of sound. Dora Pejačević’s passionate late-Romantic Piano Quartet in D minor serves as a historical point of reference for Tim Lugstein’s refined contemporary language in between frontier. With Sofia Gubaidulina’s visionary sonic metaphor of the “dancing sun” in Fata Morgana and Johanna Müller Hermann’s richly characterised string quintet, the programme condenses into a dramaturgy of inner tensions.

Performers:

• Enrico Bronzi, Matthias Bartolomey, Leonhard Roczek and Giovanni Gnocchi (cello)
• William Coleman and German Cakulov (viola)
• Lily Francis, Annelie Gahl and Johannes Meissl (violin)
• Biliana Tzinlikova, Paulina Tukiaiinen, Ariane Haering and Yu Nitahara (piano)
• Andreas Schablas (clarinet)
• Christoph Strehl (tenor) 
• Students from the Pre-College, as well as students of New Music, Chamber Music, and Lied; Duo MOLEDE; and an ensemble of eight cellists under the direction of Enrico Bronzi 

Audience reactions from the previous festival:

• "All these names, none of which I had heard before!"
• "These are wonderful works."
• "It's great that students are given the opportunity to discover this repertoire.”