International contemporary music festival AFEKT 2026

https://festivalafekt.ee/

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Description

The AFEKT festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The anniversary theme, “Zeitraum””, raises questions about how contemporary music relates to time, space, the environment and change, and how musical composition reflects the world we live in. Over a quarter of a century, the festival, which began amid the ruins of St John’s Church in Tartu, has become an integral part of the co

The AFEKT festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The anniversary theme, “Zeitraum”, raises questions about how contemporary music relates to time, space, the environment and change, and how musical composition reflects the world we live in. Over a quarter of a century, the festival, which began amid the ruins of St John’s Church in Tartu, has become an integral part of the contemporary music landscape in Estonia and Europe. AFEKT is a meeting place where Estonian contemporary music intertwines with new international trends and ideas.
At the heart of the festival is a commitment to presenting established classics of contemporary music alongside works being created here and now, while continuing to build connections between Estonian composers and performers and the world’s leading composers, ensembles and festivals.
The anniversary festival opens with Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Zeitraum, the inspiration behind AFEKT 25’s theme, “Time and Space”. Tüür’s role in shaping Estonian contemporary music can hardly be overstated. As a leading symphonist on today’s European contemporary music scene and one of the founders and artistic directors of AFEKT’s predecessor, the NYYD festival, he has helped create the conditions in which Estonia’s contemporary music landscape has emerged and developed.
AFEKT 25 brings longstanding artistic allies and collaborators to Tartu. Performers include Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble and the international Track3. Estonia’s music scene is represented by, among others, the Tallinn New Music Ensemble, led by Arash Yazdani and a recipient of an Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation prize this year.
AFEKT 25 also extends the listening experience beyond conventional concert formats. Aivar Tõnso’s “Becoming Sound”, for nonspeaker orchestra, explores the relationships between physical materials, space and electronic sound. Materials become resonating surfaces and objects become instruments, prompting reflection on contemporary consumer society and the ecological crisis: what do we consider waste, which materials do we value, and how long does an object’s life last?
AFEKT 25 invites us to listen to the present as a space in time where past and future coexist, and where every new sound may mark the beginning of a possible future.
Every second is a gateway.

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