KLANG - The Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival is Denmark’s largest festival of contemporary music. This year, the festival is held for the ninth time from the 25th of May to the 5th of June. The festival is larger than ever with over 30 concerts and events distributed over 12 days at a number of Copenhagen venues.

World premiere of authoritarian opera
On May 25th, KLANG opens with the world premiere of the Falling Awake opera at Folketeatret’s intimate Hippodromen. It is a violent performance of authority, manipulation and sex! The opera has been written and composed by the Danish composer Lasse Schwanenflügel Piasecki, who has previously been awarded by the Danish Art Foundation for his work, Gemmer mig for Rosetta, which had its world premiere performed at KLANG 2014. 

Journeying in Tivoli
One of the main concerts this year is with a double sized Athelas Sinfonietta and the Greenlandic choir Aavaat. French conductor Pierre-André Valade conducts the ensemble and choir throughout the evening’s concert, which takes place in the Tivoli Concert Hall on May 30th. On the program are the masterpieces Rejsen ind i den Gyldne Skærm by Per Nørgård, and György Ligeti’s Ramifications as well as two world premieres by the soon-to-be composer from the conservatoire James Black, and the more established composer Niels Rønsholdt. 

Holland House and Nordlyd
On May 31th, Holland House occupies the Concert Church with the project BARCODE, launched at KLANG seven years ago. With BARCODE 03, Jacob F. Schokking and Holland House staged a new form of narrative colliding somewhere between theater and concert.

As an important focal point, KLANG has for this year’s festival invited world-class international ensembles to play in Copenhagen: Jack Quartet (US), Sonar Quartett (D), Plus-Minus (UK) and Adapter Ensemble (D). The latter will premiere works by three younger composers, who shares the common denominator of having “one leg in each camp”. For the second year in a row, KLANG festival’s project Nordlyd focuses on the close relationship between the Nordic countries - this year with a particular focus on double nationality. Nordlyd II: The diary of an asylum seeker will pull the curtains for KLANG festival 2017.

Experience also Allan Gravgaard Madsen’s and Mette Nielsen’s debuts from The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, accordion player Andreas Borregaard as solo three times, Ricardo Descalzo (ES) with a generous program of new music for piano and live electronics, a theatrical, performative and conceptual concert with SCENATET and much more when KLANG – the Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival is held from 25th of May to 5th of June 2017.

Dates: May 25th – June 5th 2017

Venues: Hippodromen (Folketeatret), KoncertKirken, LiteraturHaus, Tivolis Concert Hall, Den Sorte Diamant og KU.BE – Frederiksbergs kultur- og bevægelseshus.