The 46th edition of hcmf// was bursting at the seams, with dozens of World and UK Premieres spread across its concerts and commissions – not to mention the grounds traversed through installations and exhibitions, discussions, workshops, tours, recorded radio broadcasts and international partnerships and collaborations.
This year we invited Jennifer Walshe to share her lively, forward-thinking approach to music as our Composer in Residence, we celebrated 70 years of the brilliant Jürg Frey, we dedicated a day towards investigating the relationship between the environmental crisis and the arts with The Current Climate, and we produced another day of shorts, staging free, incisive concerts in venues and spaces all across town as part of our ongoing efforts to break down barriers to new music.
We have picked out some highlights from hcmf// 2023 in the photography gallery below. You can also revisit selected concert recordings on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show (episode 1 and episode 2), and head to our Instagram to relive it all through our festival Story.
Our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to our supporters, audiences and all who have joined us, and our very best wishes for the holidays. See you in the new year!
Jennifer Walshe leads the audience in a creative exercise during the launch of her exhibition, AT THE FIRST SOUND, THE WHOLE WORLD FREEZES
Andreas Borregaard delivers a memorable performance with Oslo Sinfonietta for the UK Premiere of Jennifer Walshe’s PERSONHOOD
Huddersfield’s Shaping Care Big Drum Dancers bring jubilation to the Richard Steinitz Building Atrium during hcmf// shorts 2023
Laura Bowler and Decoder present the World Premiere of ADVERT
Synaesthesis delve into the oceanic depths for Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s Hadal Zone
M. C. Schmidt coaxes sound from unlikely sources during Matmos’ improvisation with Jennifer Walshe
Jürg Frey sits in conversation with Kate Molleson on a day dedicated to his works
Maria Sappho delivers a workshop for composers, taking Jennifer Walshe’s work with AI as a starting point
Winnie Huang performs with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra for Liza Lim’s Multispecies Knots of Ethical Time
Gailė Griciūtė exhibits theatrical methods of making sounds in Arturas Bumšteinas’ Navigations
London Sinfonietta incorporate balloons in a concert of songs from and responding to Hans Werner Henze’s Voices
Xavier Charles, Axel Dörner and John Butcher convene as The Contest of Pleasures
Huddersfield walking group We In Front at the launch of their soundscape installation
EMS Synthi AKS used by Brian Bridges during the Northern Lights Project’s celebration of Michel Chion’s Requiem
Rosie Middleton performs an excerpt from PLASTIC BODIES: An opera about an opera
Liza Lim discusses her works with Tim-Rutherford Johnson as part of our talks series
Maximilian Haft playing violin alongside Elissa Cassini, performing his recent arrangement of Tony Conrad’s Four Violins
Nemeth Quartet joined by soprano Katharine Dain and musicians Raphaëla Danksagmüller (duduk/kaval) Elif Canfezâ Gündüz (kemenche) Esra Berkman(qanun) for They have waited long enough
Irish contemporary supergroup Stone Drawn Circles incorporate a drill in their concert
Oslo Sinfonietta share a concert of UK Premieres from Rebecca Saunders and Øyvind Torvund
GBSR Duo performing the World Premiere of Angharad Davies’ Empty Spaces II
Rebecca Lee guides a workshop collaging looped sounds using turntables
Liudas Mockūnas wields water-prepared saxophones for Hydro 3
Teresa Winter and Christopher Duffin combine electronics, voice, violin and saxophone in their World Premiere of Directions For Knowing All Dark Things
Quatuor Bozzini in concert as part of a day dedicated to Jürg Frey
Nadar Ensemble cellist Pieter Matthynssens wears a VR headset for Piotr Peszat’s PEnderSZATch Rising
Riot Ensemble close out the 2023 festival with the World Premiere of Bára Gísladóttir’s The moon is an eye is a pond and so on and so forth
Photography by Point Of View