Estonian focus at hcmf// 

Welcome to hcmf//, where Estonia’s presence will unfold vividly from 2025 to 2027. We are pleased to share that the Estonian focus has been thoughtfully curated by the festival’s artistic team, aiming to offer a fresh perspective on Estonian contemporary music and prompting us to reflect on what defines this genre in the 21st century. This year’s focus proudly commemorates Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday and features a new commission by Mingo Rajandi as well as UK premieres by Madli Marje Gildemann, Liisa Hirsch, and Õie-Olinda Sacherman – whose lesser-known works are revived by the Estonian Electronic Music Society Ensemble. 

We look forward to a diverse array of performances and conversations with our peers and are delighted and thankful to hcmf// to be brought together with our close neighbours in Finland, Lithuania and Ireland in pushing creative boundaries, exploring new sonic territories and fostering meaningful partnerships all over Europe.  

Supported by Estonia’s Cultural Attaché in the UK, the Estonian Cultural Ministry and Estonian Cultural Endowment, this partnership underscores Estonia’s vibrant experimental music scene and its enduring creative spirit. 

Maria Hansar & Taavi Kerikmäe
Estonian Center of Contemporary Music 

Finnish focus at hcmf// 

We are delighted to continue our collaboration with hcmf// for the second consecutive year. 

As one of Europe’s leading festivals for contemporary music, hcmf// provides an excellent platform for Finnish composers and their music to be heard, to reach new audiences, and to contribute to the international dialogue that shapes and develops this art form. 

This year, the works of eight Finnish composers will be featured, performed by both Finnish and international top-tier musicians. Finnish music will play a particularly prominent role during the opening weekend, offering a cross-section of the genre’s vitality and innovative energy. 

Among the highlights is the world premiere of The Trees are Talking by Ville Raasakka, performed by the renowned Mivos Quartet from New York. The piece explores the hidden communication systems of nature, pushing the boundaries of the string quartet and expanding its expressive potential. 

We are living in a time marked by contradictions, polarisation of perspectives, and widespread uncertainty about the future. The cultural and artistic spheres, too, are under pressure, facing both scrutiny and funding cuts—even here in Europe. For this reason, it is more important than ever to strengthen international collaboration. As those working within cultural institutions, it is our responsibility to defend, to uphold and to strengthen the structures that allow art to endure and evolve. 

On behalf of Music Finland, I would like to thank Graham McKenzie, and his entire team for the fruitful collaboration and mutual trust. Warm thanks also to all the composers and musicians for the remarkable musical moments we have the pleasure to experience. Our sincere appreciation as well to our partners this year – Teosto and the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland. 

Heli Lampi
Head of Communications and Promotion, Music Finland 

Irish focus at hcmf// 

It’s hard to believe that our international partnership with hcmf// has come of age with the conclusion of our first three-year agreement in 2024. It has been a vibrant and enriching experience both for us and for the many Irish artists supported to appear in Huddersfield over the last three years. 

Highlights include the Ulysses Journey and Ann Cleare’s Dysmorphia II in 2022, Jennifer Walshe’s participation as Composer in Residence in 2023 and performances of works by a range of Irish composers and ensembles including Úna Monaghan, Nick Roth, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and Crash Ensemble. 

We are grateful to Graham and his team for their commitment and support of Irish artists at all stages of their career working in this genre. An appearance at Huddersfield continues to be a career milestone and, along with the hospitable welcome we’ve received over the last three years, one of the key reasons why we wholeheartedly agreed to an extension of the partnership. 

This year’s partnership also coincides with the 20th anniversary of Culture Ireland’s establishment. Working with Irish artists as we support their international careers continues to be a privilege, and partnerships such as this one are a key mechanism for this support. 

We’ve always believed that the Culture Ireland partnership with hcmf// is, at heart, a celebration of our artists and their achievements. Why would we want to call a halt to that party? 

Enjoy the Festival. 

Ciarán Walsh
Associate Director, Culture Ireland 

Lithuanian focus at hcmf// 

Now in the fourth year of its partnership with Lithuania, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival continues to illuminate one of Europe’s most distinctive contemporary sound worlds.  

The works of Rytis Mažulis, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, Raminta Šerkšnytė, and Justė Janulytė embody a music of structure, resonance, and quiet intensity. Mažulis’s mathematically precise canons, performed by Explore Ensemble, expand minimalist process into dazzling micro-polyphony. Martinaitytė’s luminous textures, presented by the London Sinfonietta, unfold in spectral layers that seem to breathe with light. Šerkšnytė’s expressive harmonic language finds vivid life in the hands of the Mivos Quartet, while Janulytė’s slow-evolving ‘monochrome’ forms – performed by Saxtronauts – reveal an almost architectural sense of sonic space. 

Lithuania’s experimental frontier is represented by three extraordinary acts. Arnas Mikalkėnas brings an uncompromising improvisational language that fuses percussive resonance, extended technique, and spontaneous structure. His performances hover between intensity and stillness, exploring the physicality of sound as gesture and texture. Sholto Dobie, the Vilnius-based sound artist, performs on his self-built air instruments, crafting delicate acoustic environments that explore fragility, vibration, and breath. Edgy Palates, an experimental vocal trio – Dainora Aleksaitė, Jūra Elena Šedytė, and Ieva Parnarauskaitė – present Queen of the Night, an extended-vocal work that reimagines operatic archetypes through electroacoustic layering and embodied vocal performance. 

Together, these Lithuanian voices reveal a culture attuned to nuance, duration, and the tactile life of sound. Their music dissolves the boundaries between composition and improvisation, structure and sensation – inviting listeners into a world where tone becomes space, and silence becomes part of the score. 

Radvilė Buivydienė
Director, Music Information Centre Lithuania 

Photo: Ville Aslak Raasakka © Quiet Outi Törmälä  //  Mingo Rajandi © Virge Viertek // Sholto Dobie © Deividas Buivydas // RÓIS © Orlaith Mac Eoin Manus