Darmstädter Ferienkurse is a regular summer event of contemporary classical music in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1946, under the name "Ferienkurse für Internationale Neue Musik Darmstadt", as a gathering with lectures and concerts over several summer weeks. Composers, performers, theorists and philosophers of contemporary music met first annually until 1970, and then biennially. The event was organised by the Kranichsteiner Musikinstitut, which was renamed Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD). It is regarded as a leading international forum of contemporary and experimental music with a focus on composition. The festival awards the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for performers and young composers.
Hanspeter Kyburz is a contemporary Swiss composer of classical music, known for applying electronic music techniques to his productions.
Mesías Maiguashca is an Ecuadorian composer and an advocate of Neue Musik, especially electroacoustic music.
Johannes Wolfgang Zender was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals.
Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.
Jörg Widmann is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer in the world. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freiburg, he is composition professor at the Barenboim–Said Akademie. His most important compositions are the two operas Babylon and Das Gesicht im Spiegel, an oratorio Arche, Kantate and the concert overture Con brio. Widmann has written musical tributes to Classical and Romantic composers. He was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 2018 and the Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 2023. His sister is the German classical violinist Carolin Widmann.
The Hochschule für Musik Freiburg is a public music academy subsidized by the State of Baden-Württemberg for academic research and artistic and pedagogical training in music.
Reinhard Febel is a German composer, notable for his operas. He is also a music theorist and a university professor at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and the Mozarteum.
The ensemble recherche is a German classical music ensemble of nine soloists, especially dedicated to contemporary music. Founded in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1985, they premiered some 500 works. They were awarded the Schneider-Schott Music Prize in 1995 and the Rheingau Musikpreis in 1997.
Franz Joseph Philipp was a German church musician and composer. He studied and later taught various instruments including organ, worked as a composer, directed a conservatory, and founded a school for organ, a chamber orchestra, an institute for church music, and a choir. In the 1930s he was highly valued by the Nazi regime as a composer, gaining a reputation he tried to undo after the war. Philipp was born and died in Freiburg im Breisgau, and worked in Basel and Karlsruhe as well.
Johannes Schöllhorn is a contemporary German composer.
Cornelius Schwehr in Freiburg im Breisgau is a German composer.
Gösta Neuwirth is an Austrian musicologist, composer and academic teacher. He studied in Vienna and Berlin, where he wrote a dissertation on harmony in Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang. He has taught at universities and music schools including the Musikhochschule Graz, University of Graz, Universität der Künste Berlin and University of Freiburg. His compositions include a string quartet and a chamber opera.
Orm Finnendahl is a German composer.
Martin Ostertag is a German classical cellist and music educator.
Ulrich Stranz was a German teacher and composer.
Eckehard Kiem was a German music theorist, university professor and composer.
Armin Suppan is an Austrian brass musician and composer.
Christoph Wyneken is a German violinist and conductor.
Hans Peter Haller was a German composer and pioneer of electroacoustic music.
