The Tower of Babel is a program dedicated to recent works by composers from the former Soviet Union. First performed at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Radialsystem Berlin in 2023, Klangforum Wien returns to Berlin with fresh discoveries, shining a spotlight on new compositions from Central Asia. This edition of the program maps the new musical landscapes of today’s post-Soviet societies, highlighting artistically uncompromising voices from Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine with clear-eyed directness.
Like a “Tower of Babel,” the project is meant to rise above a cultural landscape currently suffering immense deprivation: radiant with polyphony, utopian as ever, serving as both a sanctuary and a vantage point.

KLANGFORUM WIEN
ensemble

25 musicians from 13 countries are constantly exploring new horizons of artistic creativity together with the most important composers of our time. Open-minded, virtuosic in performance and aurally perceptive, Klangforum Wien devotes itself to the artistic interpretation and expansion of experiential space. A performance of Klangforum Wien is an event in the best sense of the word; it offers a sensual experience, immediate and inescapable. Ever since it was founded by Beat Furrer in 1985, the ensemble — which, over the years, has received a great number of awards and distinctions — has written music history: It has presented around 600 world premieres, it boasts an extensive discography of more than 90 releases, and appears at the most important concert and opera venues as well as at the major music festivals. Every year, the ensemble commissions composers and gives numerous world and territorial premieres. The repertoire choice and the ensemble’s intense understanding of the pieces contribute to diversity, and are matched by the flawless execution of the music.

OXANA OMELCHUK
composer

Oxana Omelchuk was born in Belarus in 1975 and studied with Johannes Fritsch and Michael Beil at Cologne University of Musik and Dance. Besides her work as a composer, she also appears in various ensembles as a performing musician (analogue synthesizer), including a duo with Constantin Herzog or Florian Zwißler, the quartet MONOPASS with Florian Zwißler, Luìs Antunes Pena and Mark Polscher, and the Simon Rummel Ensemble. Her music has been performed inter alia by Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Garage, hand werk, ensemble mosaik, 2e2m, the SWR Vokalensemble, Studio Dan, Klangforum Wien, Schlagquartett Köln, Radio-Symphonie Orchester Wien and the Ictus Ensemble at such leading festivals as ACHT BRÜCKEN/Musik für Köln, ECLAT Stuttgart, Wien Modern, the Afekt Festival Tallinn, musikprotokoll Graz, Ars Musica Brussels and the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Among her awards and distinctions are the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Scholarship from the City of Cologne (2006), a travel grant to the Schöppingen Artists Village (2007) and a travel grant to the Villa Aurora Artists Residence in Los Angeles (2018). She was also nominated for the German Music Authors` Prize in the category `ensemble music with electronics`(2019). Today she lives as a freelance composer in Cologne.

FARANGIS NURULLA
composer

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja is a Tajik-Canadian composer born in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in the family of well-known Tajik composer, Ziyodullo Shahidi. She holds a PhD of Fine Arts in Composition (University of Göteborg, Sweden). Having also studied at the University of California in San Diego as well as at IRCAM (Paris). Farangis lives by the criteria of the international life and follows the aesthetic language of contemporary music. As a musician, her focus is on vocal intonations and its unique ability to influence our perception and understanding of our surroundings.She works with the conviction that dance is the complement of music, and that language — particularly the language of poets — is above all a series of communicative sounds. For her, making music is a journey into the unknown, a search for sounds unheard and forms unseen. Farangis compositions have been performed in concerts and in international festivals of contemporary music in Europe, North-America and Asia. She has also received numerous awards and prizes including the Guggenheim fellowship.

ANNA ROMASHKOVA
composer

Anna Romashkova was born in 1985 in Moscow region, Russia. She studied composition and music theory at the P.I.Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. From 2010 to 2015 she took part in master-classes by Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Lang, Marc Andre, Rebecca Saunders, Mathias Spahlinger, Pierluigi Billone, Georges Aperghis, Johannes Kreidler, Vladimir Tarnopolsky.

“The focus of my recent compositions is the attempt to enter a state of observation and non-interference with the life of „sound creatures“, emerging seemingly on their own in the process of writing music. These creatures have each their own features, demeanor, character, and voice. They decide independently what to do at each moment, where to „turn there heads“, what sound to produce; they communicate with each other. These „creatures“ determine, or even „decide“, what the music will sound like in the end.”

Maxim Kolomiiets was born in 1981 in Kyiv. He graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine as an oboist (2005) and as a composer (2009) and from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln as a composer (class of Johannes Schöllhorn, 2016). Maxim is the co-founder of the contemporary music Ensemble Nostri Temporis (2007), the founder of the baroque music ensemble Luna Ensemble(2014) and music curator at the Gogolfest (Kyiv) in the year 2017. In 2023, Maxim was commissioned to compose an opera about the abducted Ukrainian children by the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center New Works Program, with a libretto by George Brant.

VLADIMIR GORLINSKY
composer

Vladimir Gorlinsky, born in Moscow in 1984, is a composer, improviser and works primarily in the field of sound installations and performances. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he now teaches improvisation. His works have been shown and performed in Europe, Asia and Australia by ensembles and solo artists, including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Nikel, Nadar, Insomnio, Nostri Temporis, eNsemble, NoName, trumpeter Marko Blaauw, countertenor Javier Hagen, conductors Enno Poppe, Teodor Currentzis and the Russian National Orchestra.

JUSTE JANULYTE
composer

Justé Janulyté, born in Lithuania, studied piano, choral conducting, music theory and composition in Vilnius and Milan. The award-winning composer has worked with internationally renowned ensembles, including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Danish Radio Chamber Orchestra. Janulyté's music moves over the listener like a wave, exuding warm sounds and rich harmonies.

VLADIMIR TARNOPOLSKI
composer

Vladimir Tarnopolski, born in 1955 in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a prominent composer who lived in Moscow from 1973 until 2022, when he relocated to Munich. He studied composition at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Edison Denisov and Nikolai Sidelnikov, as well as music theory with Yury Kholopov. His graduation work, the Cello Concerto (1980), was selected by the renowned Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky for concert performances. Tarnopolski has composed numerous works for leading orchestras and ensembles, including Ensemble InterContemporain, Munich Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. His music is regularly featured at major festivals such as the Almeida Festival in London, Holland Festival, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He is the author of several operas and a wide range of orchestral, chamber, and vocal works. His compositions are characterized by complex sound structures that dissolve the boundaries between consonance and dissonance, sound and noise, and acoustic and electronic instruments.

TURKAR GASIMZADA
composer

Turkar Gasimzada is an award-winning composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, including the diverse range of works for solo instruments, ensembles, vocal works, orchestral works. Defined as "colorful" and "ornately detailed, intimate", his is music is being successfully performed throughout Europe, Asia and in the United States and won numerous awards in competitions.
He has been collaborating with and having his works performed by ECCE Ensemble (France), Ensemble Courage (Germany), Ensemble Sans Maitre (New York,USA), Contemporary Music Ensemble of Boston University (USA), Cochlea Freedom Ensemble (New York,USA), Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra (Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan State Chamber Orchestra (Azerbaijan).

Jakhongir Shukurov, born in 1981 in Bukhara, is an accomplished Uzbek composer known for his stage, orchestral, chamber, and vocal works, many of which have been performed across Asia. He began his formal education in composition at the Uspensky Academic Lyceum in Tashkent, studying under Dilorom Amanullayeva from 1994 to 1998. Following that, he furthered his studies at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, where he studied composition with Felix Yanov-Yanovsky and conducting with Eldar Azimov from 1998 to 2003. He earned his Bachelor of Music degrees in both composition and conducting. Throughout his career, Mr. Shukurov has received notable recognition, including two Second Prizes from the Uzbek Composers Union — for his works "Marcia" (2000) and "Tafavut — Difference" (2001). In 2003, he was awarded First Prize in a competition for undergraduate students in Uzbekistan for his incidental music to "Said's Adventures." His contributions to music continue to resonate within the contemporary scene.