41st Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival under way

The Festival runs from 16th to 25th November, 2018

THE most progressive sounds on the planet can be heard at the annual festival that has placed the town of Huddersfield and its University on the music map of the world.

Founded in 1978, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) is under way for the 41st time, from 16th to 25th November.  Concert halls, such as those on the University campus, are venues for many of the 30-plus performances, but there are also gigs in unusual settings, such as the tap room of micro-brewery Magic Rock Tap Room and the Queensgate Market.  Total audience numbers will top 10,000.

Internationally-recognised Swiss-American visual artist and composer Christian Marclay is this year’s Composer in Residence and the 2018 Festival has also forged a Dutch connection.

A new partnership with Dutch Performing Arts means that there will be ten concerts featuring composers and performers from The Netherlands.

There is a focus on Swedish music and musicians, and there will also be ensembles and soloists from Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the United States and the UK itself.

More than half of the events at the Festival are free to attend, and in 2017 these drew 2,200 people.  It is an innovation that attracts newcomers to contemporary music and last year 32 per cent of surveyed audiences were first-time attenders.

As usual, the Festival features world premieres, including first performances of works by James Dillon, Christopher Fox, and new versions of classic works by Julius Eastman and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Notable UK premieres include three recent pieces by Rebecca Saunders, a leading English composer who this week was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Huddersfield.

In  addition to its long-established partnership with hcmf//, the University is world-renowned for the study and composition of contemporary music and is home to the globally-respected Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM).

• The full programme for hcmf// 2018 can be downloaded online.