10 Years of the Month of Contemporary Music
In 2026, the Month of Contemporary Music will celebrate its 10th edition. From the 2nd through 31st of October the program will present a wide variety of different streams and modes of expression from the contemporary music scene in Berlin.
To mark this anniversary, the month opens with the Ensemble Festival (the 2nd through 4th of October), which will bring all established Berlin contemporary music ensembles together for a three-day program in the out-of-commission Neukölln shopping center CANK. The focus is on fostering interactions within a multifaceted ensemble scene, on collective working approaches as well as exchange between musicians, composers, and the public. ensemble mosaik, KNM Berlin, Lange//Berweck//Lorenz, LUX:NM, MAM.manufaktur für aktuelle musik, Maulwerker, Modern Art Ensemble, Schwelbrandorchester, Splitter Orchester, Trickster Orchestra, Zafraan Ensemble, Zinc & Copper as well as the newest among them, Kollektiv Unruhe, stand for diverse aesthetic approaches and take part in a variety of genres such as New Music, improvisation and free improvisation, vocal music, traditional music, music theater, and everything in between. Aside from concerts, workshops and formats for creative exchange are planned.
Over its first ten years, the inm/field notes-lead Month of Contemporary Music has become established as a central forum for the Berlin contemporary music scene. Since its founding in 2017, this umbrella festival has brought one month a year of around 100 concerts, performances, sound installations, and discussion formats to Berlin’s countless performance spaces and thereby made the diversity of contemporary compositional and performative audible. Through close work with ensembles, collectives, and artists from the free scene, the festival has opened a space in which different genres—from New Music to improvisation and free improvisation, from Sound Art to music theater and opera—can stand next to each other as equals and create new aesthetic connections. Simultaneously, the Month of Contemporary Music serves as a measure of current tendencies within the scene and offers insights for interested new participants as well as experienced concertgoers. It encourages exchange between musicians, composers, and listeners and brings in more and more international guests each year.
Month of Contemporary Music: 2–31 October 2026
Ensemble Festival: 2–4 October 2026
