The 65th International Festival of Contemporary Music , happening from September 17 – 26, will take place in COVID-safe, widespread form. The program unfolds in various historical places in Venice and highlights the Venetian musical tradition by linking it to contemporary compositional themes. The event is called Choruses – Vocal dramaturgies, and, under the direction of composer Lucia Ronchetti , focuses on ” the compositional treatment of the voice.” From the Arsenale (Tese, Sale d’Armi, Piccolo Arsenale) to the Basilica of San Marco to the Teatro La Fenice and the Malibran, from the Lo Squero Auditorium of the G. Cini Foundation to the B. Marcello Conservatory up to the Teatro Parco Bissuola in Mestre, the 2021 Music Biennale will be a succession of concerts, sound installations, experimental performances, and vocal happenings, including a processional opera and a chamber musical theater work, which will show different aspects of the voice in contemporary creativity.
Among the highlights of this program are the following Civitellians: Kae Tempest (CRF 2017), spoken word performer, David Lang (CRF 2003) , award-winning composer, and Kaija Saariaho (CRF 2001), vocal musician and recipient of the Biennale’s Golden Lion. Read more about the Biennale program here, and visit labiennale.org/it/musica/2021 for more information on the event.