One of today's most renowned German composers Enno Poppe brings a spectacular work for 9 synthesizers to Vilnius with the renowned Berlin Ensemble

This autumn, one of the most famous contemporary German composers and conductors, Enno Poppe, is coming for the first time to Lithuania. On 30 October, the international festival of contemporary music Gaida 2024 will feature his most impressive work of the last decade, Rundfunk, a one-hour electronic music composition for 9 synthesisers. In collaboration with the Goethe Institute, this work is brought to Vilnius by ensemble mosaik, the leading light of the new music scene in Berlin (Germany). The concert will take place at the Art Printing House. Enno Poppe will be the guest composer of the festival in Vilnius, and Lithuanian audiences will have the opportunity to hear Enno's other acclaimed works at various concerts of the festival (by the Lithuanian National and State Symphony Orchestras, and the Cello Club cello ensemble).

Enno Poppe is considered to be one of Germany's most influential composers of today. For more than thirty years he has lived and worked in Berlin, a city pulsating with diverse contemporary culture, where he moved during his student days when he studied conducting and composition at the Berlin University of the Arts. After developing an interest in electronic music, he studied sound synthesis and algorithmic composition at the Technical University of Berlin and at the ZKM Karlsruhe art and media centre.

As a composer and conductor, Enno Poppe collaborates with some of Europe's leading new music ensembles: "Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps, Musikfabrik, Ensemble 2e2m, SWR Vokalensemble, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, and many more. Since 1998 he has been a member and conductor of ensemble mosaik.

Enno Poppe has been commissioned by renowned ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the West German Radio (WDR), and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras. His works have been premiered at the most important international festivals in Germany and Austria: the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Salzburger Festspiele, the musica viva in Munich, the Ultraschall and the MaerzMusik in Berlin, the Eclat in Stuttgart, and many more.

Enno's works are performed by some of the world's finest new music masters: Arditti Quartet, Kairos Quartet, conductors Susanna Mälkki, Emilio Pomárico, Peter Rundel, the South West German Radio (SWR) Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. Enno's awards include the Busoni Composition Prize from the Berlin Academy of Arts (2002), the Ernst von Siemens Foundation and Schneider-Schott Music Prizes (2005), the Hans and Gertrud Zender Foundation's Happy New Ears Prize (2011), the Hans Werner Henze (2013), and the German Copyright Association's Deutscher Musikautorenpreis (2016). As a testimony to his renown, the composer has taught at the legendary Darmstadt New Music Course (Germany) and the renowned Impuls Academy in Graz (Austria).

Enno Poppe composed the work Rundfunk (Radio) in 2018. "Without radio, new music would not exist in its present form. The invention and development of electronic music in the studios of radio stations is one of the great moments in the history of radio as a dissemination channel. In Rundfunk, I use historical sound produced by synthesizers from decades past. My instruments are nine computers and nine keyboards. The aesthetics of the sound is that of the 1960s and 1970s, as produced by Gottfried Michael Koenig, Thomas Kessler, John Chowning and Tangerine Dream. Since the instruments used are not original but computer-generated replicas, the sound is a little different from what it was then."   

Rundfunk was written for the ensemble mosaik, with whom Enno Poppe has a long-standing friendship and collaboration. Founded in Berlin in 1997, ensemble mosaik is still known as a collective that boldly experiments, combining different genres and art forms. The ensemble has created a new playing culture by combining multimedia and different means of stage expression with performances and different performance situations that have become a model for many younger ensembles. In addition to collaborating with the most renowned composers, ensemble mosaik also performs works by young composers. The ensemble collaborates with the Berlin Academy of Arts and the famous DAAD artist residency programme, performs on the most important stages in Germany and Austria, and this year has already performed at the Berlin Philharmonic and the Grafeneg Classical Music Festival, among others.