The Experimentalstudio des Swr views itself as an interface between compositional ideas and their technical realisation. Every year several composers and musicians are invited to accept a fellowship in order to realise their works with the Experimentalstudio’s special equipment in interaction with its staff members: experts in computer music, sound designers, studio engineers and sound directors. The Studio then takes an active role in the worldwide performance of these works. With its 40-year presence in the international music scene, the Studio has become the leading centre for ambitious works of music with live electronics. It gives concerts on an ongoing basis at all major festivals (including Berliner Festwochen, Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Festival, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Venice Biennale) and in renowned music theatres and concert halls (including: Teatro alla Scala Milan, Carnegie Hall New York, Théâtre de la Monnaie, Teatro Real Madrid). Its outstanding productions in the past include works by such significant composers as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Cristóbal Halffter, Vinko Globokar and Luigi Nono. Indeed, the latter composer produced almost the whole of his late music in close collaboration with the Experimentalstudio and its staff. Since its world premiere in 1984, the Experimentalstudio has faithfully performed Nono’s “Tragedy of listening” Prometeo more than 50 times, making it a seminal milestone in the history of 20th-century music. Noteworthy composers of the younger generation who have successfully brought forth path-breaking works with the Experimentalstudio include Mark Andre, Chaya Czernowin, José María Sánchez-Verdú, Brice Pauset and Georg Friedrich Haas. Among the performers who have maintained longstanding associations with the Studio are such outstanding figures as Mauricio Pollini, Claudio Abbado, Peter Eötvös, Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Carolin and Jörg Widmann, Irvine Arditti and Roberto Fabbriciani. The Experimentalstudio has been awarded several international prizes for its exemplary work, most recently the annual German Record Critics’ Award for its production of music by Nono. In 2006 Detlef Heusinger followed Hans Peter Haller and André Richard as the Experimentalstudio’s artistic director.
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