Helmut Lachenmann’s 90th birthday on 27th November 2025 is not just an excuse for celebration, but also a reason for a special, experimental jubilee concert.

Lachenmann and his music have accompanied our ensemble for over fourty years. It has challenged us, inspired us and always pushed us to redefine our limits. His music is radical and strikes a unique balance between corporeality and analytical precision and between intuition and contemplation.

With the choreographer Emi Miyoshi and the SHIBUI KOLLEKTIV we endeavour to shine a new light on Lachenmann’s music: The presence of dancers and movers on stage illuminates the corporeal dimension o fLachenmann’s music. And Lachenmann’s music provides inspiration for the creation of a new choreography.

Lachenmann’s abstract musical language offers a plethora of possibilities for choreography, not least because the musicians’ bodies themselves are involved in providing impulses in the music. Works such as Mouvement, which explores the final twitches and movements before stiffening in death, set movement and resistance in a charged relationship. One observes similar characteristics in solo pieces such as Guero or Pression and in ensemble pieces like Trio Fluido, which have a choreographical component to them. Of course, these compositions can simply be listened to. However, at the same time, it is clear that they are also physically and choreographically structured processes.

In her own language of movement, Emi Miyoshi confronts Lachenmann‘s music. The music and dance meet as equals in this project; neither is subservient to the other. Both artists are unabashedly strong, and the two art forms speak both on their own as well as together.

This project is a continuation of the learning process which Lachenmann’s music always demands. At the same time, it is an invitation for a new learning process. We don’t yet know where this path will take us, but what we do know is that it is a path which can only be found through cooperation and collaboration – between artists, between sound and bodies, between the performers and the audience.

With works by
Helmut Lachenmann

ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE
Anja Clift, flute
Eduardo Olloqui, oboe
Shizuyo Oka, clarinet
Klaus Steffes-Holländer, piano
Christian Dierstein, percussion
Adam Woodward, violin
Sofia von Atzingen, viola
Åsa Åkerberg, violoncello
Lukas Nowok, sound design

SHIBUI KOLLEKTIV, dance

Tickets
available from Fall 2025 at reservix.de, at Badische Zeitung Ticketservice and at the box office.

Supported by 
Friends of Ensemble Recherche e. V.

In cooperation
with the SHIBUI Kollektiv and E-Werk Freiburg