Conductor

Singer

What happens when the myth of the American West fractures? When the hero splits into many selves, and the story refuses to behave? In Michael Gordon’s A Western, inspired directly by the film High Noon, Verdigris Ensemble presents the West as a kaleidoscopic dream: familiar figures multiplied, reflected, and distorted through sound and movement. Gary Cooper’s lone sheriff doesn’t appear once, he appears four times, sixteen times, splintered across the stage as the choir becomes shards of a mirror, transforming individuals into crowds and crowds back into a single voice. Raw, loud, and cinematic, A Western confronts the mythology of cowboys, guns, and justice head-on: asking what happens when the stories we rely on start to crack.

The evening opens with the world premiere of To The West, where singers become architecture: forming environments, landscapes, and ecosystems of the West through light, projection, and physical presence. Directed by Kevin Moriarty, conceived and conducted by Sam Brukhman, with visuals by Courtney Ware, this production pushes singers far beyond traditional vocal roles. Here, 16 voices become characters, terrain, and tension itself. To The West lulls audiences into a hypnotic cinematic world before A Western blasts it open. Three nights only, this is not a concert you casually attend: it’s a visceral reimagining of what music can be, and a defining statement in the new music movement Verdigris Ensemble is building.

EPSG:4326

A Western

Winspear Opera House

Composed between 1985 and 1989, Cuban-born Jorge E. López’ Blue Cliffs is characterized by archaic sounds and dark timbres. American-trained and sensitive to Eastern spirituality, he composed a large part of his work immersed in the nature of the Methow Valley, Washington State. Under the baton of Tim Anderson, Klangforum Wien brings this impressive work to the stage of transart festival 2025 and – by the limited instrumentation of 13 musicians – emphasizes each individual voice and thus enables dynamic and tonal contrasts.

transart Festival: Blue Cliffs

Ex-Masten, Bolzano

"A reinvention of music theatre" – thus Klangforum Wien’s first concertante-performative meta-opera, an energetically charged foray through the operatic literature of the past 100 years, was hailed enthusiastically. Starting with Zemlinsky, via Sciarrino and Saunders, all the way to Xenakis, the spectrum covers nothing less than love in all its potentialities and impossibilities. Together with the Needcompany, the musicians present themselves as a lively collective of performers, wholeheartedly and powerfully on stage. Italian premiere.

transart Festival: Amopera

The 200th anniversary of the King of the Waltz: a pop star of his time, a universal artist – Johann Strauss II has inspired many. From Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner to Richard Strauss, all were fascinated by his wealth of ingenuity and the soaring ease of his imagination. Wolfgang Mitterer, a virtuoso of the art of recharging, reinterpretation, and deconstruction, explores the ambiguity inherent in this much celebrated music. From the well-known Kaiserwalzer to the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, he reimagines Strauss’s timeless hits in a remix that meets the unbridled enthusiasm and passion of Klangforum Wien.

Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival: tritsch tratsch

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

With Luciano Berio's song cycle Folk Songs, a tribute to the mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, and two characteristic and groundbreaking compositions from Pierre Boulez's oeuvre, the festival debut at the Tokyo Spring Festival marks the 100th anniversary of these two landmark composers. In addition, Philippe Manoury has developed a deep relationship with Japanese musical life. His Passacaille pour Tokyo is a reimagination of musical form in the spirit of Boulez.

Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival: Boulez & Berio 100

"A reinvention of music theatre" – thus Klangforum Wien’s first concertante-performative meta-opera, an energetically charged foray through the operatic literature of the past 100 years, was hailed enthusiastically. Starting with Zemlinsky, via Sciarrino and Saunders, all the way to Xenakis, the spectrum covers nothing less than love in all its potentialities and impossibilities. Together with the Needcompany, the musicians present themselves as a lively collective of performers, wholeheartedly and powerfully on stage.

Amopera

Daegu Opera House

Wiener Konzerthaus

Hong Kong Arts Festival: tritsch tratsch

Hong Kong Cultural Center

Hong Kong Arts Festival: Amopera

Im Anfang war das Wort? Wie schnell beweisen blutige Taten das Gegenteil des Gesagten. Nach Bernhard Langs Playing Trump 2021 begibt sich erneut ein zeitgenössischer Komponist auf die Spur der Worte eines Despoten. Gesammelt in Zeiten des Friedens, vertont in Zeiten des Krieges. Schamlos verkehrt die Rhetorik der Macht mörderische Pläne in ihr Gegenteil. Heuchelei und dreiste Lüge werden zum Prinzip erhoben.

Die Kreide im Mund des Wolfs

Opera Stabile Werk/Wirkbühne of the State Opera

It all started with a dream: 50 pianos as one instrument. Georg Friedrich Haas has created a unique sound experience that resounds like a natural wind from the depths of the universe. With 11.000 Saiten, Georg Friedrich Haas explores a microtonal space for 50 pianists on just as many pianos and an ensemble.

Düsseldorf Festival - 11.000 Saiten

Messe Düsseldorf

It all started with a dream: 50 pianos as one instrument. Georg Friedrich Haas has created a unique sound experience that resounds like a natural wind from the depths of the universe. With 11.000 Saiten, Georg Friedrich Haas explores a microtonal space for 50 pianists on just as many pianos and an ensemble.

Premiered at the Bolzano Festival Bozen (August 2023) and performed for the first time in its original version in the Great Hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus during the Wien Modern Festival, this unique concert installation is now coming to Germany for the first time.

Düsseldorf Festival - 11.000 Saiten II

Shakespeare’s searing portrait of a prince in crisis intimidated nearly all of history’s greatest opera composers. Not so for Australian composer Brett Dean, who saw in Hamlet’s splintering sanity a perfect match for his evocative music.

Hamlet

Sydney Opera House

What does it mean to become real? In The Velveteen Rabbit, Verdigris Ensemble returns to the story that began it all: reimagining Margery Williams’ beloved tale as a gentle, magical, and deeply immersive performance for families. Semi-staged with projections and a live actor, this production invites audiences into a world where the voices become landscape, atmosphere, and emotional extension of the story itself. As the Rabbit’s journey unfolds, natural pauses in the narration allow music to bloom, layering feeling, wonder, and playfulness onto each moment, and surrounding the audience in sound that feels alive and responsive.

Directed by Emily Ernst, conceived and conducted by Sam Brukhman, with visuals by Courtney Ware, The Velveteen Rabbit transforms 16 singers into a living environment: shaping the nursery, the seasons, and the inner emotional world of the characters. Created as Verdigris Ensemble’s very first performance and now returning as the final production of Season 9, this work beautifully bridges the past and future as the ensemble approaches its 10th anniversary. With a 60-minute runtime and three performances at Rosewood Center for Family Arts, this is an experience designed especially for families, one that gently reminds us that love doesn’t demand perfection, and that our wear, our scars, and our care for one another are exactly what make us real.

Conductor, Singer

Tim Anderson

Events

Upcoming events

13 - 15 Mar, 2026

A Western · Verdigris Ensemble

15 - 17 May, 2026

The Velveteen Rabbit · Verdigris Ensemble

Past events

13 - 15 Mar, 2026

A Western · Verdigris Ensemble

Sep 18, 2025

transart Festival: Blue Cliffs · Klangforum Wien

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in A Western by Gordon

Verdigris Ensemble

Conductor in Die Kreide im Mund des Wolfs by Kampe

Staatsoper Hamburg

Conductor in tritsch tratsch by Mitterer

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in 11,000 strings by Haas

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Blue Cliffs by López

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in The Composer by Abramović

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Passacaille pour Tokyo by Manoury

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra by Berio

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Improvisé – pour le Dr. Kalmus by Boulez

Klangforum Wien

Conductor in Le Marteau sans maître by Boulez

Klangforum Wien

About

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