Waltzes with artificial intelligence, organ music with robotics, interactive performances, and club nights: the musical program of the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 opens up new realms of experience for its visitors.
The Ars Electronica Festival not only provides a stage for international media art, it also opens up vibrant spaces for music, dance, and experimental performances. From classical music with a futuristic twist to opera commemorating the end of a war to club nights, the 2025 music program builds bridges between times, disciplines, and technologies—and takes visitors to extraordinary places.
Festival Opening: Let the Waltz Begin!
The Mariendom and Domplatz will once again become the resounding center for the grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, September 3. Anyone who would like to attend does not need a ticket or registration; simply come by. The event will kick off with the White Hands Chorus NIPPON sign language choir, conducted by Erica Colon, and the Company of Music, conducted by Johannes Hiemetsberger. Together, the two choirs will perform “An die Freude”, the European anthem, commemorating the 30th anniversary of Austria’s accession to the EU. The performance will be moderated by Norbert Trawöger, artistic director of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Singing and signing along is expressly encouraged.
Afterwards, the focus will be on a musical birthday boy and cultural icon of Austria: Johann Strauss (son), the Waltz King, would have turned 200 this year. On behalf of the Johann Strauss 2025 Vienna anniversary celebrations, the Ars Electronica Futurelab has teamed up with four international music universities to realize the Waltz Symphony project. Students were invited to submit artistic concepts that critically and creatively engage with Strauss’ musical legacy and the role of artificial intelligence in composition. The Bruckner Orchestra Linz, conducted by Ingmar Beck, will perform excerpts from these new contemporary interpretations, as well as Strauss’ Die Fledermaus Overture and Traumbild.
Sound experiments: Golden Nica for Navid Navab and Garnet Willis
To conclude the opening ceremony, Navid Navab (CA/IR) explores experimental approaches to organ sounds in Organism: In Turbulence. The Montreal-based artist challenges our listening habits by using robotics to transform a hundred-year-old pipe organ into a living sound ecology that produces impetuous and chaotic sounds. For this impulsive work of art, Navid Navab and Garnet Willis (CA) were awarded the Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica.
2025 in the category “Digital Music & Sound Art.” It will be freely accessible in the cathedral (during opening hours) throughout the festival. On Saturday, visitors can also look forward to two more concerts with Navid Navab—no tickets are required for these either.
Grand concert night: The Emperor of Atlantis
The Great Concert Night in the POSTCITY railway hall on Friday makes a musical and political statement. To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the evening presents a new production of the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis). This extraordinary work was composed in 1943-44 by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien (DE) against all odds in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The plot: Emperor Overall declares war on everyone – but Death, who is supposed to lead the campaign, refuses to play along and goes on strike. Orchestral music is combined with deeply moving visual staging on this evening. The performance is conducted by Dennis Russell Davies: “The Great Concert Night is a meeting place where two worlds come together to celebrate great music. This year’s production is also a deeply moving testament to an indomitable and passionate creative spirit that emerged from the depths of despair and persecution. A clear and decisive ‘No!’ to panic.” The world premiere in Linz is a collaboration between Ars Electronica, the Filharmonie Brno, the Landestheater Linz, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Der Kaiser von Atlantis will be performed a second time on Saturday.
Immersive performances and DJ sets
If you want to experience even more after the Grand Concert Night, the Ars Electronica Nightline is the place to be. The program invites you to dance and celebrate with its experimental and extraordinary musical acts. Viennese singer and music producer AYGYUL (AT) will provide an energetic kick-off. After that, the spotlight will be on Switzerland’s thriving electronic scene, made possible by the kind support of the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia. Camilla Sparksss (CH/CA) brings ICU RUN to the stage, a multisensory live show that blends noise pop, electro, and visual storytelling. Her performance is confrontational and intimate at the same time—music that not only invites you to listen, but also to feel. Lua Jungck (CH) delivers a live set that alternates between sonic exploration and danceable energy. Influenced by her background as a jazz pianist and a deep connection to experimental sound, she weaves distorted field recordings, broken beats, and complex synth textures. FlexFab (CH) will also perform live, play DJ sets, and present his cross-genre approach to music production. Rapper Manu Kann (CH) will support him on stage.
The headliner of Nightline is Barcelona-based artist Maria Arnal*, who combines singing, movement, and artificial intelligence in her performance AMA. In collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and five dancers, a living choral system has been created in which the artist’s synthetic voices are shaped in real time through movement. A radical reflection on vocal autonomy, authorship, and the shifting boundaries between humans and machines.
Sonic Saturday: Listening through the crisis
There isn’t much time to sleep in, because Saturday kicks off with Sonic Saturday at the Anton Bruckner Private University. This year, the format has been expanded into a two-day event for sound art with concerts, performances, installations, and informal exchanges between artists and researchers. Sound becomes a means of insight: in keeping with the festival theme for 2025, “PANIC – yes/no,” the aim is to listen our way through the crisis—not to calm or amplify it, but to feel what sound both conceals and reveals.
The courtyard of the art university becomes a playground
Although the Ars Electronica Festival does not officially start until Wednesday with the opening ceremony mentioned above, you can already get in the mood on Tuesday at the Sound Campus. In collaboration with Ars Electronica and the University of Art and Design Linz, the Sound Campus has become a popular fixture in the festival program in recent years. This year’s edition, from September 2 to 4, is dedicated to the theme of play: not as a means of distraction, but as an artistic strategy. Play becomes a tool for improvisation that breaks down boundaries and challenges established ideas of possibility. The game is played without winners, unfolding freely through spontaneity—as soon as we turn on the sound and leave the stage to chance.
Pre-opening: Maki Namekawa plays Philip Glass
Abschließend noch ein Highlight, das man sich unbedingt vormerken sollte: Pianistin Maki Namekawa (JPN), eine profilierte Expertin für die Klaviermusik von Philip Glass, wird beim Pre-Opening Walk am Dienstag, dem 2. September, eine Suite mit sieben Stücken aus Mishima im Deep Space des Ars Electronica Center spielen. Cori OʼLan (AT) begleitet die Pianistin visuell mit digitalen Visulisierungen in Echtzeit. Das Konzert wird so zur meditativen Verschmelzung von Bild und Klang – und stimmt atmosphärisch auf ein vielschichtiges Festivalprogramm ein.
The Ars Electronica Festival 2025 will take place from September 3 to 7 in Linz under the motto “Panic – yes/no.” Tickets are available here.
*AMA von Maria Arnal, unterstützt vom Institut Ramon Llull und Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)