For Music Lovers

Organism: In Turbulence / Navid Navab - Photo: Angelina Nikolayeva

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For Music Lovers

From a festive opening and the rediscovery of an opera composed in the ghetto of Theresienstadt at the Big Concert Night, to a glittering Nightline and concerts in which organs awaken as living worlds of sound – the festival opens up extraordinary spaces in which music becomes an experience between tradition and the present. Whether rousing electronic live sets, piano works with visualization or experimental sound adventures: music is not only heard here, but experienced in all its diversity.

  • Ars Electronica Opening

    The Ars Electronica Festival 2025 opens with a grand celebration, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss (son) and 30 years since Austria’s accession to the EU, with global artists setting the stage for the festival program.

  • Ars Electronica Nightline

    From inner chaos to collective resonance, the Ars Electronica Nightline 2025 turns the POSTCITY Train Hall into a pulsating playground of sonic experimentation, physical expression, and emotional intensity. With a strong showing from Switzerland’s thriving electronic scene—presented with the kind support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia—this year’s lineup fuses visceral live acts with immersive performances and high-intensity DJ sets.

  • Big Concert Night

    Viktor Ullmann & Peter Kien / Filharmonie Brno (CZ), Dennis Russell Davies (US/AT)

    Composed under the harshest conditions—amid the deprivation, fear, and horrors of the Terezín ghetto, and in the constant awareness of possible deportation to a death camp—The Emperor of Atlantis is a powerful example of artistic resistance and creative resilience. The Train Hall of POSTCITY—Ars Electronica’s main venue since 2015—is a stage charged with profound symbolism for this opera.

  • CHROMA

    Konstantin Semilakovs (DE/LV), Daniel Oliver Moser (AT)

    CHROMA debuts a new composition where piano and generative visuals come alive together in real time. This collaborative project merges sound and color, exploring their rich interaction and unlocking new possibilities for expression and experience.

  • Mineral Amnesia

    Ioana Vreme Moser (RO)

    Mineral Amnesia makes the decay of digital memory audible and questions our reliance on human-made technology to preserve remembrance.

  • Pianographique: Mishima-Suite by Philip Glass

    Maki Namekawa (JP), Cori O’Lan (AT)

    Maki Namekawa—renowned as one of the most distinguished interpreters of Philip Glass’s compositions for piano—will perform a suite of seven pieces from Mishima live in Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center. The concert will be accompanied by real-time digital visualizations created by Cori O’Lan.

  • Organism: In Turbulence

    Navid Navab (IR/CA)

    A concert with a historic organ, robotically prepared to surf upon the self-organizing tendency of its turbulent formations. Navab aerodynamically shapes the resulting ecology of interdependent timbres into emergent realms, traversing microsonic polyrhythms, post-rock overspill and swampy soundscapes.

  • Organism + Excitable Chaos

    Navid Navab (IR/CA), with Garnet Willis (CA)

    Organism transforms a century-old pipe organ into a living sonic ecology that creates turbulent and chaotic sounds challenging traditional listening.

  • Sonic Saturday: Audible Denial, Sonic Unheard

    Anton Bruckner University Linz (AT)

    Sonic Saturday hosted by Anton Bruckner University expands into a two-day event of sonic art, featuring concerts, performances, installations, and informal exchanges between artists and researchers. This year’s edition explores how we listen through the crisis—not to calm it, nor to amplify it, but to sense how sound both conceals and reveals.