In­sti­tu­te for Con­tem­pora­ry Mu­sic IzM

The In­sti­tu­te for Con­tem­pora­ry Mu­sic IzM at the HfMDK was foun­ded in June 2005. As an in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry in­ter­face, it de­signs a ran­ge of pro­jec­ts on con­tem­pora­ry mu­sic for all de­part­ments of the uni­ver­si­ty. This in­clu­des work­shops, col­lo­quia and lec­tures with com­po­sers, per­for­mers and re­se­ar­chers, as well as ex­cur­si­ons, lec­tu­re se­ries, sym­po­sia and pu­bli­ca­ti­ons. Guests in re­cent se­mes­ters have in­clu­ded Hel­mut La­chen­mann, Die­ter Schne­bel, Rolf Riehm, Bri­an Fer­ney­hough, Lu­cia Ron­chet­ti, Koka Ni­ko­lad­ze, Bla­bla­bor, Liza Lim and the Ar­dit­ti Quar­tet. The IzM in­itia­tes in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry pro­jec­ts and coope­ra­tes re­gio­nal­ly and na­tio­nal­ly with in­sti­tu­ti­ons such as En­sem­ble Mo­dern, Hes­si­scher Rund­funk, Alte Oper, Jeu­nesses Mu­si­ca­les, mu­se­ums and thea­ters in the re­gi­on, Ar­chiv Frau und Mu­sik e.V., Darm­städ­ter Fe­ri­en­kur­se and Do­nau­eschin­ger Mu­sik­ta­ge. The in­sti­tu­te re­flec­ts events from re­gio­nal and na­tio­nal cul­tu­ral life and brings them into the uni­ver­si­ty. The IzM com­mu­ni­ca­tes con­tem­pora­ry mu­sic both in­tern­al­ly and ex­tern­al­ly.

The Iz­M's re­gu­lar events in­clu­de con­cert se­ries such as the short­cuts, whe­re tea­chers and stu­dents pre­sent ex­cerpts from their cur­rent work every 14 days and whe­re ex­pe­ri­men­ta­ti­on and en­coun­ters are the or­der of the day. Sin­ce March 2015, the short­cuts have also been held at the Kunst­Kul­tur­Kir­che Al­ler­hei­li­gen in Frank­furt. Every two ye­ars, the IzM con­cei­ves and or­ga­ni­zes the "New Mu­sic Night", an in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry fes­ti­val in which the en­t­i­re uni­ver­si­ty par­ti­ci­pa­tes. As the "En­sem­ble Neue Mu­sik", stu­dents work tog­e­ther in chan­ging line-ups for a wide va­rie­ty of pro­jec­ts and are su­per­vi­sed by the HfMD­K's con­duc­ting stu­dio.

Sin­ce the 2006/07 win­ter se­mes­ter, the En­sem­ble Mo­dern and the HfMDK have joint­ly of­fe­red the In­ter­na­tio­nal En­sem­ble Mo­dern Aca­de­my mas­ter's cour­se; the IzM re­gu­lar­ly works tog­e­ther with the IEMA en­sem­ble. The edu­ca­ti­on pro­ject Re­spon­se also ta­kes place un­der the um­brel­la of the IzM. Sin­ce 2019, re­now­ned com­po­sers have been in­vi­ted to work with all de­part­ments as part of the En­do­wed Guest Pro­fes­sor­ship in Com­po­si­ti­on. For the rea­li­za­ti­on of events with elec­tro­nic mu­sic and live elec­tro­nics, the IzM coope­ra­tes with the Stu­dio for Elec­tro­nic Mu­sic and Acoustics SEL­MA of the HfMDK.