Vienna is considered the capital of Modernism. However, the great artistic and philosophical upheaval around Schönberg, Freud and Klimt was incomplete: it was euro-centric, male and elitist. The Academy Second Modernism therefore seeks to globalise Modernism, render it female and take it into our time as a Second Modernism. Each year over a period of five years, the Academy Second Modernism is inviting ten outstanding womxn composers to Vienna. As ambassadors of a globalised modernism, they present their works and develop strategies for visibility together with local and international initiators.
For greater diversity in the music sector
As part of the Vienna Festival | Free Republic of Vienna, the Academy Second Modernism launched a five-year collaborative process in 2024 aiming to significantly increase the share of works by womxn composers in the field of concert and music theatre worldwide. Global, diverse, and open to all: More than 50 representatives from institutions and composers from around the world came together at the 2024 summit to draft a declaration for a more diverse and gender-equitable music culture. This year’s summit is held under the theme “Stories that matter.” In 2025, two concerts with Klangforum Wien will once again present ten internationally influential womxn composers and their works as ambassadors of a globalised, diverse and feminist modernism.
The New York Times on the Second Modern Academy
An increasing number of organizations worldwide are joining the Academy Second Modernism. Among the newest members are the Taiwan Philharmonic and the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, warmly welcomed by Milo Rau.
The New York festival PROTOTYPE Festival: Opera/Theatre/ NOW, Outernational magazine and the Viennese artist agency Dr Raab & Dr Böhm have also recently joined the strong international alliance. Laurie Anderson was made an honorary member in New York.
Together with the more than fifty institutions involved in the establishment of the Academy Second Modernism in Vienna in June 2024, the new members form a powerful global network. The aim is to increase the share of works by womxn composers in concert and opera programmes worldwide and to make the field altogether much more diverse. The strength of the alliance lies in its breadth, so that everyone involved in the process is represented: from composers to festivals, universities to a major artist agency, orchestras to renowned concert venues.
Even after over a century of Modernism, only eight per cent of the works that are currently performed by orchestras across the world stem from womxn composers. Within those, 5.5 per cent of the composers are white, 0.66% are from Asia; 0.31% of mixed origin; 0.05% from the Middle East; 0.09% of Indigenous origin.
(Source: Equality & Diversity in Global Repertoire Report by Donne, Women in Music #DonneReport2022)Concept Jana Beckmann With
Du Yun, Bushra El-Turk, Shasha Chen, Dilay Doğanay, Mirela Ivičević,
Marina Lukashevich, Monthati Masebe, Brigitta Muntendorf, Feliz Anne
Reyes Macahis, Aida Shirazi Ensemble Klangforum Wien
Jury* Jana Beckmann, Barbora Horáková Joly, Sofia Jernberg, Sophie Schafleitner, meLê yamomo
A project by Wiener Festwochen In Cooperation with Arnold Schönberg Center, ORF Radiokulturhaus, Ö1
