Founded in 1987, the Exposition of New Music is a festival of contemporary experimental works, which sees the “exposition” of its title not solely as a presentation, but also as interaction, participation and lively communication with people and the public space.
Since 2012, when the Filharmonie Brno became the festival’s organiser, our programming has followed various threads, based on the spatial arrangements of the city of Brno, and responding to a need to reflect the rich gamut of trends present in contemporary musical productions. Thus, the Exposition has focused on sound installations, noise music and musical interventions into the public space, as well as traditional concert performances. Since 2020, the festival has a new programmer, who proposes an entirely new – his own – perspective on contemporary music.
We would also like to present projects that go beyond music itself or link music with other media new or old, be that in the form of installations, screenings, exhibitions, in situ performances or other.
38th Exposition of New Music
ARS SPECTRUM
3. – 8. 10. 2026
Ars Spectrum, the latest Exposition of New Music festival, offers a wide‑ranging survey of the world of spectral music, taking listeners on a guided tour from its early forms to contemporary experiments with spectral analysis and resynthesis that enmesh algorithmic composition and AI‑driven improvisation.
This year’s festival opens with Fausto Romitelli’s monumental work An Index of Metals that expands spectral principles into an audio-visual experience and fuses them with the aesthetics of psychedelic rock, noise and electronic music. The next concert is inspired by the work of Giacinto Scelsi, a major precursor of spectralism, and presents pieces by several generations of composers united by their fascination with timbre. The festival’s electroacoustic theme is taken up by a concert featuring Karlheinz Essl, an innovator in algorithmic composition, and Franciszek Araszkiewicz, whose work explores the connection between the human mind and electronic sound. One evening is dedicated to Romanian spectralism and examines how it overlaps with improvisation.
On another, we spotlight Marek Keprt in a programme exploring spectral piano music, including works by Tristan Murail and others. Murail’s spectral ideas will be heard here in juxtaposition with cutting-edge implementations of spectral analysis and compositional algorithms that reflect and reinterpret his legacy. The festival ends with an orchestral evening showcasing iconic works of spectralism such as Gérard Grisey’s Partiels and Tristan Murail’s Désintégrations.