The Contemporary Music Days festival brings an unprecedented - by Greek standards - line-up of eighteen concerts dedicated to contemporary musical creation, running from 25 October to 14 November 2026 at the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC. Titled Multiple Presents, the Festival features six new commissions from Greek composers, numerous premieres and reruns, as well as tributes to emblematic figures in 20th-and-21st-century music. It is a musical event of rare range and polyphony, highlighting the vibrancy of contemporary music and inviting audiences on a fascinating journey through its diverse aspects, new trends, and unexpected pathways.

This multifaceted programme, curated by composer Ioannis Angelakis, maps contemporary musical creation, spanning acoustic and electronic music as well as hybrid and stage works, through the coexistence of renowned ensembles and artists, newly formed groups, and emerging soloists and composers.

It features, among other things, tributes to György Kurtág, György Ligeti, and Georges Aperghis; concerts by the Ergon Ensemble conducted by Nicolas Vassiliou; the ERT Choir's first collaboration with the Greek Composers' Union; the TETTTIX ensemble; and an anniversary concert by the ARTéfacts ensemble. The events also include a piano recital by Stephanos Thomopoulos, unfolding the piano world of Giorgos Koumendakis; the screening of the milestone film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari accompanied by music by Nikos Karagiannis; and the new international composition competition Re:Trace.

«The Contemporary Music Days Festival was born out of a dual need: on the one hand, to create a steady place dedicated to contemporary musical creation, and on the other, to reexamine what «contemporary» means today. It was not meant to signal a mere time category but to serve as a way to relate to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries: to modernism, the avant-garde, as well as to the ruptures and continuities that still shape our experience of sound. In this line of thinking, the Contemporary Music Days Festival does not propose a single aesthetic or a linear narrative but rather an open field of coexistence in which different readings of the past and present are continually recaptured. Special emphasis will be placed on tributes to György Kurtág (marking his 100th anniversary), Georges Aperghis (celebrating his 80th anniversary), and György Ligeti (commemorating the 20th anniversary of his death), which bring emblematic works of contemporary music back to the foreground, not as historical references but as contemporary touchstones from which the new commissions draw material, inspiration, and artistic vision. The collaborations with the ERT Choir and the Greek Composers' Union enhance the logic of an expanded ecosystem in which contemporary music is shaped by networks of people, ensembles, and institutions» notes Ioannis Angelakis.

■ 19 Years of ARTéfacts ensemble

13 November 2026 · Starts at 20.30

ARTéFACTS ENSEMBLE: Spyros Tzekos clarinet, Guido De Flaviis saxophone, Laertis Kokolanis violin, Ilias Sdoukos viola, Theo Vazakas, Costas Seremetis percussion, Pavlos Antoniadis piano

Louizos Aslanidis video designer, stage director

The concert brings together works by Greek composers written for the ARTéfacts ensemble over the past 15 years, forming a polyphonic landscape of contemporary musical writing, aesthetic directions, and performative attitudes. From physicality and the detailed treatment of sound to humour, irony, and the destabilisation of the concert format itself, the works in the programme reflect different modes of listening and different relationships to the present moment.

Through works connected to earlier trajectories of the ensemble-from Kornilios Selamsis' Jeune Homme allongé sur le coté. Silence to Manos Ventouras' sardonic O Paragontas and Dimitris Andrikopoulos' Traces-the concert highlights a consistent artistic approach: one that engages with contemporary music rigorously and with precision, yet without rigidity or self-important seriousness. Some of the works were originally presented abroad and are heard in Athens for the first time, while others return through new readings and contexts, shaping a program that approaches contemporary music as a living experience-immediate, unpredictable, humorous, and deeply hum.