We are four music organisations from the Visegrad Group countries: Polish Composers’ Union (Poland), Berg Orchestra (Czechia), Waves Bratislava (Slovakia), UMZE Association (Hungary). The title of our project draws attention to the transition towards renewable resources and aims at encouraging dialogue on this subject in the artistic community.
Within our project, we will commission four new pieces of music from the composers of the V4 countries. We will ask them to embed the spirit of sustainability into their music and define the term ‘renewable music’ with their new compositions. We will search for parallel processes in music and economy or society and environment, as well as experiment with employing musical instruments built from recycled materials. We will leave authors the artistic freedom to create in a chosen style or form and give them the opportunity to write music that can renew itself with each performance and thus remain attractive to new audiences.
Moreover, we will free the music from the constraints of a concert hall and move our concerts outdoors. By organising open-air concerts in the green city areas, where people seek refuge from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we will reach out to new audiences and introduce them not only to contemporary music, but also to the environmental ideas that stand behind our project.
We feel that there is a huge need for music and culture in general to renew themselves after the period of stagnation due to COVID-19, and there are important changes to be introduced if we want to shape more sustainable future in our sector.