XIII St. Petersburg International New Music Festival

Artistic Director: Mehdi Hosseini

From May 23 to June 5, 2026, Russia’s annual contemporary music forum — the XIII St. Petersburg International New Music Festival — will take place in the cultural capital of Russia. The festival is organized by the Saint Petersburg Contemporary Music Center ‘reMusik.org’ under the artistic direction of composer Mehdi Hosseini. The festival is held with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Government of St. Petersburg, and the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture.

The two-week festival program will feature more than 50 events. Concerts will be presented at some of Saint Petersburg’s leading cultural venues, including the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, New Holland Island, the Alexandrinsky Theatre New Stage, the Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art, the Sheremetev Palace, Sevkabel Port, the Anikushin Studio of the Museum of Urban Sculpture, Jaani Kirik Concert Hall, the Saint Petersburg Sound Museum, and other venues across the city.

In addition to concerts, the festival will also present a broad educational program in both online and offline formats, including presentations, panel discussions, lectures, composer readings, artist talks, and Composition Course reMusik.org.

The St. Petersburg International New Music Festival is a unique event within Russia’s musical landscape, with no direct equivalent in the country. The festival embraces a wide spectrum of contemporary academic music practices, including experimental, electroacoustic, and electronic music, multimedia projects, free improvisation, and other interdisciplinary forms. Its format extends beyond traditional concert presentation to include performances, installations, and experimental artistic practices.

The St. Petersburg International New Music Festival occupies a distinctive place within Russia’s contemporary music landscape. Its program embraces a wide range of contemporary musical practices, including experimental, electroacoustic, and electronic music, multimedia projects, and free improvisation. Extending beyond the format of traditional concert presentation, the festival also features performances, interdisciplinary collaborations, and experimental artistic projects.

The festival program brings together distinguished performers and ensembles specializing in contemporary music, including Ensemble Répons, the Studio for New Music Soloists Ensemble, the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, the St. Petersburg Improvisers Orchestra, the Independent Musicians Ensemble, and solo artists Alexey Potapov (electric guitar), Alisa Grazhevskaya (violin), Georgy Dolgov (flute), Dmitry Shubin (electronics), Serafima Verkholat (saxophone), Anton Izgagin (double bass, bass guitar), among many others.

The festival’s educational program includes lectures, presentations, panel discussions, masterclasses, reading sessions, and artist talks. The eighth edition of the Composer Courses educational project, curated by composer Alexander Khubeev, will also take place online and offline throughout the two weeks of the festival. Conceived as an international creative laboratory, the program offers young composers from around the world — selected by an international jury — the opportunity to collaborate with distinguished guest performers and internationally renowned composers.

Invited professors and lecturers for the 2026 Composer Courses include Mark Andre (France/Germany), Deqing Wen (China/Switzerland), Pierre Jodlowski (France), Sivan Cohen Elias (Israel), Aaron Cassidy (USA), Svetlana Lavrova (Russia), Mauro Lanza (Italy), Nikolay Khrust (Russia), and Alexander Khubeev (Russia).

As part of its long-standing tradition, the festival will also present a series of public round-table discussions dedicated to contemporary musical and cultural discourse. Moderated by Russian composer and Doctor of Arts Svetlana Lavrova together with musicologist Lydia Ader, the discussions will bring together composers, cultural figures, music critics, and festival audiences.

The full festival program is available at reMusik.org official website.