Double Distinction for David Philip Hefti at the 10th Manhattan International Music Competition
David Philip Hefti has received two awards in the Composition category of the 10th Manhattan International Music Competition. For his work “Woven from Light – Reflections for Violin and Violoncello”, he was awarded a Gold Medal with Honourable Mention as well as the additional Contemporary Music Prize.
The jury unanimously praised the composition’s exceptional artistic quality, remarkable musicality, and high technical standard. The competition’s Artistic Committee also expressed its particular appreciation of its outstanding quality.
The Contemporary Music Prize includes an invitation to release a digital album with the classical music label Orpheus Classical. For this album, David Philip Hefti will be able to create a programme of his own works centred around an overarching artistic or conceptual theme. The album will be released worldwide across leading digital platforms.
The two awards represent significant international recognition of David Philip Hefti’s work as a composer. Further details about the planned album release will be announced at a later date.
Further information:
Official list of 2026 prizewinners
2026 Gold Medals – First Category
Orpheus Classical
July 2026
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Analog Electric – A New Artistic Development
I am currently working on Analog Electric, a new artistic development project exploring the possibilities of a contemporary acoustic musical language.
The project is inspired by newly developed resonance instruments based on alternative overtone systems, whose sounds evoke electronic sound worlds while remaining entirely acoustic. My interest lies not in the instruments themselves, but in the compositional perspectives that emerge from an expanded acoustic sound vocabulary.
Analog Electric is conceived as an open-ended artistic process and a laboratory for new ways of listening, resonance, and composition. Its aim is to explore new sonic possibilities that will shape future works for chamber music, ensemble, choir, and orchestra.
Work on Analog Electric has begun. I look forward to sharing the next stages of this artistic journey with you here.
D. P. H.
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World premiere of David Philip Hefti’s new choral work Mutata vox
World premiere on 4 June 2026 in Winterthur with the Zurich Chamber Singers conducted by Christian Erny – followed by performances at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Bremen’s Sendesaal
On Thursday, 4 June 2026, David Philip Hefti’s new a cappella choral work Mutata vox will receive its world premiere. The Zurich Chamber Singers, under the direction of their founder and artistic director Christian Erny, will present the work at the Festsaal Liebestrasse in Winterthur as part of the concert programme Earth Seen from Above. The following day, the work will be performed at the renowned Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, before being heard at Bremen’s historic Sendesaal on 6 June.
Mutata vox was composed on commission for the Zurich Chamber Singers and their conductor Christian Erny. The new work continues the ensemble’s close collaboration with contemporary composers and represents a highlight of its 2025/26 season, which is centred on the theme “Metamorphosis”. Transformation and change form the artistic focus of the season and are themes that also resonate throughout Hefti’s new composition.
With subsequent performances in two of Germany’s most distinguished concert venues, the world premiere will enjoy an exceptional international profile. The invitation to perform at the Elbphilharmonie reflects the growing reputation of the Zurich Chamber Singers, who have established themselves as one of Switzerland’s leading professional vocal ensembles in recent years. The appearance at the Sendesaal Bremen continues the concert tour and will bring Mutata vox to an international audience within days of its premiere.
Further Information
Information about the world premiere in Winterthur can be found here.
Information about the Hamburg performance can be found here.
Information about the Bremen performance can be found here.
Information about Mutata vox can be found here.
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World premiere of David Philip Hefti’s new song cycle Rottot at LIEDBasel
As part of the LIEDBasel festival, the world premiere of David Philip Hefti’s new song cycle Rottot for baritone and piano will take place on Saturday, 30 May 2026, at the Don Bosco Music and Cultural Centre in Basel. The work was commissioned by LIEDBasel and written for baritone Jonathan McGovern and pianist Judit Polgar.
Rottot is based on poems by Dragica Rajcic Holzner from her collection Halbgedichte einer Gastfrau. The texts are characterized by a deliberately altered orthography and grammar. Language appears here not as something flawed, but as a form of resistance that raises questions of belonging, identity, and one's relationship to the world. Hefti’s composition does not seek to illustrate the poems; rather, it engages musically with their emotional and existential tensions.
The five songs of the cycle – Welche Unterschied?, So etwas wie Rat, Rotlicht, Naturliche Sache, and Der Welt und Ich oder wie man mich Entwelttet – explore varying states of alienation and closeness, vulnerability and self-assertion. The baritone part spans an exceptionally wide range, extending from deep bass sonorities to falsetto-like heights. The piano acts as an equal partner: richly layered in colour, highly virtuosic, and marked by striking harmonic contrasts.
With Rottot, David Philip Hefti continues his intensive exploration of the relationship between language and music. The distinctive linguistic world of Dragica Rajcic Holzner opens a poetic space in which social experience, personal identity, and musical imagination converge in multifaceted ways. The world premiere at LIEDBasel represents a further contribution to the contemporary expansion of the art song repertoire.
Further information about the concert can be found here.
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World premiere of David Philip Hefti's Im Streiflicht with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra
The Zurich Chamber Orchestra presents the world premiere of the new work “Im Streiflicht (In Raking Light) – Resonances for String Orchestra” (2026) by David Philip Hefti. The composition is written for string orchestra and will be premiered on 5 May 2026 at 7:30 pm at Tonhalle Zurich, followed by a second performance on 6 May 2026 at 7:30 pm at Theater Chur. The work unfolds a multilayered soundscape in which aftersounds, resonances, and subtle refractions of light take center stage. Sonic layers overlap, emerge, and fade, creating a musical space shaped by delicate transitions and shifting perspectives.
The premiere performances will be given by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Willi Zimmermann. Closely connected to the ensemble’s distinctive sound culture, the work develops a refined spectrum of colors and textures, oscillating between transparency and density. Im Streiflicht reflects on the persistence of sound in space and on the perception of time as a suspended, continuously transforming process.
Tuesday, 5 May 2026, 7:30 pm, Tonhalle Zurich
Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 7:30 pm, Theater Chur
Further information and tickets can be found here for Zurich and Chur.
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