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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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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World Premiere of David Philip Hefti’s Aus Licht gewoben @ Elbphilharmonie
On March 2, 2026, the new composition Aus Licht gewoben – reflections for violin and cello by David Philip Hefti will receive its world premiere at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The work for violin and violoncello was written especially for the distinguished musicians Hellen Weiß (violin) and Gabriel Schwabe (cello), who will bring it to life for the first time on this occasion.
Aus Licht gewoben unfolds as a multi-layered dialogue between the two string instruments. Through finely nuanced timbres, shimmering textures, and densely interwoven motifs, a musical fabric emerges that is marked by both transparency and intensity. Light is not merely a metaphor here, but a compositional principle: radiant overtone spectra, fragile lines, and energetic condensations permeate the work, shaping an arc of tension and poetic depth.
The close artistic collaboration with Hellen Weiß and Gabriel Schwabe served as both the starting point and inspiration for the composition. Both musicians rank among the most distinguished interpreters of their generation and are renowned for interpretative precision, expressive depth, and tonal refinement – qualities that find a particularly vivid expression in Aus Licht gewoben.
With its premiere at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the work enters its first public resonance space in one of Europe’s leading concert halls. The performance marks another significant milestone in David Philip Hefti’s contemporary chamber music oeuvre.
Further information about the work can be found here.
Further information about the concert can be found here.
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David Philip Hefti @ Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin
On December 6, 2024, the string quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin will present the sixth string quartet Five Scenes for Gustav by David Philip Hefti at the Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin. The “Five Scenes for Gustav” were composed as preludes to Gustav Mahler's five “Rückert Lieder”, in Hefti's arrangement for high voice and string quartet. In this concert, Hefti's sixth quartet and his Mahler arrangement will be performed alternately, as originally planned. The soloist will be soprano Mojca Erdmann.
Since his collaboration with the Scharoun Ensemble, Hefti has cultivated a young but intensive artistic friendship with Wolfram Brandl, leader of the Staatskapelle Berlin string quartet, which is based on the successful premiere of his octet “Des Zaubers Spuren” at the Zermatt Music Festival and was performed for the first time in Germany on the occasion of the Scharoun Ensemble's 40th anniversary concert at the Berlin Philharmonie in September 2023.
You can find all information here.
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