What art after Auschwitz? The question haunted composers who had seen Nazism sweep the homeland of Beethoven. Acutely aware of the evils of our times – racism, colonialism, sexism and exploitation – they faced harrowing questions: how can music stand up to power? How should it be written, performed and heard? Thus began an extraordinary experimental whirlwind, at the centre of which was a humble and discreet genius: Klaus Huber.

Huber was a mystic, a revolutionary and an immensely influential teacher. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, Jean-Luc Menet and Ensemble Alternance will perform the music of Huber and his friends and pupils Brian Ferneyhough, Toshio Hosokawa, Luigi Nono and Heinz Holliger. Newly commissioned works by Aurélien Dumont and Brice Pauset will show the ongoing fertility of Huber’s musical conception. The Klaus Huber Centennial Project is an invitation to experience music whose uncompromising opposition to power is more relevant than ever.

Klaus Huber Memorial Project, Music VS Power, Homerton College, Great Hall, Cambridge CB2 8PH, 2 – 3 November 2024.

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Image: Klaus Huber, Photography by Philippe Gontier