SONEMUS FEST is a fesival that hosts local and foreign musicians-soloists, chamber orchestras and ensembles performing contemporary artistic music and organises their concerts and tours in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
SONEMUS FEST 2022: October 15-19, Sarajevo













SONEMUS FEST 2019: April 11-18, Sarajevo
It is our honor and pleasure to invite you to SONEMUS FEST 2019.
In the experience formed by new media, sound and image have ceased to be comprehended as separate sensations: absence is substituted by virtual presence, sound appears without its physical source, and image transforms into sound movement (and vice versa). This year’s issue of SONEMUS FEST explores this new kind of art, in which the interaction of image and sound creates fascinating and inextricable textures of a synesthetic art-form.
The festival consists of 3 concerts:
- Tuesday, April 16, 2019, Cinema “Imperijal”/Brew Imperial Society (Maršala Tita street 56, Sarajevo), at 8 pm: Black Box Music is an interactive piece by Danish composer, performer and sound-artist Simon Steen-Andersen in which music, theatre and video intertwine in a dynamic and exciting way; the Concerto for violin and ensemble by Bosnian composer Ališer Sijarić will have its first performance; and a trio by Australian-Swiss composer, Paul Clift, completes the concert program. The SONEMUS Ensemble (in its largest edition so far) is conducted by Matthias Kuhn, and Carlota Cáceres—movement—and Violeta Smailović-Huart—violin—will perform as soloists.
- Wednesday, April 17, 2019, Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina Hall (Zelenih Beretki street ,2 , Sarajevo) at 8 pm. ENTRANCE – FREE!: The Swiss ensemble Proton Bern performs works that combine improvisation on a tape-recorder with traditional instruments in a piece by young Swiss composer Antoine Chessex, with Jérome Noetinger as soloist on tape-recorder, as well as on modular synthesizers in a new composition by Dino Rešidbegović. Entrance fee for this concert is free.
- Thursday, April 18, 2019, Cinema “Imperijal”/Brew Imperial Society (Maršala Tita street 56, Sarajevo), at 6.30 pm: A concert with Ensemble Mosaik Berlin, internationally renowned for their performance of interactive works combining music and live-video, featuring works by Michael Beil, Johannes Kreidler, Ricardo Eizirik and Niklas Seidl. Also, a new work by young Bosnian composer Hanan Hadžajlić will have its world premiere.
Meet the future of the arts!
Tickets for concerts on 16th and 18th can be found on www.kupikartu.ba, at their offices; at Cinema “Imperijal”/Brew Imperial Society (Maršala Tita street 56, Sarajevo) Mon.- Sat. 4 – 10 pm, as well as half-an-hour before the beginning of the concert at the event location.
This edition of the festival is dedicated to the memory of our friend and collaborator, Denis Šparavalo.








Sonemus Fest 2018, April 16 – 21, Sarajevo
SONEMUS ensemble with premieres by Antoine Fachard and Ališer Sijarić, as well as Works by Richard Barrett and Brian Ferneyhough.
Sonemus Fest 2018, April 16 – 21, Sarajevo
SONEMUS ensemble with premieres by Antoine Fachard and Ališer Sijarić, as well as Works by Richard Barrett and Brian Ferneyhough.
SONEMUS FEST 2018 – COMPOSITION LECTURES
Workshops with Richard Barrett, Antoine Fachard and Ališer Sijarić.

REGISTRATION FORM – INSTRUMENTAL WORKSHOPS
SONEMUS workshops for instrumentalists: April 19 – 21

Guest composers: Richard Barrett (UK), Antoine Fachard (CH), Ališer Sijarić (BiH)
Previous Event: Sonemus Fest 2017, April 2-9, 2017, Sarajevo




Concert Programme
Friday, April 7th 2017, 7:30 pm PRE-ART Soloists (CH) Works by: Vinko Globokar: Septuor par treize sources (2017) – premiere Stefan Wirth: Lieux de mémoire (2017) – premiere Deniz Nurhat (*1989): Kurkku for ensemble (2016) Marijana Janevska (*1990): Transfiguration for ensemble (2016) Michel Roth (*1976): Aria for Doublebass solo (2016) Matthias Arter (*1964): Medusa, Fuga a 5 voci for ensemble (2015) | Saturday, April 8th 2017, 7:30 pm SONEMUS Ensemble (BiH/CH) Works by: Ališer Sijarić (*1975): Noise Prevails (2015) Martin Jaggi (*1978): Plod on for violin, viola, cello and piano (2007) Marko Nikodijević (*1980): Music box / Selbstportrait mit Ligeti und Strawinsky (und Messiaen ist auch dabei) (2003) György Ligeti (1923-2006): Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists (1969-1970) | Sunday, April 9th 2017, 7:30 pm Ensemble NEOFONIA (SLO) Works by: Uroš Rojko (*1954): Neofonía – new work (2017) Christophe Bertrand (1981-2010): La Chute de Rouge (2000) Hanan Hadžajlić (*1991): new work (2017) Dieter Ammann (*1962): Cute (2011) Urška Pompe (*1969): And, through and over everything (2017) |

It is our honour and pleasure to invite you to SONEMUS FEST 2017.
In a room full of clocks, each beating out its own pulse, mechanical time transcends into an auditory landscape, rippling like the surface of the sea. Labyrinths of the imagination open up for the attentive listener/viewer, filled with mirrors reflecting unsuspected, hidden contours of the self. DIS/C/LOC/K/ATION, a play on words intertwining clock and dislocation, denotes non-linear, “disjointed” time as measured by our internal clocks, freed from the constraints of mechanical predetermination. In keeping with the programme motto, the compositions at this year’s festival are also (each in its own way) precisely crafted mechanisms, fine-tuned by their creators to do the impossible: measure the immeasurable.
The festival consists of three concerts:
PRE-ART [PreArt Soloists (CH)] featuring the world premiere of the newest piece by the French-Slovenian doyenne of avant-garde music, Vinko Globokar (internationally, the most renowned composer from former Yugoslavia); the announcement of the international competition Pre-Art 2017 for young composers winner and the performance of the three best compositions by Matko Brekalo (HR), Deniz Nurhat (TR), and Marijana Janevska (MK); and the programme will also include works by the Swiss composers Matthias Arter and Stefan Wirth.
CLOCKWORKS[SONEMUS Ensemble (BiH/CH), cond. Edo Mičić (AT/HR)] will present the masterpiece of contemporary artistic music by György Ligeti, Kammerkonzert for 13 instruments, and a composition that directly invokes Ligeti, Music Box by the young German-Serbian composer, Marko Nikodijević. The concert programme will also feature the composition of Bosnian composer Ališer Sijarić, Noise Prevails, and a composition by the Swiss composer Martin Jaggi.
NEOFONIA [Ensemble Neofonia (SI), cond. Steven Loy (USA/SI)] brings us the world premieres of new compositions by the prominent Slovenian contemporary composer Uroš Rojko, as well as the young Urška Pompe. The concert will also feature the premiere of a composition by the young Bosnian composer and flautist Hanan Hadžajlić. In addition, we will have the Bosnian premiere of significant compositions by one of the founders of the ‘French school’ spectralism, Tristan Murail, as well as composition by Christophe Bertrand, whom we lost so tragically early in his young life. The programme will also include the work of a prominent Swiss contemporary composer Dieter Ammann.
All concerts will be held at the BiH Armed Forces Hall (Zelenih Beretki 2, Sarajevo) beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Admission to all concerts is free.
Guest composers will also hold public lectures about their works, as well as classes for composition course participants. The guest composers are:
Vinko Globokar – April 7, 2017 at 10 AM
Marko Nikodijević – April 8, 2017 at 10 AM
Uroš Rojko – April 9, 2017 at 10 AM
Urška Pompe – April 9, 2017 at 2 PM
All lectures and workshops will be held at the Ars Aevi Depot (Centar Skenderija, Dom mladih, Terezija b.b., Sarajevo).

Previous Event: SONEMUS FEST 2016 – TRANCEGRESSION






It is our honour and pleasure to invite you to the SONEMUS FEST 2016. The title of this year’s edition, TRANCEGRESSION, is a hybrid formed by joining two English/French words: trance – a half-conscious state of mind between dream and reality, and transgression – violation of legal or social norms. This years programme explores the world of musical hybrids which combine contemporary artistic music and various genres of pop music, such as psychedelic rock, trance, acid house etc. However, unlike typical hybrids such as „decaffeinated coffee“ (S.Žižek), or „religion without God“ (R.Dworkin), which are deprived of their basic substance, combining musical genres sometimes produces new authentic qualities which subliminally resonate within us.

14.04.2016 CONCERT ACID RAIN Gagliano Ensemble (GB) + Sonemus (BiH/CH) Works by: Boulez Eizirik Gabryś Gordon Sijarić Xenakis | 15.04.2016 CONCERT BAD TRIP Sonemus (BiH/CH/GB) Works by: Boulez Furrer Hadžajlić Romitelli Sciarrino Zea | 16.04.2016 CONCERT LOONEY TUNES Platypus Ensemble (AT) Works by: Bešlic-Gál Eizirik Ferneyhough Kaiser Lang Rešidbegović Svetlichny |

Previous event: SONEMUS FEST 2015 – Sonic Boom






In a world saturated by cacophony of outdated and failed ideas and beliefs, disguised as high technology hybrids accommodated as easy and fast consumption, the true art of sound appears like a subversive explosion of sense in the ear/mind of a careful listener. SONEMUS FEST is dedicated to precisely this kind of music – the music based on genuine creativity and originality of artistic expression, meant to be confronted by the audience (not to be consumed).
The concerts were performed by talented young musicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland, guided by the doyen of the European music scene, conductor and composer Jürg Wyttenbach.
