New Transatlantic Music Project “Beyond the Atlantic” (September 2025)

The project Beyond the Atlantic, launched under the auspices of the Goethe-Institut Boston, aims to revitalize cultural dialogue between Europe and the United States in the field of contemporary concert music. The series brings together members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Ecce Ensemble for discussions, workshops, and concerts focusing on aesthetic, political, and ecological issues. (beyondtheatlantic.org)

Swiss composer and conductor David Philip Hefti is one of the project’s co-founders and will take the podium at the closing concert on October 24, 2025 in Boston, by invitation of the Goethe-Institut. Performing under his direction will be members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Ecce Ensemble. The program features the world premiere of Hefti’s new work Beyond Ashes alongside compositions by John Aylward, Martin Brody, Yu-Hui Chang, Isabel Mundry, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Beyond Ashes adopts the instrumentation of Schubert’s famous Trout Quintet—violin, viola, cello, double bass, and piano—yet Schubert’s music remains only as a distant echo. The piece unfolds from quiet, floating textures through an eruptive central section and ultimately into a final song-like farewell that dissolves into silence. Its title points beyond a purely narrative meaning: Beyond Ashes suggests not simply what follows destruction, but a transcendental space—an “elsewhere” beyond ashes and transience. With its combination of international collaboration, artistic depth, and new creation, Beyond the Atlantic promises to be an exciting contribution to today’s classical music scene—demonstrating how bridges between continents can be newly forged through music.