Beat Furrer, born in 1954 in Switzerland and a long-time resident of Austria, is one of the best and best-known representatives of contemporary European music. The many interconnected references that characterize his compositions range from ancient myths to contemporary literature, from the fine arts to poststructuralist philosophy, from Carlo Gesualdo and Claudio Monteverdi to Helmut Lachenmann and Salvatore Sciarrino. He has been invited by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as a fellow and composer in residence for the academic year 2018/19 (September 2018 until June 2019).

The Quatuor Diotima was established in 1996 in Paris and is today one of the world’s most in-demand string ensembles. Starting in 2018/19, the quartet will be artist-in-residence at Radio France for three seasons. While the quartet’s focus is on contemporary music, its concerts also combine contemporary and classical music pieces, recontextualizing them and making it thus possible to hear them differently. The Quatuor Diotima, too, is familiar with the Wissenschaftskolleg: The four musicians have repeatedly spent brief periods at the Kolleg, working on their project “Boulez / Schönberg / Beethoven” or rehearsing works by Mark Andre, Alberto Posadas, and Helmut Lachenmann.