Transparent Sound New Music Festival 2026
Transparent Sound: a sound that is transparent and instantly recognizable, inviting you to come closer, explore, and embark on new adventures.
Hungary’s most colorful contemporary music festival returns to Budapest for its thirteenth edition. Over the course of a month, more than twenty concerts, international and local artists, interactive workshops, new music theater, a film club, and interdisciplinary events take place across multiple venues, building bridges between traditional and experimental musical forms, inviting dialogue with audiences open to novelty, and making complex or challenging musical directions accessible and engaging.
This year’s Singular // Plural theme highlights the richness of diverse artistic worlds, focusing on the relationship between individual and collective expression, and the dialectic between solo voice and collaboration. It reflects the tension and richness that emerge when artists create shared spaces and collective musical experiences from their personal voices, or when new, individual gestures arise from collaborative work.
Schedule
➤ PROGRAM
The festival opens on January 9 at the Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy with Ensemble Cairn (FR) performing Préludes: Chopin & Lazkano under the direction of Guillaume Bourgogne. The UMZE Ensemble pays tribute to Péter Eötvös with experimental works initiated in the 1970s, presented at the Hungarian Music House. The Korossy Quartet performs music by the 90-year-old German master Helmut Lachenmann at the BMC Concert Hall.
Prominent international ensembles will also take the stage: Austrian violist Paul Beckett and the young Argo Kollektiv at FUGA, guitarist Samuel Toro Perez at the BMC, and the Dsilton Trio at Opus Jazz Club. The BMC Concert Hall also hosts Norwegian composer Dániel Péter Bíró and world-renowned cellist Lucas Fels from Germany. At MU Theater, the Danish ensemble Scenatet presents Memoriam, an interdisciplinary performance promising a unique new-music theater experience. A highlight of the festival is Parallel Realities at the Müpa Festival Theater, featuring works by István Márta and Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson (CH) with the participation of the Modern Art Orchestra. The internationally collaborative Snapshot from the Tunnel film-concert at the BMC features the Szemző Aquatic Quartet with Emil Gherasim (RO), Alexander Krestovský (CZ), Tibor Szemző, and László Gőz for a groundbreaking musical adventure.
Families are invited to the Hungarian Music House for the community performance “Music into Space!” led by Vera Kardos, Samu Gryllus, Tara Khozein, and Vince Varga. A children’s workshop is organized by Zsófia Remes and Emese Molnár at Bartók Pagony, while the GODOT Contemporary Arts Institute presents its Fragments music program. The Átlátszó Hang film club, curated by Marcell Dargay, takes place three times in January at the BMC, showcasing landmark experimental and cult Hungarian films with accompanying discussions.
➤ Tickets and details for each event are available on the festival website: https://atlatszohang.hu/fesztival-2026/
With the friendly support of Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
Budapest
The best things to do in Budapest! Several medieval bridges connect the 2 sides of the city that give it its name: Buda and Pest. Cruising along the Danube is a great way to see Budapest in all its glory.