Munich Biennale 2026: Festival for New Music Theatre

The Munich Biennale – Festival for New Music Theatre is one of the world’s most renowned festivals for the world premieres of new operas and music theatre compositions and is considered an important beacon of contemporary art production in Europe. The festival edition of the Munich Biennale in May 2026 is the 20th edition and also marks the 100th birthday of its founder Hans Werner Henze. His original idea from 1988 is as topical and relevant as it was then. In the foreword to the first edition, Henze formulated that the Biennale should encourage and promote experiments, support the development of new ideas and forms, and enable a lively, practice-oriented international cultural exchange. These are all key issues that are also reflected in the 2026 edition under the new artistic dual leadership of Katrin Beck and Manuela Kerer.

The Munich Biennale 2026 will take place in May 2026 in Munich at various locations, with approximately eight to ten co-productions with other opera houses, theatres and festivals in German-speaking and international regions. The 2026 programme, which explicitly does not bear a festival title, sketches out a musical theatre landscape that, in its themes and questions, clearly resonates with the present day. From a science fiction story steered by an AI, inspired by key ideas of the German computer scientist and cognitive scientist Joscha Bach (Zara Ali), to characters, magicians, demons and anime figures from different worlds and universes (Yuri Umemoto) to the question of lies and truth (Piyawat Louillarprassert) or fantasy and reality (Matthias Kranebitter) to dealing with aging and missed opportunities and unlived experiences (Asia Ahmetjanova). The emerging lines and threads of the different music theatre works reflect the exploratory movements of the composers, who come from different generations and cultural backgrounds. They find completely new, daring and fresh solutions for realisation.

The festival is supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
muenchenerbiennale.de

Dates

May 8 – 20, 2026
Various locations, Munich