Giga-Hertz Award Premiere Concert 2026

The opening concert is part of the festival’s “Fellow Futures” theme and brings together artistic approaches that explore new forms of listening. Three artistic perspectives, three world premieres: spanning participation, experimental music theater, and turntables, these works present radical concepts for counterlistening.

Three world premieres take center stage at the Giga-Hertz premiere concert on July 16, 2026 at ZKM | Kubus. The evening presents new works by Davor Vincze, Jug Marković & Thea Soti, and NikNak (Nicole Raymond), all recipients of the Giga-Hertz Production Award 2025.

Davor Vincze’s Let the System Guide creates a performative setting that places the audience at its core. His work critically examines systems of control and opens spaces where deviation and resistance become productive forces. 

Jug Marković and Thea Soti combine experimental music theatre with electronic improvisation in their project Trashold. Focusing on voice, body, and digital entanglement, their work unfolds as fragmented, polyphonic narratives. 

NikNak (Nicole Raymond), a pioneering figure at the intersection of turntablism, sound art, and Afrofuturism, is awarded for her innovative sonic practice. Her album Ireti merges field recordings, modular synthesis, and DJ techniques into immersive soundscapes. 

Framed by the theme Fellow Futures, the concert brings together artistic practices that explore new modes of listening, participation, and collective experience.