The fourth issue of the almanac “Time to Hear / Hear the Time”

The materials of the fourth issue of the almanac “Time to Hear” are united by the theme “Narratives”. In this issue, as in the pilot issue “Points. Lines. Coordinates”, we once again seek to look at the subject of our study, New Music, from a great distance in order to find “points of support” in its vast space and “get our bearings on the terrain”. To do so, we attempt an exploration through the building of storylines, which comes down to ordering events and facts and creating a certain logical structure. We seek to create a field for constructing reality, where different stories and times (past, present and future) intersect. We seek to create a space for interpretation, where readers, on an equal footing with the authors, can create their own “pictures of the world” by interpreting the storylines and narratives presented.

Among the texts of the fourth issue:

an essay on the narrativity of music in the context of the philosophy of music;
an interview with Helmut Lachenmann, timed to the composer’s 90th birthday;
a special episode of the podcast “Violet Snow” about the 2025 Darmstadt Summer Course;
the Studio for New Music podcast “Portrait in the Studio: Arvo Pärt”, dedicated to the composer’s 90th birthday;
an obituary essay on the directors who passed away in 2025: Robert Wilson, Boris Yukhananov and Yuri Butusov;
an essay on music and the realisation of the twelve-tone system in Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus;
an article on unofficial Russian art in the late Soviet era (accompanying the Zotov Centre exhibition “The Path to the Avant-Garde: Artists’ Dialogues in the Magazine ‘A – Ya’”)
a review of Georgian festivals of New Music;
a conversation with composer Azamat Khasanshin about trends in Tatar and Bashkir music;
a text about the projects of Elif, Tatarstan’s leading creative association;
a piece on the results of the Union of Composers of Russia project “Composers’ Readings 2025”;
an essay on the work of the independent theatre project “nmkht” (Perm);
an interview with Vadim Genin, a winner of the Union of Composers of Russia programme “Notes and Quotas” in 2025;
an interview by the almanac’s editor-in-chief Fyodor Sofronov with himself.

The fourth issue will also feature a new news section highlighting landmark New Music events taking place in Moscow, St Petersburg, the Russian regions, Europe, the USA and the CIS countries.

Authors of the fourth issue:

Fyodor Sofronov — musicologist, composer, associate professor at the Moscow Conservatory, editor-in-chief of the almanac “Time to Hear / Hear the Time”;
Sergey Khachaturov — art critic, curator, art historian, associate professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University;
Yuri Vinogradov — multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, music journalist, philosopher, creator of the blog “Mechanics of Sound” on the philosophy of contemporary academic music;
Ilya Ovchinnikov — music critic, editor;
Konstantin Cherkasov — theatre scholar, music critic, assistant to the General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia;
Ivan Nechaev — cultural commentator, researcher of contemporary art;
Dina Yakushevich — art journalist, columnist, art historian;
Marat Ingeldeev — musicologist, journalist, performer, translator, host of the podcast “Violet Snow”;
Irina Sevastyanova — music journalist, curator, lecturer, research fellow at the Centre for Electroacoustic Music of the Moscow Conservatory, host of the podcast “Violet Snow”;
Anastasia Kim — musicologist, teacher, research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Music of the Moscow Conservatory;
Farhad Bakhtiyari — composer, musicologist, member of the Union of Composers of the Russian Federation, teacher at the Central Music School;
Darina Chirkova — director and playwright of the theatre company “nmkht”;
Daria Lutsenko — cellist, lecturer, curator, soloist of the Studio for New Music ensemble.