Sarah Nemtsov will be awarded the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis 2025 (Heidelberg Music Prize for Female Artists). Her unique and idiosyncratic musical language combines different influences from Renaissance and Baroque music to Jazz, Rock and electronic music.

The award will see the performance of »Tikkun« (2021), a work from her cycle on mystical creation ideas, the tetralogy entitled »Tzimtzum« (2020-2023). This will be preceded by the world premiere of »Schatten zu«, a composition for six-part a cappella choir, sung by the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG, based on the poem of the same name by Heidelberg poet Rainer René Mueller. Both works are also a contribution to the 3. Biennale für Neue Musik of Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar and the festival project »Hören mit Helmholtz«, which refers to the scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, who worked in Heidelberg from 1858 to 1870.

Claude Debussy in his turn also introduced new sounds to music with his »Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune«. Composed based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, his prélude creates a musical-mythical fantasy world. In his »Trois Nocturnes« composed in 1897 on the other hand, he sets out to let audiences experience the orchestra’s range of timbres, true to his impressionist nature.

Performed by Johann Aparicio Bohórquez, solo cellist of the Philharmonisches Orchester, Mieczysław Weinberg’s fantasy for violoncello and orchestra complements the concert programme with melodic lines.