Ciel d’hiver
5th Philharmonic Concert: Kaija Saariaho: »Ciel d’hiver« / Oxana Omelchuk: »und alle flieger fliegen nach minsk« for Vocal Ensemble and Orchestra (World premiere) / Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony no. 5 in D Minor op. 47
Belarussian composer Oxana Omelchuk receives the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis 2026 (Heidelberg Music Prize for Female Composers) and has been calling Cologne her home for many years now. In her music, she connects elements of different styles, thereby placing existing aspects in new contexts.
»When I think of Finland, I remember wonderful changes in the light. Everything is distinctive. Nature creates its own acoustics,« says Kaija Saariaho, winner of the Künstlerinnenpreis 2009. In »Ciel d’hiver«, her winter sky consists of a high, cold sound broken only by a few acoustic events that flash up like stars.
Even though Dmitri Shostakovich suffered under Stalin’s despotic regime, he called his impressive, elegiac fifth symphony »a practical answer of a Soviet artist to just criticism«. The musical means he employs are less complex, but the functionaries are satisfied. Was that what he meant though?
Congratulations, Oxana Omelchuk!
In November 2025, the composer received the Austrian Stella*25 Award for Performing Arts for Young Audiences. She was honoured in the category ‘Outstanding Music’ for her work ‘Es ist Zeit’ (It's Time), which was produced by the Wiener Konzerthaus in co-production with Studio Dan, Wien Modern and TaO! Theater am Ortweinplatz.
The Stella Award is an initiative of ASSITEJ Austria, the umbrella organisation of the Austrian performing arts scene for young audiences. It aims to highlight the potential, creativity and professionalism of this genre.
