Press release steirischer herbst on June 21st: “Ending the forty-five-year history of ORF musikprotokoll at steirischer herbst would be an irreparable loss – not only for ORF itself, for steirischer herbst, and the country’s music scene, but for all of Austria as a nation of culture. The consequences for composers would be disastrous – a drastic decline in artistic production (commissioned works, (world) premières), live presence, and the media platform would result in a dramatic worsening of the situation.

What is more, ORF would not achieve any savings by so doing: on the contrary, it would miss out on considerable funds. The decision-makers do not seem to realise that every euro invested by ORF is doubled by co-operation partners such as steirischer herbst, European networks, and other sources. Thanks to this mixed financing, ORF musikprotokoll has been able to become an incredibly important driving force of New Music in Austria and Europe in the forty five years of its history. Over the past years, some 1400 commissioned works were awarded above all to Austrian composers and musicians. With relatively little commitment, this has given ORF the unique opportunity to do justice to its politico-cultural mission to produce new art, as codified in the ORF Act. This year’s ORF musikprotokoll alone will feature more than 30 Austrian composers, with most performing premières.

The decision to axe ORF musikprotokoll makes no sense in terms of cultural policy or economically, and should be thoroughly reviewed.” Abandoning ORF musikprotokoll would mean the end of an important driving force of the Austrian and international New Music scene.

Sign this petition to show your support for keeping ORF musikprotokoll! Thank you for spreading the word and sharing this petition: http://rettetdasmusikprotokoll.mur.at/en

Veronica Kaup-Hasler, director steirischer herbst"