Voices Mag
Media companion of the performing arts festival
Voices Mag: a new media
  • It accumulates and transforms everything produced before and during the festival into media content: curator manifestos, explanatory texts, announcements, transcripts of panel discussions and more.
  • It explains the context (Central Asian music, Belarusian protests, composers and AI, etc.).
  • It serves as an essential reference for all journalists interested in the festival.
  • It works as a small independent media outlet dedicated to new performing arts and underrepresented voices. In this capacity, it broadens the audience that might take an interest in the festival.
  • Content agency
    • Provides texts for republication free of charge to other media outlets (Field Notes, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Neue Musikzeitung, etc.).
    • Expands the range of materials for Art Focus Now.
    • Broadens the network of media collaborations with the festival.
  • Archive
    • Serves as the festival's archive, compiling materials from previous years, as well as photo reports, video recordings, and reviews.
    • Provides the content for the festival's booklets
  • Media
    • Expands the festival's context by adding new layers of meaning.
    • Creates texts (interviews, longreads) within the festival's framework that are engaging in their own right.
Media structure
1. Interviews
Conversations with composers, directors, playwrights, artistic directors of ensembles, and other key figures.
2. Dialogues
Thematic discussions between experts (e.g., exploring gender in music, the role of technology in art, etc.).
3. Profiles
Articles on notable figures featured in the current year’s program (e.g., Luigi Nono, Vladimir Rannev, Sergey Parajanov, Valzhyna Mort in 2024).
4. Microformats
Short stories focused on a single piece or phenomenon (e.g., “The Story of One Composition”).
5. Archive Materials
Publications from past years that remain relevant (e.g., the 2023 discussion on memory with Davydova, Stepanova, and Bubich).
6. Essays
Essays and interviews highlighting the cultural and social context of the festival (e.g., “What’s Happening with Central Asian Art in the 21st Century” or “The Composer and AI”).
7. Multimedia
Incorporating short video interviews, trailers, or performance excerpts.
8. Photogalleries
Visual content from concerts and events.
9 Previews and highlights.
Detailed previews and guides to help navigate the festival program.

The media is the combination of current, archival, and contextual content that provides a comprehensive view of the festival and its themes while also extending beyond its immediate program.
Festival's booklets
Booklets are designed using materials from Voices Mag, prepared throughout the year, along with additional illustrative and biographical content.

Each time, collaboration with a Berlin-based artist is highly desirable—someone who can either create the visual style or contribute individual works for the booklet.
Voices Mag mock-up

Duo Falak: decoding the avant-garde in Tajik music
Guitarist Denis Sorokin — on how moving to Tajikistan changed his perception of contemporary music, listening conventions, and himself.
Belarusian art in exile: who cares?
Is there a way for the artists to stay afloat and survive in exile? Belarusian artists share their views.
Post-soviet no more: the challenge of redefinition
Has the label "Post-Soviet" outlived its relevance? We ask Archana Upadhyay, author of Transitions in Post-Soviet Eurasia.
For me, contemporary academic music and Butoh dance are like twins. They align perfectly with each other. It's all about some fundamental things: what came before, what it means to be human, and what comes after. What lies beyond the classical range of emotions, dramaturgy, and melody. Only the borderline state, only rhythm.

Read the full interview on making the "Nachspiel"
Philip Grigorian
director
Venice of Luigi Nono

Nono's piece "...sofferte onde serene...", to be performed by pianist Pavlos Antoniadis, is inspired by the sounds of his native Venice, particularly Giudecca. Voices Mag has created a short guide to Venice inspired by his life on the island.
Focus on: Katalin Ladik
PHØNIX16 — on working on "Transmission with Katalin" (2024) after poems by Katalin Ladik
"Yoko Ono of Balkans" in her own words
Her best performances, poems and books — in a nutshell
Silk, glitches, microtones
The insider's guide to new Central Asian art.
Everything you need to know before going to "Being Adam" concert
We aim to create a platform where composers, still not sufficiently represented in the European context, can resonate in performances by some of the finest European musicians, within a single program, and engage in respectful, and attentive dialogue with one another.
— Sergey Newski, composer, VOICES advisory board member
Budget & costs
Alexey Munipov
Editor-in-Chief of Voice Mag
(all texts, editing, transcription)
Add. costs
  • Proofreading/Translation
  • SMM
  • Commissioning guest essays if needed (at €100-150 per text)
  • Illustrations (promotional/public domain materials where possible)
  • Layout design for a section on the website or a separate platform (Tilda, Readymag, etc.)