The current musical capital for contemporary music?

[Rinaldo]

In Czechia, Prague is absolutely wonderful, but to my knowledge the contemporary music scene is limited there.

Hence my recommendation of Ostrava. During the festival, it truly feels like the contemporary capital of the world.

[Turner]

Hence my recommendation of Ostrava. During the festival, it truly feels like the contemporary capital of the world.

Ostrava also has other interesting nearby cities - Vienna, Budapest and Cracow for instance, and the town of Olomouc, plus smaller, but composer-related places like Brno (Janacek), Zakopane (Szymanowski), Litomysl (Smetana), Policka (Martinu). Surely, the Czech Republic can be heartily recommended as worth a visit for cultural reasons.

Besides the incredible number of sights in Prague, there´s certainly also a lively, international scene there as regards the contemporary visual arts.

[Spineur]

The other important parameter is how much money is there for commissioning new compositions.  On that count , I applaud US congress which just decided in a rare bipartisan agreement to reject Trump desire to scrap the Endowment for the arts federal agency, and in fact slightly increase its budget.

Furthermore, because of the tax break scheme in the US, there is a lot of private money willing to commission new works.  This does not answers the question asked, but stresses the importance endowments have for the arts.

[Rinaldo]

Ostrava also has other interesting nearby cities - Vienna, Budapest and Cracow for instance, and the town of Olomouc, plus smaller, but composer-related places like Brno (Janacek), Zakopane (Szymanowski), Litomysl (Smetana), Policka (Martinu). Surely, the Czech Republic can be heartily recommended as worth a visit for cultural reasons.

Besides the incredible number of sights in Prague, there´s certainly also a lively, international scene there as regards the contemporary visual arts.

AND you can get a beer with me when you're around

The places you've mentioned are definitely worth a visit and I'd add Kutná Hora to the mix. Beautiful little towns, especially Polička and Litomyšl.

[some guy]

Yeah, as festivals go, Ostrava Days is pretty far up the list.

Some of the very coolest things I've heard I've heard in Ostrava.

And that reminded me of another place where at least at festival time, there's a ton of interesting new stuff being done, and that's Wrocław. It's a wildly pretty town, too. But then Crest, in France, is the place to be, too, during the festival. Otherwise...?

In France, there seems to be this idea that you hold your festivals in the tiniest, most out of the way places. It's just a thing that they have. Chalon-sur-Saône would be the biggest of those tiny places, and the least out of the way. I've been to a festival in France in a town so tiny that festival attendees have to stay in houses around the countryside. I walked into "town" every day, 40 minutes each way. Oh, it's fun.

[listener]

A week of new music in Vancouver BC in January 2018   http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/festivals/17NMF/

[pjme]

Indeed, for contemporary music one has to travel.

Soon, in Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve and Mons : Ars musica

https://www.arsmusica.be/fr/events/

http://www.propulsefestival.be/index.php?id=14354&no_cache=1

http://www.bozar.be/nl/activities/128264-bozar-electronic-arts-festival-2017

http://www.champdaction.be/nl/

http://www.spectraensemble.com/

http://www.blindman.be/en/

http://www.festival2021.be/transit/agenda

http://www.festival2021.be/over-ons

Just finished, in Utrecht/ the Netherlands: https://gaudeamus.nl/

Germany:

http://www.hr-sinfonieorchester.de/konzerte/konzerte-17-18/cresc-118.html

http://www.hr-sinfonieorchester.de/konzerte/konzerte-17-18/internationale-ferienkurse-fuer-neue-musik,konzerte-in-hessen-darmstadt-100.html


P.

[arpeggio]

My wife and I have attended a few music festivals that feature contemporary music.

Ojai, California has one of the oldest in the United States.

Saint Louis, Missouri; Santa Fe, New Mexico and Saratoga, New York have summer opera festivals which stage at least one modern or contemporary work.  The year my wife and I attended Santa Fe we saw Berg's Wozzeck and Menotti's The Last Savage.

Staunton, Virginia has a small summer music festival that programs all sorts of music from period instruments to contemporary.  Every year they premier at least two or three new works.

Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony, programs a lot of contemporary music.