Current edition - MBZ 2025
The 33rd edition of the Music Biennale Zagreb, our most important contemporary music festival, will take place from April 5 to 12, 2025, in Zagreb. Themed Broken Relationships, this year's edition explores the latest trends in music, ranging from contemporary and experimental forms to interdisciplinary collaborations in the fields of visual arts, electronics, and theater. Under the artistic direction of composers Tomislav Oliver, Ivan Skender, and Davor Vincze, MBZ 33 offers a rich program reflecting global processes of connection and rupture, with a special focus on artistic interpretations of broken relationships.
This year, the festival will bring together over 230 performers from more than 30 countries across 20 Zagreb cultural venues. Over 20 programs will be presented, including 28 world premieres of new compositions, featuring works by both Croatian and international composers. The program will include numerous collaborations with esteemed institutions such as the Croatian National Theatre, Croatian RadioTelevision, and MSU Zagreb, while independent cultural organizations like ZEZ, KONTEJNER, MaMa, Močvara, and Peti Kupe will host late-night underground and club performances.
Drawing inspiration from the Museum of Broken Relationships, the artistic directors have framed this edition's theme around the idea of broken relationships, exploring how the dimensions of isolation and protectionism in today's global environment are reflected in musical art. Through the MBZ program, broken relationships become a lens through which we examine our relationship to music, community, and cultural spaces. Artists and organizers aim to reconsider the ways in which musical relationships with the audience are disrupted and redefined, exploring how the past, present, and future coexist in the context of contemporary music. This thematic framework has also guided the selection of works, which will offer a rich array of innovations and reflections on the world around us.