Another Music Festival: Politics

2026: DISPLACED: three concerts of chamber music shaped by exile and migration

Curated by violinist Roman Mints, this year’s Another Music Festival celebrates the legacy of composers who lived and created in exile — some forced, some chosen — and how separation from their homeland reshaped their art.

From historical giants such as Chopin, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Enescu to neglected voices like Ukrainian composer Theodore Akimenko, the festival traces a journey through music shaped by migration.

Across three evenings of chamber music, international artists perform works by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Enescu and others, alongside new works and UK premieres by contemporary composers who continue the conversation between displacement and creativity.

Each programme offers a different perspective on exile — from nostalgia and memory to renewal and transformation.

Behind the Music

Paul Hindemith left Germany under growing political pressure after his music was branded “degenerate,” finding refuge first in Switzerland and later in the United States, where he rebuilt his career as a composer and teacher.

Sergei Rachmaninov escaped revolutionary Russia and spent his remaining years haunted by a lost homeland, his later works steeped in the nostalgia of memory. Igor Stravinsky turned exile into reinvention, reshaping the sound of modern music from Paris to Hollywood.

George Enescu balanced two identities — Romanian and French — his late works coloured by the longing for home. Béla Bartók left Hungary during the Second World War, gravely ill yet composing his luminous Concerto for Orchestra in New York, a testament to creative resilience. Andrzej Panufnik destroyed much of his music during the Warsaw Uprising, later reconstructing it in exile after defecting to England, choosing artistic freedom over compromise.

Among the displaced were Ukrainian composers Theodore Akimenko, who left Ukraine after the Bolshevik Revolution and found refuge in France, and Stefania Turkewich, the first female Ukrainian symphonist, who fled westward from Soviet occupation — her manuscripts scattered across Europe as she journeyed through Vienna, Rome and London.

Tania León, born in Havana, found freedom in New York, turning migration itself into rhythm. Bechara El-Khoury, marked by Lebanon’s civil war, and Osvaldo Golijov, a Jewish Argentinian raised among exiles, each transformed displacement into vision — the sound of survival.

Across continents and generations, these artists reveal exile as both loss and renewal — proof that even uprooted, the creative spirit finds new soil in which to grow.

In the Words of Musicologist Mariia Romanets

“Migration and human mobility create a fabric of contrasts – rich with new horizons, meanings, and dialogues, yet shadowed by the profound struggle of belonging. to step into another society is to learn its rhythms, embrace its customs and still carry within an irrepressible ache for the lost homeland. this “in-betweenness” holds the soul between what is already gone and what is still out of reach – no longer fully at home, not yet fully embraced – a space of longing where identity is tested, reshaped, and renewed. Separated from their homelands, some émigré musicians, especially composers, remained spiritual exiles, struggling to bridge the cultural gap between their past and present. But history equally speaks of others who, though strangers at first, found belonging and left a lasting mark on the cultural landscape of their adopted nations.” —Mariia Romanets, musicologist