Klangforum Wien to premiere The Hermes Scroll

Premiering on 22 October 2025 with Klangforum Wien and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher at the Wiener Konzerthaus, James Dillon's 45-minute The Hermes Scroll marks 40 years since the founding of the ensemble.

In the score, Dillon quotes Jean-Pierre Vernant's definition of Hermes as "the figure who marks transition and exchange, whether it be the transition of a soul from life to death (he is portrayed on tombs), Hermes travels always in the middle, marking the boundary to be crossed. Nothing about him is settled, stable, permanent, or restricted or definite. He represents in space and in the human world movement and flow, mutation and transition, contact between foreign elements."

The Hermes Scroll is commissioned by Klangforum Wien with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Stiftung, and dedicated to the children of the Nakba and to the memory of Rohan de Saram, a gentle soul and colleague, and for the musicians of Klangforum Wien.

More information is available on the Klangforum Wien website.