It is a great pleasure for us that the festival “Open Systems” is once again opened here at the Studio- Theatre of the City of Bochum Municipal Theatre.

Since 1997, the City of Bochum, in alliance with other cities of the Ruhr Area - Dortmund, Essen and Herne - has offered a platform to the festival “Open Systems”, which made it possible to become firmly established as an important festival in the Ruhr Area. By now, the cross- section-festival “Open Systems” has become an important cultural element of the New Music Scene not only in the Ruhr Area. Moreover, the City of Bochum is keen to support new or contemporary music. During the last years for example the Bochum Symphonic Orchestra has promoted a project called “Composer in Residence” involving musicians like Heiner Goebbels, Sofia Gubaidulina and John Corigliano. The cooperation of Open Systems and “electronic art - composer’s club meets improvise” is another example of the occupation with New Music.

Another interesting aspect is the work of the Heinrich-Böll-Comprehensive-School, which with its music classes and the orchestra “De Ereprise” from Holland designs compositions, sets them to music and publishes them on CD and which is taking part in the large-scale school project “City, Country, River – New Sounds from the Emscher Region” within the scope of “open systems 2005”. This year, we are especially proud of “Open Systems” presenting the world famous Arditti Quartet, as well as the Luxembourg Sinfonietta with world premières and first performances in Germany of Belgium, Dutch and German composers.

We wish this year’s Festival, organized by various cities, a lot of success and the public response, which this diverse and well-cast program and the high-quality-artists deserve.

Dr. Hans-Georg Küppers
Head of the cultural department of the city of Bochum