With "Inuksuit," North American composer John Luther Adams creates an expansive soundscape in public space. As part of the Musikverein festival "Beethoven's Walking Stick" and the "night flowers" series curated by Marino Formenti, this expansive work will be performed in the forecourt of the Vienna Musikverein and will be realized under the direction of David Panzl of the mdw Percussion Ensemble together with the flute classes of the Leonard Bernstein Institute for Wind and Percussion Performance and the Institute for Early Music

The open performance venue is particularly crucial in shaping the perception of the work: In the urban setting, a concentrated, spatially tangible soundscape emerges, making the reciprocal relationships between audience, music and environment audible in a special way.

The musicians are spread across the Musikvereinsplatz and in motion; the audience is also invited to move freely and discover individual listening perspectives. This spatial openness is central to the work: As the composer himself describes, “Inuksuit” aims to “expand our awareness of the never-ending music of the world we live in by transforming seemingly empty space into an intensely experiential place.”

The title refers to stone markers erected by the Inuit and other indigenous peoples for navigation in Arctic landscapes. The arrangement of the rhythmic layers in the score mimics the form of these solitary waymarkers, which sometimes resemble the monolithic structures of Stonehenge.