BIOMECHANICS 2026

MULTIMEDIA FESTIVAL

30.01.→17.02.2026

About the Festival ↷

Biomechanics is Russia’s largest festival of electroacoustic and multimedia music. Its program features works created over the past 20 years, many of which have never been performed in Russia or were specially commissioned for the festival. Since its inception, the festival has premiered over 50 works, including audiovisual pieces, compositions with custom-made objects and musical instruments, as well as works utilizing VR technology and live electronics.The festival was founded by composers Nikolai Popov and Alexander Khubeev. It began as a series of their own concerts held at the Conservatory, the Philharmonic, and the Moscow Museum. Later, works by other composers in this field were included in the program. In late 2022, Biomechanics became a laureate of the Moscow Art Prize.In addition to the main concert program, the festival features presentations and discussions of multimedia works, as well as public talks with composers and musicians. Festival organized by the Center for Electroacoustic Music (CEAM) of the Moscow Conservatory.

Concert Schedule ↷

January 30 / 19:00 / Rachmaninoff Hall, Conservatory / Opening Concert “Dark Matter”

February 1 / 20:00 / Artemyev Art Space / Concert and Artist Talk of Alexey Potapov

February 4 / 19:00 / Philharmonic Chamber Hall / Concert “Digital Archaic”

February 11 / 19:00 / Tchaikovsky Concert Hall / Concert “Shift of Times”

February 14 / 20:00 / Artemyev Art Space / Concert and Artist Talk of Sergey Khvorostyanov

February 17 / 19:30 / Rassvet Cultural Center / Closing Concert “Parallel Worlds”

Founders of the Festival ↷

Alexander Khubeev

Alexander Khubeev (b. 1986, Perm) is a composer whose music has been performed in over 30 countries at major festivals including the Venice Biennale, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wien Modern, and Gaudeamus Music Week. He has collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and is a laureate of major international awards, including the Gaudeamus Prize (2015) and the Europäischer Komponistenpreis (2021).He studied composition and electronic music at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is active as a curator and educator, co-founding the reMusik.org Composition Course and serving as artistic director of the International Academy of Young Composers.

Biomechanics makes it possible to explore the present — music that is being created right now. That is why premieres dominate the concert programs. Although the focus is on everything new, this does not imply a rejection of the past; on the contrary, through the lens of works by contemporary composers, tradition and history can be viewed differently, allowing us to discover something unknown and to rethink many things.Each piece in the festival requires an individual approach to its realization, and almost always presents a challenge for the Biomechanics creative team — a challenge that inevitably inspires us to overcome difficulties and keep moving forward.

Nikolai Popov

Biomechanics has developed its own niche: the festival exists at the intersection of music and contemporary art. This creates a special cultural experience for the audience. For listeners of classical concerts, the spatial solutions and live sound transformations may seem unfamiliar. For exhibition-goers, it may be the combination of orchestral and early instruments with electronics, video projections, and light. All these media together form the contemporary musical language of composers, in which the boundaries between the popular and the elite, the old and the new, the real and the virtual no longer exist.

Alexander Khubeev

Partners of the Festival ↷

DOM.RF

Applied Robotics company

Moscow Conservatory TV

Moscow Philharmonic

Rassvet Cultural Center

Media partners of the Festival ↷

Radio "Culture"

Snob

Nozh

Theater Boulevard

Words with Music

Festival Team ↷

Co-founders of Biomechanics
Nikolai Popov
Alexander Khubeev

CEAM Artists Curator
Yulia Migunova

Engineers
Oleg Makarov (Chief engineer)
Ilnur Gabidullin (Chief sound engineer)
Pavel Surkov (Sound engineer)
Ilya Kovalsky (Computer music technician)
Igor Pavlov (Lighting, computer music technician)
Svetlana Zheleznova (Lighting, Robot Programming)
Alexander Bedin (Video, Engineer)
Vasily Yolshin (Engineer)
Dmitry Masaidov (Robot Programming)
Alexander Pettay (Video)

Creative Producer
Irina Sevastyanova

Producer
Yulia Kupriyanova

Coordinators and Managers of Artemyev Art Space
Svetlana Popova
Ekaterina Prokhorova

Technical Director
Kirill Astakhov

PR
Olga Chuchadeeva

Design
Kurt Liedwart

Video Artists
Alexander Plakhin
Alexandra Golikova
Dmitry Masaidov