From November 22nd to 30th, 2025, a multinational team of musicians specialized in contemporary music is planning the first edition of what will subsequently be a biennial or trinational festival for microtonal music between the countries of France, Switzerland and Germany, represented by the cities of Bern, Basel, Strasbourg and Freiburg under the title “Trinational MicroFest”.
This festival format is in the tradition of the “MicroFests”, which was founded by the world-famous guitarist John Schneider. So far, “MicroFests” have taken place in Freiburg i. Brsg., Helsinki, London, Prague, Southern California and Sydney among others.

This first edition of the festival is dedicated to the 150th birthday of Mexican composer Julián Carrillo and focuses on the work of this unique pioneer of microtonal music, combining his œuvre with works by his microtonal contemporaries such as Ivan Wyschnegradsky and current microtonal composers from Switzerland, Germany and France.
In addition, musicians and musicologists from Carrillo's country of origin, Mexico and Latin America, are be invited as international partners.

Coming from a humble background in Mexico – a country that at this time had little information about the musical avant-garde abroad – Julián Carrillo became an important, early pioneer of microtonality. His influence can still be felt in current music, although his oeuvre is still underestimated.
His music therefore reveals a special aesthetic approach, a radical and new way of thinking about music, which led him to create a new system of composition and new instruments, which he received international awards for.

The "Trinational MicroFest" seeks the historical contextualization of Carrillo's work and the contemporary development of microtonal music.
The importance of Julián Carrillo as one of the decisive pioneers of microtonal composing from the first half of the 20th century to the present day should be reassessed and, in connection with this nucleus, current, innovative compositional developments will be promoted and microtonal music made accessible to a broader public.

A special feature of the “Trinational MicroFest” is its transnational orientation: It connects four cultural areas, offers a platform to new talents, local and international composers and soloists, renowned ensembles such as the “Zentaur Quartett” (D), “Ensemble Vertebrae” (F), Ensemble “False Relationships and the Extended Endings” (CH), “Tramontana” Trio (CH), “Piano Latino” (F) and the “Orchestre Symphonique”. d’Haguenau” (F) and cooperates with institutions such as the HKB Bern (CH) or the Conservatoire de Strasbourg (F).
This interdisciplinary, multilateral exchange about microtonal composition techniques, historical and newly developed analog and digital instruments and innovative playing modes connects international experts and institutions and thus enables the festival to be established in the long term as a leading European platform for microtonal music.

Partners for the first edition of the festival include, among others, "Quai de Scène" Strasbourg, the "Permanent Representation" of Mexico to the Council of Europe, the "Julián Carrillo Documentation Center" Mexico, the University of Guanajuato Mexico, the Cultural Fund Chile and "Présences Compositrices" (France).

The coordination team of the “Trinational MicroFest” is made up of Anna Paolina Hasslacher (pianist from Mexico/France – Strasbourg), Eleni Ralli (composer from Greece/Switzerland – Basel), Katharina Schmauder (composer and viola player from Germany – Freiburg i. Brsg.) and Matthias Sebastian Krüger (composer and conductor from Germany – Lörrach).