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SEPTEMBER 29TH - OCTOBER 8TH 2000 |
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organised by  (ISCM Luxembourg Section) Information: info@worldmusicdays.com |
Ensemble Modern
(Photo: Dominik Buschardt)
Twenty years ago a group of young musicians founded the first, and for a long time the only
professional ensemble of soloists specializing in New Music: Ensemble Modern. Since 1985,
Ensemble Modern has made its home in Frankfurt. In 1987 the current legal formation of a
"society with civil rights" was chosen, an arrangement which ensures the unconventional and
self-determining nature of the group. All decisions, whether artistic or financial, are made
jointly by the musicians. It follows naturally from this that the Ensemble has no regular
conductor or music director. Nevertheless, over the years a circle of regularly invited
conductors has developed, among them Peter Eötvös, Heinz Holliger, John Adams, Hans
Zender and Jonathan Nott. The close collaboration between Ensemble Modern and leading
composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang
Rihm, Louis Andriessen and George Benjamin also extends into the rehearsal periods, and
thus guarantees particular performance authenticity.
Currently comprising 21 members, the Ensemble has set new standards with its outstanding
interpretations of contemporary music, and now enjoys an enviable reputation worldwide.
Each year, Ensemble Modern performs approximately 100 concerts in the most well-known
European cities. As well as having subscription series in Berlin, in the Alte Oper Frankfurt,
the Vienna Konzerthaus and in the Cologne Philharmonie, the Ensemble is also a regular
guest at important European music festivals, for example the Festival d'Automne in Paris, the
Holland Festival in Amsterdam and the Edinburgh International Festival. The Ensemble has
also toured Russia, Japan, Australia and both North and South America.
Ensemble Modern's unusual projects are continually opening new vistas in the concert
business. The repertoire is made up of modern classics, works by young composers, Jazz,
Avantgarde, and dance, music theatre and video projects. To this end the Ensemble has
worked together with varied artists like Frank Zappa (the Yellow Shark), Ornette Coleman,
Anthony Braxton and Bill Viola (Edgard Varèse: Déserts) and inspired and charmed public
and critics alike with Heiner Goebbels' Eislermaterial and Schwarz auf Weiss (Black on
White). To celebrate Kurt Weill's 100th anniversary, the Ensemble recently recorded the
Threepenny opera with the conductor and chansonnier H. K. Gruber. 30 further CDs testify to
the stylistic breadth of Ensemble Modern Frankfurt.
The group is supported by the "Deutsche Ensemble Akademie" through the City of Frankfurt,
the State of Hessia, the German States' Cultural Foundation with government funds for
cultural and media concerns, the German Performing rights Society (GVL) and the GEMA
Foundation.