Ensemble Musikfabrik

The character of a music collective, which regards innovative, unconventional, contemporary music to be its real area of work, such as the Ensemble Musikfabrik, depends on the personalities of its members. In addition to the virtuoso mastery of their instrument the Musikfabrik musicians contribute team spirit, curiosity and the courage to explore new and unfamiliar terrain. Thanks to public funding, in recent years each of its 15 members has had the freedom to choose a composer for a collaborative work. From these very individual partnerships, tailor-made compositions have been developed that incorporate and reflected the individual artistic personalities of the soloists in a unique way.

Some of these composer-musician partnerships seem almost self-evident as expressions of long-term co-operations, such as Enno Poppe’s furious percussion solo, “Enno” written for Dirk Rothbrust. Others were the starting point for something completely new, or the fulfilment of a long-term wish, such as the virtuoso trumpet solo “Merlin” for Marco Blaauw by John Zorn. Some new works have been added for the concert at Musikfest Berlin. The pieces “Mini-Opera” for horn solo by the composer (and horn player) Tansy Davies, written for Christine Chapman, as well as a new work by Enno Poppe for the violist Axel Porath, will be premiered.

The 15 soloists not only convey a diverse spectrum of today’s compositional work. They also generate a musical self-portrait of the entire ensemble with each individual solo in this concert.

Georges Aperghis [*1945]
Damespiel for bass clarinet solo [2011]*

Liza Lim [*1966]
The Green Lion Eats the Sun
for double-bell euphonium solo [2014]*

Johannes Schöllhorn [*1962]
grisaille for cello solo [2013]*

Vykintas Baltakas [*1972]
Pasaka – A Fairy Tale
for piano solo [1995-1997]

Liza Lim [*1966]
Axis Mundi for bassoon solo [2012/13]*

John Zorn [*1953]
Merlin for trumpet solo [2016]*

F i r s t   i n t e r v a l  s t a r t s   1 1 : 5 0

Rebecca Saunders [*1967]
fury for double bass solo [2005]

Enno Poppe [*1969]
Haare for violin solo [2013/14]*

Rebecca Saunders [*1967]
shadow for piano solo [2013/14]

Enno Poppe [*1969]
Fell for percussion solo [2016]*

Rebecca Saunders [*1967]
Bite for flute solo [2016]*

S e c o n d   i n t e r v a l  s t a r t s   1 3 : 1 5

George Lewis [*1952]
Oraculum for trombone solo [2016]* GP

Toshio Hosokawa [*1955]
Three Essays for oboe solo [2014]*

Tansy Davies [*1973]
Song Horn for singing horn player [2017]* WP

Enno Poppe [*1969]
Filz solo for viola solo [2017]** WP

*composition commissions of Ensemble Musikfabrik, funded by the Ministery for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of the Land North-Rhine Westphalia.

**composition commission by Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Kunststiftung NRW

Soloists of the Ensemble Musikfabrik
Helen Bledsoe, flute
Peter Veale, oboe
Carl Rosman, clarinet
Alban Wesly, bassoon

Christine Chapman, horn
Marco Blaauw, trumpet
Bruce Collings, trombone
Melvyn Poore, tuba

Benjamin Kobler, piano
Ulrich Löffler, piano
Dirk Rothbrust, percussion

Hannah Weirich, violin
Axel Porath, viola
Dirk Wietheger, cello
Florentin Ginot, double bass