Ensemble Modern
Since its founding in 1980, the Ensemble Modern (EM) has been one of the leading ensembles for New Music. It brings together some 20 soloists from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, the USA and Switzerland, whose origins form the cultural background of the formation. Based in Frankfurt am Main, the ensemble is known for its unique way of working and grassroots organisation. Artistic projects, partnerships and financial matters are decided and supported jointly. Its distinctive programmatic range includes music theater, dance and video projects, chamber music, ensemble and orchestra concerts. Tours and guest performances take the Ensemble Modern to renowned festivals and outstanding venues around the world.
In close collaboration with the composers, the Ensemble Modern performs an average of 70 new works each year, including around 20 world premieres, with the aim of achieving the greatest possible authenticity. Over the years, this has resulted in extraordinary and often long-standing collaborations with composers such as John Adams, Mark Andre, George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Brian Ferneyhough, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Olga Neuwirth, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders, Simon Steen-Andersen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Frank Zappa or Vito Žuraj as well as outstanding artists from other artistic fields.
In addition to its diverse activities on the podium, the Ensemble Modern also presents the results of its work on recordings. Almost 50 of the more than 150 productions have been released on the Ensemble Modern Medien label, which was initiated in 1999. In 2003, the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) was founded as an educational institution of the Ensemble Modern with the aim of carrying on the musical heritage and promoting new ways of contemporary artistic creation.
As of June 2021
© Wonge Bergmann
Past Events
Ensemble Modern, Neuer Kammerchor Berlin
Catherine Larsen-Maguire, Leitung
Cathy Milliken: “Night Shift – The Rehearsal” (WP)
Afro-Modernism
Afro-Modernism in Contemporary Music
A concert by Ensemble Modern with works by Hannah Kendall, Jessie Cox, Daniel Kidane, Alvin Singleton, Andile Khumalo and Tania León
Visiting Ensembles / In honour of Louis Andriessen II
Ensemble Modern
Brad Lubman, conductor
Works by Edgard Varèse, Olga Neuwirth and Louis Andriessen
Kollektives Musizieren, kollektive Instrumente
As part of the project “Re-inventing Smetak”
The Cave
Multimedia oratorio in three parts by Steve Reich & Beryl Korot
Ensemble Modern
Visiting Ensemble
Ensemble Modern / Beat Furrer
Works by Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez and Beat Furrer
Berlin-baseed Orchestras