Art Ensemble of Chicago

modern art ensemble

“Yol - The Path” by Zeynep Gedizlioglu describes the path of a sound, but also the artistic path of the Berlin composer of Turkish descent. Born in Moscow, Alexandra Karastyaneva Hermetin grew up in Sofia and now lives in Vienna. Her piece “Polynj” (Wermut) cleverly surrounds the solo tone of the cello with the timbres of the rest of the ensemble - a work in a reduced, impressive tonal language, whose motifs seem to move around a mysterious core. Michael Quell's “energeia aphanés” is also on the trail of a secret: it deals with “black energy”, which plays a central role in theories about the universe. Invisible and not directly detectable, “energeia aphanés” is the force that holds the structures of the universe together. We see the trace of its presence, but not itself. Next on the program is the world premiere of Makiko Nishikaze's “fantasie-fuge”, which is based on Bach's unfinished Fantasia and Fugue for Organ BWV 562. Nishikaze first orchestrated it for ensemble, then wrote it to completion and finally transformed it entirely into her own sound cosmos. The final piece is Helmut Zapf's composition “Heimat”, in which he asks about the location of himself and his musical world and provides a possible answer.

Jeffrey Bruinsma - Art of the In-Between

It goes without saying that The Concertgebouw and jazz & pop music make a perfect combination. The stages of both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall have borne witness to nearly the whole of jazz history. Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald have both performed here, as have Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. Famous pop stars and bands that have graced the stage of the Main Hall include Frank Zappa, the Doors and the Eagles, to name but a few. Legendary concerts, in the present as well as the past.

THE ART OF Lise Davidsen

Celebrated soprano and Wagnerian star performs a rare gala concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. The concert, titled THE ART OF, focuses on showcasing the vocal artistry of exceptional international opera talents. Hamburg State Opera revives a long tradition with THE ART OF, previously featuring Luciano Pavarotti and other opera stars.

»The Art of Being Human«

Human existence is a contradictory business. »The Art of Being Human« explores the complex impacts of this trite fact. The Grammy award-winning viola da gamba ensemble Phantasm thereby ensures a musical performance at the very highest level. Its members put their instrumental mastery into operation for an evening in which old sounds and contemporary dance blend into an inseparable unit and jointly try to fathom the darkest recesses of the human condition. Choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and allround visual artist Alexander Polzin create a multidisciplinary framework in which music and movement come together, connect with each other, hook into each other, collide and cross fertilise. Under the leadership of Laurence Dreyfus, Phantasm plays music of English masters, such as John Dowland, Henry Purcell and William Byrd. At the same time, the musicians interact in the most diverse way with the dancers, who move as partners and yet adversaries around sculptures by the Berlin artist Alexander Polzin. The result is a staged concert evening, which makes full use of the potential of this currently popular format!

Dutch Jazz Heritage: Art Blakey

It goes without saying that The Concertgebouw and jazz & pop music make a perfect combination. The stages of both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall have borne witness to nearly the whole of jazz history. Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald have both performed here, as have Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. Famous pop stars and bands that have graced the stage of the Main Hall include Frank Zappa, the Doors and the Eagles, to name but a few. Legendary concerts, in the present as well as the past.

Nouruz Ensemble

Nouruz is the New Year’s and spring festival in the Persian and Kurdish cultures. The Nouruz Ensemble led by Iraqi Bassem Hawar also understands »spring« as a departure – towards exciting encounters between the musicians and their second home in Germany, and with other musical styles. In this concert, however, they focus entirely on their roots. A musical journey takes the ensemble from Basra in southern Iraq to Mosul in the north. They perform pieces from the southern marshlands and poetry set to music by Iraqi Assyrians and Arameans from northern Iraq, as well as classical Arabic maqam music from the area around Baghdad and all over the country. Bassem Hawar is a virtuoso on the Iraqi joza violin, which he built and developed himself; he founded the Nouruz Ensemble as a quartet in 2018. He combines a wide variety of musical styles with virtuosity, and is a tireless ambassador for the music of his homeland. Hawar is joined by the Iranian Kiomars Musayyebi on the delicate dulcimer santur and Saad Mahmoud Jawad, one of Iraq’s most renowned oud players. Other members of Nouruz are Persian percussionist Reza Samani, who has long had his roots in the Cologne area, and the Iraqi Rageed William on Armenia’s national instrument, the melancholy-sounding shawm duduk and the smoky-sounding flute nai. The guest vocalist is Baghdad-born Rita William, who works at the interface between Christian and Arabic singing.

Ensemble NIGHT

The landscape of Nepal stretches from tropical plains to the icy, sublime peaks of the Himalayas. Its music possesses a similarly exciting diversity. The Ensemble NIGHT brings out these hidden treasures located between rural folklore, Indian echoes and spiritual colouring. The quintet was formed in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in 2006 by singer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Kunwar. After an initial phase as a metal band, the musicians decided to explore and preserve the cultural cosmos of the country’s more than 100 ethnic groups and languages. Accompanied by intensive field research trips to remote villages, they have developed a repertoire in which old songs and almost lost instruments come back into play. These include the paluwa flute made from fresh leaves, the three-stringed sarangi covered with sheepskin, and the Tamang stringed instrument known as the tungna. The ensemble also writes new songs based on its deep understanding of traditional music. This »new school folk« tells of spirituality as well as depicting the hardships of life in the countryside. The ensemble also documents its work on film – giving Nepal an opportunity to pass on its exciting heritage to future generations and to the world at large.

Bach's The Art of the Fugue

Four actors, four musicians, one unparalleled musical genius. From the theatrical imagination of Bill Barclay, a completely new journey into Bach’s astonishing The Art of Fugue.

'Jangi' Folklore Ensemble