modern art ensemble

Art Ensemble of Chicago

With fantastic younger musicians added to the line-up, the collective creates its usually unusual homage to its founding members, staying true to its roots and yet always with its finger on the pulse. »From Ancient to the Future« was the band’s motto right from the start and it speaks volumes about their musical positioning – not only in contemporary jazz, but when it comes to old musical traditions and new music as well. With fantastic younger musicians added to the line-up, the collective creates its usually unusual homage to its founding members, staying true to its roots and yet always with its finger on the pulse. »From Ancient to the Future« was the band’s motto right from the start and it speaks volumes about their musical positioning – not only in contemporary jazz, but when it comes to old musical traditions and new music as well. The album »The Sixth Decade – from Paris to Paris« was recorded in 2020 at the Parisian festival »Sons d’Hiver«, thus also paying homage to the place where it all began. The Guardian writes about the interplay between the old and new guard: » It’s heartwarming to hear the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s devoted heirs so ready to carry the story on.«

NDR Bigband / Ensemble Modern

The idea of a joint festival between the NDR Bigband and Ensemble Modern was born during a meeting of seven big band and six Ensemble Modern musicians in autumn 2023. In improvisation phases, they explored similarities and differences. New working structures developed. Five new works and the idea of a cooperative festival crystallised in the improvisations. A programme of music that originated here and will be premiered jointly by musicians from both ensembles will conclude the »NDR Bigband meets Ensemble Modern« festival.

Modern Classics

Modern Classics

Modern Classics

Modern Classics

NDR Bigband / Ensemble Modern / Jonathan Stockhammer

NDR has awarded three commissions for compositions: to the US composer and multi-instrumentalist Carla Kihlstedt, to the British trombonist and composer Alex Paxton and to the German composer and music producer Ali N. Askin. All three work across styles between art rock, jazz, contemporary music, improvisation and electronic avant-garde. In this evening’s three world premieres, the NDR Bigband and Ensemble Modern will explore the specific possibilities that arise from their collaboration. Jonathan Stockhammer conducts.

Klassisch modern! Kammerkonzert 5

Musicians of the Komische Oper Berlin present intensive listening experiences in special locations as part of their chamber concerts. From the festive ambience of the Schiller Theater to the monumental vastness of the old hangar at Tempelhof Airport, with new sound worlds at the Kindl site to enchanting experiences in a tent.

Ensemble Modern II Portrait Ruth Crawford Seeger: Ensemble music

In this programme the Ensemble Modern introduces the large-scale ensemble works of the American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger that are full of the delight in experimentation and the courage to pursue untrodden paths that characterised the 1920s. The futher pieces of this portrait concert also shed light on the present day, with the world premiere of a composition by the young American Katherine Balch and Tania León’s Ritmicas from 2019 – demonstrating where Seeger’s ideas continue to have a direct or indirect effect.

»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!