Ensemble Modern / Artists / cresc... Biennale for Contemporary Music

Artist

cresc... Schwärmen

Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern is a curious loudspeaker for music of our times: courageous, uncompromising, energetic. An essential, aesthetically polyglot amplifier for trend-setting sound concepts.

It is one of the most well-known, leading current music formations in the world. Founded in 1980 and at home in Frankfurt am Main, 18 soloists currently determine the activities of this democratically organized ensemble. The musicians from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Switzerland and the USA jointly decide on artistic projects, partnerships with other artists and all financial matters. Its aesthetic spectrum includes musical theatre works, dance and multimedia projects, chamber music, ensemble and orchestral concerts. Tours and guest appearances regularly take Ensemble Modern to renowned festivals throughout the world and major national and international performance venues.

Ensemble Modern rehearses an average of 70 new works every year, 20 of which are world premieres, some of them commissioned by the ensemble itself. The works are mostly rehearsed in close contact with their composers. Ensemble Modern’s concept and goal is to achieve the highest possible precision in implementing a composer’s ideas. Its work is characterised by extraordinary and often long-term cooperative ventures with artists such as John Adams, Mark Andre, George Benjamin, Unsuk Chin, Peter Eötvös, Brian Ferneyhough, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Werner Henze, Heinz Holliger, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Cathy Milliken, Brigitta Muntendorf, Olga Neuwirth, Enno Poppe, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Iris ter Schiphorst, Simon Steen-Andersen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Frank Zappa, Hans Zender or Vito Žuraj, as well as outstanding personalities from other artistic genres.

Ensemble Modern has run its own label, Ensemble Modern Media, since 2000. Further audio media, approximately 150 so far, have been released by other established labels. In 2003, the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) was founded to bundle Ensemble Modern’s education activities. Its goal is to convey the numerous artistic movements of our times as well as an open, creative manner of dealing with artistic processes.

In 2025, Ensemble Modern joined the International Ensemble Modern Academy and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in initiating the project ›Sound Port Frankfurt 2030 – Centre for Music and Experimentation‹. At their shared premises, the three institutions are pooling their competencies, energy and experience to create an innovative space for music.

Ensemble Modern is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the City of Frankfurt, the German Ensemble Academy, Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture. hr2-kultur is Ensemble Modern’s cultural affairs partner.

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