Das Neue Ensemble

Das Neue Ensemble was founded by its members under the artistic direction of Stephan Meier in Hannover in 1993 and has since risen to take its rightful place among the leading international contemporary music ensembles. In 2005 it received the ‘Inventio-Preis’, awarded by the Deutscher Musikrat for innovative programme concepts, and from 2008-2011 was selected along with Musik 21 Niedersachsen as a driving force in the German Federal Culture Foundation’s national New Music promotion network. Its ‘Gelben Klänge’ in Sprengel Museum Hannover brought together music and the visual arts, stellar compositions rang out under the open sky in ‘Moonlight Serenade’, and ‘DaDaBus’ traced the life and work of Kurt Schwitters. Its programmes for children captivate new listeners, and since 1996 the ‘Mobile Musik’ subscription concert series has reached an exceptionally wide audience by virtue of its uncompromisingly high tonal-musical standards. Das Neue Ensemble is today in a position to influence and inspire the music of tomorrow from Hannover. Das Neue Ensemble has worked with such eminent composers as Earle Brown, Wolfgang Rihm, Carola Bauckholt, Richard Rijnvos, Johannes Schöllhorn, Mark André and others. Guest soloists and conductors have included Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke and Sarah Maria Sun. The ensemble has taken part in the World New Music Days, performed as part of the German Pavilion’s cultural programme at Expo 2000 and as guest ensemble in Hamburg, Paris, Munich, Cologne, Amsterdam, Riga and Cracow. Commissioned by WDR, NDR, br and ORB public service broadcasting, it has performed concerts for radio and made CD recordings; ‘liu-yi’ was among the ZEIT CDs of the year for 2011. The New York Times recommended the CD “Harrison Birtwistle: Songs 1970 – 2006″ on their Playlist in 2015. Das Neue Ensemble is supported by its friends association, Musik für heute e.V., which also provides rehearsal rooms and office space in the Alte Grammophonfabrik (old gramophone factory).