34
such as Berio, Boulez, Carter, Donatoni, Ferney-
hough, Kagel, De Leeuw, Kurtág, Loevendie and
Nono. The Ensemble has initiated festivals such
as Complexity (1990); Rules & Games (1995);
Improvisations (1996); the Multi-Cultural Festival
of Plucked Instruments (1998); The Refined Ear
(2003), on microtonality; Inspired Time (2004),
on rhythm; Open Music (2005-2006) on computer
aided composition, and Orientations (2006-2007)
on western and non-western instruments.
In 1998 the Nieuw Ensemble and its artistic direc-
tor, Joël Bons, were awarded the Prince Bernhard
Fund Music Prize for their “markedly lively and
adventurous programming, which can be described
as ground-breaking, both in the literal and figura-
tive senses of the word.” Since 1991, programmes
featuring new works written especially for the en-
semble by Chinese composers such as Tan Dun,
Qu Xiaosong, Xu Shuya, Chen Qigang and Guo
Wenjing have attracted wide attention. In 1997,
2008 and 2010 the group performed concerts in
Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing.
TheNieuwEnsemble nowenjoys a firminternational
standing – the Ensemble has performed in festivals
such as the Venice Biennale, Settembre Musica, Ars
Musica inBrussels, DonaueschingerMusiktage,Mu-
sica Strasbourg, Holland Festival, Warsaw Autumn,
Huddersfield Festival, Agora, Stockholm New Mu-
sic, the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Lincoln Center
Festival and Sadler’sWells in London.
The Ensemble has released compact discs of Do-
natoni, Carter, Ferneyhough, Gerhard, Loevendie,
Poulenc, Honegger, Guo Wenjing, Kagel, Tsoupa-
ki and Chinese composers, and has produced docu-
mentary films about Boulez Eclat and about five
Chinese composers. The Nieuw Ensemble also
participates in theAtlas Ensemble, a unique cham-
ber orchestra uniting thirty brilliant musicians from
the East, the Near East and Europe.
Programme
Tasos StylianouWorld Premiere
Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951)
String Trio, Op.
45
(1946)
Musheng ChenWorld Premiere
Interval
AntonWebern (1883 – 1951)
String Trio, Op. 20
(1927)
Jonathan Harvey (b. 1939)
Death of Light/Light of
Death
for oboe, harp, violin, viola, cello (1998)
EnsembleAleph
Dominique Clément / clarinet
Sylvie Drouin / piano
Monica Jordan / vocals
Christopher Roy / cello
Created in 1983, EnsembleAleph is a collective of
associated soloists, a set of performers and com-
posers, a formation of variable geometry in search
of new possibilities in relationships between sound
and text, movement and music.
With nearly 250 creations, EnsembleAleph has es-
tablished itself as a major relay of musical innova-
tion. A laboratory dedicated to creation, Ensemble
Aleph invites eligible young composers to benefit
from its experience in a spirit of sharing and ex-
change, particularly through the International Fo-
rum for Young Composers, a project selected in
2000 by the European Commission Program “Cul-
ture 2000”, with 61 composers from 26 countries
(the 7
th
Forum will take place in 2014).
Ensemble Aleph enriches its practice by working
with jugglers, VJ’s, choreographers, directors, writ-
ers and actors. For almost 30 years, the Ensemble
has been developing collective projects, pooling
efforts and sharing practices across more than 900
concerts. In 2008, Ensemble Aleph created LIEU,
Ensemble Aleph