Nieuw Ensemble
The Nieuw Ensemble (English: New Ensemble) was founded in 1980 in Amsterdam. It has a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as mandolin, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion. Ed Spanjaard has been the principal conductor since 1982. The lack of literature for this group makes it as dependent upon composers, as composers have always been upon musicians. The Nieuw Ensemble has thus set out to build its own repertoire, encouraged by continuous contact with composers from different cultures, countries and generations, and long-term workshops for young composers. Almost five hundred pieces have been written for the ensemble.
Highly successful programmes have been those dedicated to the work of a single composer, such as Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Elliot Carter, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Mauricio Kagel, Ton de Leeuw, György Kurtág, Theo Loevendie and Luigi Nono. It initiated festivals such as Complexity? (1990), Rules & Games (1995), Improvisations (1996), the multi-cultural Festival of Plucked Instruments (1998) and The Refined Ear on microtonality (2003).
Since 1991, programmes featuring new works written especially for the ensemble by Chinese composers such as Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong, Xu Shuya, Chen Qigang and Guo Wenjing have appeared. In 1997, the group toured China with concerts in Shanghai and Beijing.
The Nieuw Ensemble has performed in festivals such as the Venice Biennale, Settembre Musica, Ars Musica in Brussels, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Musica Strasbourg, Holland Festival, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Festival, Agora, Stockholm New Music, the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Lincoln Center Festival and Sadlers Wells in London. The Nieuw Ensemble has released compact discs of Donatoni, Carter, Ferneyhough, Gerhard, Loevendie, Poulenc, Guo Wenjing and Chinese composers, and documentary films about Boulez’ Eclat and five Chinese composers.
The Nieuw Ensemble also participates in the Atlas Ensemble, a unique chamber orchestra uniting thirty musicians from the East, the Near East and Europe.