Das Neue Ensemble was founded in 1993 by its members around artistic director Stephan Meier. Since then, the Hanover-based ensemble has earned a place among internationally successful contemporary music ensembles. In 2005, they received the Inventio Prize of the German Music Council for innovative programming; in 2015, The New York Times, BBC Radio 3, The Sunday Times and Metropolitan Opera News recommended its CD "Harrison Birtwistle: Songs 1970 - 2006." But they have also won a wide regular audience with cross-genre productions such as "Gelbe Klänge" at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the "DaDaBus" in the footsteps of Kurt Schwitters, with Stockhausen's STERNKLANG in the open air, and programs for children.

The Neue Ensemble has worked closely with composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, Wolfgang Rihm, Helmut Lachenmann, Carola Bauckholt, George Lewis, Johannes Schöllhorn and Mark André. Guest soloists and conductors have included Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke, Stefan Asbury, and Sarah Maria Sun.

The New Ensemble has performed at the NDR Hamburg, musica viva of the BR Munich, Philharmonie and WDR Cologne, at the Goethe Institute in Riga, Nizhny-Novgorod and Munich, in Amsterdam, Krakow, Paris and Beijing. It was a participant in the World Music Days, the cultural program of the German Pavilion at Expo 2000; it has recorded and released productions for radio and CD on behalf of WDR, NDR, br and ORB. The double anniversary of the last German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was celebrated by Das Neue Ensemble together with Ensemble ConTempo Beijing, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Hessischer Rundfunk and the Leibniz Society in 2016 in the International Composition Competition "Leibniz's Harmonies"; patrons were the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Chinese Ambassador in Berlin, Shi Mingde.

For several years, the ensemble has regularly commissioned works, most recently to Sir Harrison Birtwistle, whose "Songs from the Holy Forest" was premiered in 2017/18 in the presence of the composer at the Kölner Philharmonie and at NDR Hannover.

The Neue Ensemble is supported by its sponsoring association Musik für heute e.V., which has also rented its rehearsal and office space in the Alte Grammophonfabrik and is finding new audiences with introductory formats and house concerts. The honorary president of the association is Helmut Lachenmann.

Musicians:

Daniel Agi

— Flute

Udo Grimm

— Clarinet

Christof Hahn

— Piano

Stephan Meier

— Percussion, Direction

Josje ter Haar

— Violin

Jessica Kuhn
— Violoncello

Released CDs:

— Nicolas Tzorzis: Les Mystères

(2019, toccata records, mit Unterstützung von Musiques Françaises d’Aujourdhui)

— Harrison Birtwistle – Songs 1970-2006

(2015, Toccata-Records, Naxos, Kooperation NDR)

— Johannes Schöllhorn: Liu-Yi
(2008, æon, Kooperation WDR)

— Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans Maître, Leitung: Peter Rundel
(2000, Kooperation NDR)

— Dansce instrumental mit Werken von Kyburz, Hosokawa, Vivier und Schleiermacher
(2000)

— Gelbe Klänge mit Mitschnitten aus dem Sprengel Museum Hannover
(1999)

Press Reviews:

»Vor allem das Spiel der Streicher in ‘Pulse Shadows‘ (1996) verdiente das Prädikat ‚Extraklasse‘: Das hatte den nötigen Drive, verriet außergewöhnlich viel Sinn für Klangraffinesse und bestach durch feinfühlige Interaktion.«

— Cellesche Zeitung, 28.10.2014: »Anspruchsvolles und anstrengendes Programm«

»Das Neue Ensemble wird 20 und begeht das beim dortigen Festival Musik 21. Der Gründer Stephan Meier erklärt, was Musik aktuell macht.«

— TAZ, 16.08.2013: »Musik muss provozieren«

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Musicians:

Daniel Agi

— Flute

Udo Grimm

— Clarinet

Christof Hahn

— Piano

Stephan Meier

— Percussion, Direction

Josje ter Haar

— Violin

Jessica Kuhn
— Violoncello