The Nieuw Ensemble (; English: New Ensemble) was a Dutch musical ensemble. Having worked in the field of new music for almost four decades, it had to came to a halt at the end of 2019. The ensemble was founded in 1980 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and it had a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion. Ed Spanjaard has been the principal conductor since 1982. Almost 1000 pieces have been written for the ensemble. The Nieuw Ensemble had dedicated programmes to the works of a single composer, such as

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...

, Franco Donatoni,

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer and academic teacher. Life and career Early life and education Mauricio Raúl Kagel was born on 24 December 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an ...

, Ton de Leeuw,

György Kurtág György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. According to ''Grove Music Online'', with a style that draws on " Bartók, Webern and, to a lesser extent, Stravinsky, his work is c ...

, Theo Loevendie and

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono bega ...

. Since 1991, programmes featuring new works written especially for the ensemble by Chinese composers such as

Tan Dun Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a pairing which has shaped much of his life and mu ...

, Qu Xiao-Song, Xu Shuya,

Chen Qigang Qigang Chen (; ; born 8 August 1951) is a Chinese-French composer who has lived in France since 1984 and obtained French citizenship in 1992. Biography Coming from an intellectual family, Qigang Chen was born in Shanghai and began his musical s ...

and Guo Wenjing had appeared. In 1997, the group toured China with concerts in Shanghai and Beijing. In 1998 the Nieuw Ensemble and Joël Bons were awarded the prestigious Prince Bernhard Fund Music Prize for the ‘markedly lively and adventurous programming that could be described as crossing borders, both in the literal and figurative sense'. The Nieuw Ensemble has performed at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. The Nieuw Ensemble also participated in the Atlas Ensemble, a chamber orchestra with musicians from a number of different countries.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Dutch musical groups 1980 establishments in the Netherlands Contemporary music organizations