Classical Music

Ensemble Modern

The Pharos Trust is proud to present the Ensemble Modern in a concert on Friday 19^th May 2006, at 8:30pm, at the PASYDY auditorium in Nicosia.

The ensemble will perform works by Arnold Schonberg and will give the world premiere of a new work by Cypriot composer Evis Sammoutis, especially commissioned by the Trust.

Formed in 1980, the Ensemble Modern is one of the world’s leading ensembles of modern music.

Based in Frankfurt/Main since 1985, the group is made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries: Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Poland and Switzerland. The ensemble’s programmes and concert activities include music theatre, dance and video projects, ensemble and orchestra concerts. Tours have taken the Ensemble Modern to Russia, South America, the USA, Japan, Australia, India and in 2003 to Korea and Taiwan. It regularly performs at renowned festivals such as the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, the Salzburger Festspiele, the Festival d'Automne in Paris, the Festival Ars Musica in Brussels, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, the Lucerne Festival and the Berliner Festspiele.

 The Ensemble Modern does about 100 concerts a year. In close collaboration with the composers, the musicians work each year on about 70 new works, among them more than 20 premieres. The Ensemble has formed firm ties with the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Frankfurt and Berlin Festivals, the Cologne Philarmonie, the Festival d’Automne in Paris and the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Further, the Ensemble has subscription series in Frankfurt, Berlin and Vienna; at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and in cooperation with the Oper Frankfurt, not only opera productions take place regularly but also workshop concerts under the title Happy New Ears. At each event, a master composition of the twentieth century is presented in a public rehearsal, discussed, examined and performed in its entirety at the end of the evening.

 In 2003 the Ensemble Modern was declared a "lighthouse" of contemporary culture in Germany and has, since 2004, been receiving financial support for two of its important projects: Ensemble Modern Orchestra and International Ensemble Modern Academy. The Ensemble Modern Orchestra was founded in 1998 especially for performing works for largely cast works. The orchestra is dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st century and only gathers for specific projects; the core of the group, along with specialists for contemporary music and young musicians from all over the world, come together once or twice a year to form the orchestra. The International Ensemble Modern Academy, founded in the summer of 2003, deals with contemporary music in its many forms in research and teaching, making the ensemble’s musical experience and competence available for a younger generation. The Academy’s work in 2004 included scholarships for musicians from Nordrhein-Westfalen, supported by the Kunststiftung NRW; master courses at the Klangspuren festival in Schwaz, Austria; a summer academy in Greece in co-operation with the Paxos Spring Festival; the International Composers Seminar supported by the Allianz Kulturstiftung in 2005 with Helmut Lachenmann as lecturer.

In cooperation with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe Institute, a concert by the Ensemble Modern on Friday 19 May 2006 at the PASYDY Auditorium in Nicosia.  The evening’s programme comprises works by Arnold Schönberg and a new work by Cypriot composer Evis Sammoutis, especially commissioned by the Pharos Trust which will receive its world premiere by the Ensemble Modern. The Ensemble Modern will also give student concerts in Nicosia as part of the Trust’s Music Education Programme, developed in association with the Ministry of Education and Culture.

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