At
the initiative of the foundation Nieuwe MUZIEK, in Middelburg and the
pianist Geoffrey Douglas Madge, the Xenakis Ensemble was founded in 1980,
with the approval of the composer Iannis Xenakis. It is an outstanding
ensemble, specializing in contemporary music, and has received
international acclaim.
It is the ensemble´s objective to present innovating programmes. The
repertoire of the ensemble contains over 40 compositions by Iannis
Xenakis. Apart from this main repertoire, the ensemble plays recent
compositions by young composers, many of which are dedicated to the
ensemble. Iannis Xenakis, Luca Francesconi, Morton Feldman, David del
Puerto, Willem Breuker, Peter-Jan Wagemans, Calliope Tsoupaki and Jan
Kuiper have, among others, composed for the ensemble.
The Xenakis Ensemble collaborates closely with composers, in order to
achieve authoritative interpretations of new compositions. Depending on
each composition, the Xenakis Ensemble performs with a variable group of
highly qualified musicians, based on a regular core. They work frequently
with renowned soloists.
The Xenakis Ensemble has played with great success at festivals throughout
Europe and in Japan. In 1995 the Xenakis Ensemble, gave together with
soloists and the Koor Nieuwe Muziek (Amsterdam) conducted by Huub Kerstens
successful concerts of Xenakis´ compositions Oresteia, Rebonds, Kassandra
and La Déese Athéna. These concerts were broadcasted on Dutch television.
The Xenakis Ensemble has released recordings of compositions by Xenakis,
Francesconi, Del Puerto, Tsoupaki and Breuker. The Xenakis Ensemble is
lead by guest conductors, among others Diego Masson (Paris).
The repertoire of the ensemble contains over forty compositions of Iannis
Xenakis.
The Xenakis Ensemble is conducted by Diego Masson with Mifune Tsuji
as concertmaster
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