The Nieuw Ensemble ( or ; English: New Ensemble) is a Dutch musical ensemble. It was founded in 1980 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. It has a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion.

Ed Spanjaard Eduard Philip Spanjaard (born 22 December 1948), known professionally as Ed Spanjaard, is a Dutch conductor and pianist. Early life Spanjaard was born in 1948 in Haarlem. His father was a psychiatrist and amateur pianist, and his mother a fl ...

has been the principal conductor since 1982. Almost 500 pieces have been written for the ensemble. The ensemble has 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 work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 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 Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

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

Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...

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. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

Ton de Leeuw Antonius Wilhelmus Adrianus de Leeuw (Rotterdam, 16 November 1926 - Paris, 31 May 1996) was a Dutch composer. He occasionally experimented with microtonality. Life and career Taught by Henk Badings, Olivier Messiaen and others, and in his youth i ...

György Kurtág György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian classical composer and pianist. He was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993. Biography György ...

Theo Loevendie Johan Theodorus Loevendie (born 17 September 1930 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch composer and clarinet player. Loevendie studied composition and clarinet at the music academy (Conservatorium) of Amsterdam. Initially he concentrated on jazz music. A ...

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 beg ...

. 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 dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and ...

Qu Xiao-Song Qu Xiao-Song ( 瞿小松; surname Qu, b. Guiyang, Guizhou province, southwest China, September 6, 1952) is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. He is a 1983 graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studi ...

, 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 Guo Wenjing (born 1 February 1956, in Chongqing) is a Chinese composer and educator. Guo Wenjing is a contemporary Chinese composer. Unlike many Chinese composers who have studied and lived in other countries, he has only studied in Beijing. He ...

have appeared. In 1997, the group toured China with concerts in Shanghai and Beijing. The Nieuw Ensemble has performed at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. The Nieuw Ensemble also participates 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