Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern (EM) was founded in 1980 and belongs to the world’s leading ensembles for contemporary music, based in Frankfurt/Main since 1985. EM consists of 19 soloists from different nations.

EM’s programs and concert activities include music theatre, dance and video projects, chamber music, ensemble and also orchestra concerts. Tours brought EM to Russia, South America, the USA, Japan, Australia, India and in 2003 for the first time to Korea and Taiwan. It regularly performs at renowned festivals such as the Lincoln Center Festival (New York),  Salzburger Festspiele,  Festival d’Automne (Paris),  Festival Ars Musica (Brussels),  Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Lucerne Festival or Berliner Festspiele.

EM does about 100 concerts a year. In close collaboration with composers, trying to achieve the best possible results, the musicians work each year on about 70 new works, among them more then 20 premieres.

In 2003  Ensemble Modern was declared a “lighthouse” of contemporary culture in Germany and was granted five years of support for two of its projects: Ensemble Modern Orchestra and International Ensemble Modern Academy. Ensemble Modern is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and through the Deutsche Ensemble Akademie by the City of Frankfurt, the State of Hessia, the GEMA Foundation and the GVL.