Ensemble Dissonanzen

Ensemble Dissonanzen

Ensemble Dissonanzen is a chamber ensemble formed in Naples in 1993 as part of the concert series Associazione Dissonanzen. Its primary goal is to spread music of the 20th century, a repertoire which had been, until then, chronically absent from the concert halls in Naples. Starting in 2002, without stopping its activity on the local scene, the Ensemble has progressively shaped itself as a means of realization and export of new projects.

For each event, a number of musicians, from Naples or elsewhere, joins the ensemble, as well as special guests – recently, Michel Godard, the Markus Stockhausen/Tara Bouman Duo, Jim Pugliese, Cristina Zavalloni, Stefano Scodanibbio, Alvin Curran, Marc Ribot.

Dissonanzen has performed  works by Berio, Bussotti, Cage, Carter, Castiglioni, Crumb, Dallapiccola, De Falla, Henze, Ives, Kagel, Maderna, Pennisi, Petrassi, Rzewski, Schönberg, Stockhausen, and Walton; has been hosted by leading Italian festivals and concert societies, like Time Zones Bari, Ravello International Festival, Ravenna Festival, Traiettorie Festival Parma (Teatro Farnese), Associazione Scarlatti Naples, Giovine Orchestra Genovese.

Multimedia specialists, Dissonanzen realized projects of movie postscoring: Man Ray Movies (from music by Satie), Das Kabinet des Doktor Caligari and Assunta Spina (presented at Anthology Film Archives, New York and Italian Film Festival of Annecy, France), as well as the original musical project entitled Musica Porosa (in collaboration the Markus Stockhausen/Tara Bouman duo, with screenings of volcano-theme photos by Antonio Biasiucci).

Following performances of the Neapolitan silent film Assunta Spina and the Scelsi Morning project in collaboration with Marc Ribot (at Tonic, NYC, February 2006), Dissonanzen was invited to New York for a concert-tribute to Lucio Fontana (as part of the Venice/New York exhibition, October 2006) at the Guggenheim Museum. Dissonanzen made its debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Scelsi Morning project to great critical acclaim in August 2007.

Dissonanzen has recently released the CD Dallapiccola/Petrassi Musica da camera, first of a new collaboration series with Mode Records.