Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries.
Ensemble Modern tours widely and has released many recordings, performing works by such composers as Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Kurt Weill, Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich, George Benjamin, Friedrich Goldmann, Elliott Sharp, Roberto Carnevale, Frank Zappa, Anthony Braxton, Heiner Goebbels, Harrison Birtwistle, Arnold Schoenberg, Hanspeter Kyburz, Pierre Boulez and many others. The group is highly regarded for its ability to play difficult music with complex rhythms and tempi. In 2003 the group received an ECHO.
Recordings with/of Frank Zappa music:
- The Yellow Shark (recorded 1992, released 1993)
- Everything Is Healing Nicely (recorded 1991, released 1999)
- Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa: Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions (2003)
Famous quotes containing the word modern:
“The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yoghurt.”
—John Mortimer (b. 1923)