With a programme spanning almost an entire century of music history, the IEMA Ensemble 2025/26 delivers its calling card at the Main Auditorium of the Frankfurt Academy of Music and Performing Arts on December 13. The concert weaves a fascinating thread from Nikos Skalkottas’ ›Octet‹, composed in 1931 using twelve-tone technique, via the dark ›Greeting Music‹ (1978) by Claude Vivier, all the way to Fausto Romitelli’s ›Amok Koma‹ (2001), which is based on the eponymous album by the German punk rock band Abwärts (1980). The programme is rounded out by Jörg Widmann’s entertaining ›empty space‹ (2020) as well as David Bird’s ›fm life‹ (2024), which plays with the sonic world of frequency modulation.

Claude Vivier: Greeting Music (1978)
David Bird: fm life (2024)
Nikos Skalkottas: Octet - für Flöte, Oboe, Klarinette, Fagott und Streicherquartett (1931)

Jörg Widmann: empty space (2020)
Fausto Romitelli: Amok Koma - für neun Instrumente und Elektronik (2001)

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Portrait of Helmut Lachenmann
on his 90th birthday

The motto of the workshop concerts – "Happy New Ears" – is borrowed from a New Year's wish from John Cage. Cage, along with Luigi Nono, whose student he was, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, is one of the important influences that shaped Helmut Lachenmann. On November 27, he turns 90; an occasion to honor one of the most important composers of the 20th and 21st centuries with a portrait concert. For almost 70 years, with his sophisticated sound world and his consistently socially challenging concept of art, he has stood for broadening horizons on many levels. "Art is not an expression of what shapes the times, but of what it lacks," says Lachenmann. And, with reference to Beethoven, he formulates: "The refraction of magical, familiar experience through the spiritually charged, creative will." This also describes what he is concerned with.

Since his beginnings, Lachenmann has developed an alternative world of sound. He explored how sound emerges from noise. In doing so, he follows the principle that every acoustic event can be shaped into music. Inspired by the "musique concrète" that emerged in the 1950s, which used electronic means to capture everyday sounds and transform them into music, he developed what he called "musique concrète instrumentale." Lachenmann does not work with electronic means, but rather with the classical instruments of Western music, occasionally supplementing them with instruments from other cultures. This has resulted in an expansion of playing techniques, especially for wind instruments and strings, but also percussion, for which Lachenmann has developed his own notation that has now become a kind of canon. His opera Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (1997), which was also performed at the Frankfurt Opera in 2015, can be considered an epoch-making work.

The composition Mouvement (- before the rigidity) was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1983/84 and performed by the Ensemble Modern almost simultaneously with its premiere. In a commentary on the work, the composer wrote: "A music of dead movements, quasi final twitches, whose pseudo-activity ... itself indicates the inner rigidity that precedes the outer one." But the "virtuosity of crossed-out virtuosity," as Lachenmann's friend and fellow composer Wolfgang Rihm called it, seemed almost to undo the critical impulse. Lachenmann: "With all due respect, I felt this piece, of all pieces, to be a relapse into the all too familiar musical style and actually wanted to withdraw it." The Ensemble Modern's interpretation prevented this. In the meantime, it has been performed over a hundred times worldwide. Reason enough to approach the work again over 40 years later.

Ensemble Modern

Enno Poppe conductor, moderation

Mouvement – vor der Erstarrung (1983/84) - Helmut Lachenmann

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Newly formed percussion trio with Keith Ng, Yifan Du and Tim Waizenegger will present an exciting and diverse program, from fun arrangement of Gershwin to dreamy - like music from takemitsu!

Pulse Percussion Collective

Keith Ng percussion

Yifan Du percussion

Tim Waizenegger percussion

Program to be determined

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In his seventeen-part masterpiece , Path of Miracles, English composer Joby Talbot creates a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Each movement of this impressive choral work captures the essence of the journey: the diverse landscapes, the physical challenges, and the spiritual insights the pilgrims gain along the way.

In Paradisum

Solitary - David Lang

Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Cappella Amsterdam

Daniel Reuss conductor

Keith Ng percussion

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In his seventeen-part masterpiece , Path of Miracles, English composer Joby Talbot creates a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Each movement of this impressive choral work captures the essence of the journey: the diverse landscapes, the physical challenges, and the spiritual insights the pilgrims gain along the way.

Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Cappella Amsterdam

Krista Audere conductor

Keith Ng percussion

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In his seventeen-part masterpiece , Path of Miracles, English composer Joby Talbot creates a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Each movement of this impressive choral work captures the essence of the journey: the diverse landscapes, the physical challenges, and the spiritual insights the pilgrims gain along the way.

Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Cappella Amsterdam

Krista Audere conductor

Keith Ng percussion

Tickets

In his seventeen-part masterpiece , Path of Miracles, English composer Joby Talbot creates a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Each movement of this impressive choral work captures the essence of the journey: the diverse landscapes, the physical challenges, and the spiritual insights the pilgrims gain along the way.

Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Cappella Amsterdam

Krista Audere conductor

Keith Ng percussion

Tickets

In his seventeen-part masterpiece , Path of Miracles, English composer Joby Talbot creates a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Each movement of this impressive choral work captures the essence of the journey: the diverse landscapes, the physical challenges, and the spiritual insights the pilgrims gain along the way.

Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Cappella Amsterdam

Krista Audere conductor

Keith Ng percussion

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For me, percussion has always been more than just a rhythmic engine — it’s a medium for crafting a sound world unlike any other, one that can move hearts even through the softest resonance.

A ritual of sound

A centerpiece of this program is Dust (2018) by acclaimed British composer Rebecca Saunders — a 30-minute work for multi-percussion setup that redefines how we perceive sound. From Timpani ASMR to resonating microtonal aluminum bars and to self - made metal instrument, this piece explores sonic textures that are rarely heard, imbuing them with new emotional weight. The result is a haunting, intimate journey into an otherworldly soundscape.

This recital is more than a performance — it's a reflection. Through solo and group improvisation, virtuosic marimba pieces, and complex setups, I explore my artistic identity, question the fundamentals of music-making, and challenge the framework of traditional conservatory training. It’s a culmination of my thoughts, experiences, and growth over the past two years.

I’d be truly honored to share this moment with you.

Programme:

Last (1997) – Philippe Manoury (1952 - ) 

Marimbology (1993) – Gunther Schuller (1925 – 2015) 

Group Improvisation 

Please (2025) – Antek Cholewiński (1998 - ) *world premier 

Dust (2018) – Rebecca Saunders (1967 - )

Free Entrance

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Amswave Trio is going to open the prestigious Grachten Festival this year, together with Nymphéas Trombone Quartet.

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Together with Jason Chen, the 2022 TROMP prize winners will play in a short but special concert during the Jong Talent Route where you will be guided by a festival supervisor to visit 3 others concerts played by prize winners in other major competitions.

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Marcel Wheatley - Marimba/ Vibraphone

Aarón Ormaza Vera - Piano

Silence Greets the Dawn - Ross Harris

Argoru VII - Alvin Singleton

Piano Sonata - Gideon Klein (Adpt. Klein Duo)

Marimba Concerto - Kevin Puts

King of Denmark - Morton Feldman

A lunchtime concert perfect for a stress getaway with music by Morton Feldman

Why Patterns? - Morton Feldman

Keith Ng, Glockenspiel

Seen Tung Lee, Piano

Francisco Ramírez, Flute

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