About Ensemble Ascolta

The Ensemble ascolta from Stuttgart was founded in 2003 by seven musicians with the aim of providing, adequately rehearsing and performing excellent new scores. Meanwhile, about 200 new works have been composed for ascolta. The ensemble has been invited to perform at many German and European festivals of new music, such as the festivals at Lucerne, Huddersfield and Witten, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Donaueschingen Music Festival, the Berlin festival Märzmusik, at Eclat and Ultraschall, the Salzburg Biennial and Wien Modern, and has embarked on tours of Europe, America and the Far East. In addition, they regularly participate in cooperations with Musik der Jahrhunderte and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart.

The repertoire of the ensemble ranges from classical modern pieces via theatre concepts of the fluxus generation to projects where new music and rock music meet, such as the project with late experimental pieces by Frank Zappa. In association with the TV channels ZDF/Arte, they launched a project which combines artistic silent films from the 1920s and 1930s with new compositions and which has constantly been developed further and performed throughout the world ever since. More than 30 compositions have been created for timeless film experiments by Hans Richter and Oskar Fischinger, or for classic silent films like “Entr’acte” by René Clair.

Together with Simon Steen-Andersen, they created his multimedia theatre of sound “Inszenierte Nacht – Lesung nach den Buchstaben der Klassiker” in 2003. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, they are currently developing another multimedia programme, entitled “Gebrauchsanweisungen” [Instructions for use], which is given form by eight composers and video artists together with the musicians of ascolta according to an elaborate and playful system.
www.ascolta.de