In 2023 the Studio for New Music turns 30. The anniversary year opens with the concert series A Guide to the Ensemble, whose main idea is to introduce listeners to how a contemporary music ensemble is organised and to demonstrate its artistic possibilities. The series runs from January to October 2023.

The title of the series refers to a work by Benjamin Britten written in the early 20th century. But whereas Britten’s idea was to show the unity of the instruments of the classical orchestra, the Studio’s project aims to highlight the individuality of each timbre and to introduce listeners to the special performing techniques that distinguish the language of new and the newest music.

At the beginning of the 20th century the composer Arnold Schoenberg reduced the huge symphony orchestra to a group of 15 musicians. Such small line-ups later became typical of ensembles performing music of the 20th and 21st centuries. With fewer musicians, each member of the ensemble is in full view and has the opportunity to show themselves to the full. Thanks to this feature, such groups came to be called “soloists ensembles”. The Studio for New Music is one of them.

Every musician of the Studio is not only a brilliant ensemble player but also a professional soloist, able to demonstrate the full range of expressive means of their instrument. That is why the concerts of the series feature works for soloists accompanied by the ensemble, highlighting the individuality of the performers.

The project will present programmes with a wide chronological and geographical range. There will be 5 concerts in all: the first on 26 January, the last in October 2023. The first concert features a new piece by Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Das alte Jahr vergangen ist: 2022. Variations on a chorale by J. S. Bach. The series will close with the work A Guide to the Ensemble, commissioned especially for the Studio’s anniversary.