Ensemble intercontemporain
Pierre Boulez Cycle
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Date
- 19:00 / Cancelled 19:00 / Sold out Saturday, 19:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationOnline priority-booking is closed.
In-person ticket collection is available two hours prior to the event (available seats: 200).
In-person ticket collection is available two hours prior to the event (available seats: 200).
- Conductor
- Flute
- Clarinet
- Piano
- Mezzo-Soprano
- Electronics
- Sound diffusion
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Ensemble intercontemporain
In 1976, Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain with the support of Michel Guy (who was Minister of Culture at the time) and the collaboration of Nicholas Snowman.
The Ensemble’s 31 soloists share a passion for 20th-21st century music. They are employed on permanent contracts, enabling them to fulfil the major aims of the Ensemble: performance, creation and education for young musicians and the general public. Under the artistic direction of French conductor Pierre Bleuse, the musicians work in close collaboration with composers, exploring instrumental techniques and developing projects that interweave music, dance, theater, film, video and visual arts.
In collaboration with IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), the Ensemble intercontemporain is also active in the field of synthetic sound generation. New pieces are commissioned and performed on a regular basis.
The Ensemble is renowned for its strong emphasis on music education: concerts for kids, creative workshops for students, training programs for future performers, conductors, composers, etc.
Resident of the Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble performs and records in France and abroad, taking part in major festivals worldwide.
The Ensemble is financed by the Ministry of Culture and receives additional support from the Paris City Council. In 2022, it was awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize.
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Jean Deroyer
Conductor
The French conductor Jean Deroyer was born in 1979. At the age of fifteen he enrolled at the Paris Conservatory where he was awarded five first prizes. Jean Deroyer has been invited to conduct the following orchestras: NHK Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien, SWR Orchester Baden-Baden, RSO Orchester Stuttgart, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester, Israël Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre National de Lille, de Lyon, Ensemble Intercontemporain and Klangforum Wien in halls like Wien Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, salle Pleyel, Luzern Hall, Tokyo Opera City and Lincoln Center in New-York.
Over several years Deroyer has built a close and privileged relationship with Ensemble Intercontemporain that he conducted several times. Besides he has recorded numerous CDs with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo or Orchestre National d’Île-de-France for such labels as EMI Music and Naïve or for Radio-France. Since 2008, he his the musical director of the Court-circuit Ensemble.
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Emmanuelle Ophèle
Flute
Emmanuelle Ophèle studied the flute in the classes of Jean-Pierre Chambon, Patrick Gallois and Ida Ribera. At the age of seventeen, she pursued her training with Michel Debost at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), where she received a First Prize for flute. She joined the Ensemble intercontemporain when she was 20 years old. Keenly interested in developing the repertoire and in new technology-based areas of expression, she soon began to play a part in new works using the most recent technology: La Partition du ciel et de l’enfer for Midi flute and Midi piano by Philippe Manoury (recorded at Adès) and ...explosante fixe... for Midi flute, two flutes and instrumental ensemble by Pierre Boulez (recorded with Deutsche Grammophon). She also featured in the recording of Marteau sans maître (Deutsche Grammophon, 2005, conducted by the composer).
Awarded the Certificate of Aptitude for Artistic Education, she teaches at the Montreuil-sous-Bois Conservatoire and is invited to many different academies, including Aix-en-Provence, Lucerne, Suc et Sentenac, and Val d’Isère. An important part of her teaching is the exploration of a broad repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, jazz and improvisation.
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Martin Adámek
Clarinet
Despite his young age, Slovakian clarinetist Martin Adámek has already developed a rich career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. Appointed solo clarinet at the Ensemble intercontemporain at the age of 19, he is already recognized as one of the most promising clarinetists of his generation.
Winner of the first prize at both the Leoš Janáček International Competition (Czech Republic, 2014) and the Clarinetto Concorso Carlino (Italy, 2013), Mr. Adámek has distinguished himself as a champion of contemporary classical music. He has given numerous world premieres, most notably Beat Furrer’s Clarinet Concerto under the baton of Matthias Pintscher at the 2019 Donaueschinger Musiktage Festival. Also in 2019, Martin gave two Slovak premieres: Magnus Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (2019) and Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Clarinet Concerto “Peregrinus ecstaticus” with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (2019), both under the baton of Zsolt Nagy.
As an orchestral musician, Martin has performed under conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Jonathan Nott, Peter Eötvös, and Thierry Fischer. While principal clarinetist of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, he performed at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.
In 2022, Mr. Adámek joined Trio Catch, an ensemble that has proven themselves to be ambassadors of contemporary music, as well as fine interpreters of the classical repertoire.
He is also a co-founding member of the Alma Mahler Kammerorchester, which specializes in symphonic reductions of 19th and 20th centuries’ works, including original repertoire for chamber orchestra and chamber music of various styles and periods.
A guest artist at numerous international festivals, Martin has performed at the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, Festival Messiaen, Young Euro Classics, and Viva Musica. With the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Martin has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Berliner Festspiele, Biennale Boulez, Music Biennale Zagreb, and Musica Nova Helsinki to name a few. Invited as a jury member to the 2019 Leoš Janáček International Competition, he is the 2019 recipient of the Ľudovít Rajter Prize, given to Slovak artists of exceptional promise. As part of the prize, he recorded and released his first solo album, Unity, in 2020.
He also appears on the 2024 album DLW: Extended beats (Bastille music) and on Trio Catch’s newest album Gassenhauer (2024).Mr. Adámek received his education from the Conservatory of Bratislava (Slovakia) and the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno (Czech Republic), studying under Peter Drlička, Milan Polák, and Vít Spilka. At several masterclasses, he has had the opportunity to study with Charles Neidich, Yehuda Gilad, Harri Mäki, Philippe Berrod and others.
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Dimitri Vassilakis
Piano
Dimitri Vassilakis began his musical studies in Athens, where he was born in 1967, continuing at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, in particular under Gérard Frémy, where he won First Prize for piano (unanimously) for chamber music and for accompaniment. He also studied with Monique Deschaussées and György Sebok. Since 1992 he has been a soloist with the Ensemble intercontemporain. Other composers he has worked with include Iannis Xenakis, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and György Kurtág. His recording Le Scorpion with the Percussions de Strasbourg won the Charles Cros Academy Grand Prix du Disque in the category “Best Contemporary Music Recording 2004”. His festival appearances include Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, the Florence Maggio Musicale, the Warsaw Autumn, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and the London Proms. He has performed in concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonic (under Sir Simon Rattle), New York Carnegie Hall, London Royal Festival Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Buenos Aires Teatro Colón. He has performed as a soloist with several orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Katowice Philharmonic, Tirana Opera and Radio Orchestra and Suisse-Romande Orchestra.
His repertoire runs from Bach to emerging contemporary composers including the complete piano works by Pierre Boulez and Iannis Xenakis. His albums include, among others, the Goldberg Variations and excerpts from The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach (with the label Quantum), etudes by György Ligeti and Fabiàn Panisello (Neos) and Boulez's first complete works for piano (Cybele). His recording of Incises (for which he performed the world premiere) appears in the boxed set of the complete works of Boulez published by DGG.
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Ema Nikolovska
Mezzo-Soprano
Born in North Macedonia, Mezzo-Soprano Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto where she studied violin at The Glenn Gould School, before studying voice with Helga Tucker. She received her Master’s in Voice at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where she also completed the Opera Course. Ema was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019-2022. In 2019 she won first prize at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize (Kathleen Ferrier Awards), and was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions. In 2022 she became a recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust award.
In the 2024/25 season, Ema revives the lead role of the Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This, at Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg, having made her debut in the role at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre last season. Following her tremendous role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier at the Deutsche Staatosper Berlin in 2023, an alumnus of their Opera Studio, she returns this season for Stéfano Rome et Juliette. Previous roles at the theatre include Lucile in Henze’s Cubana, Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, Schäferin Jenůfa, Giovanna Rigoletto and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Elsewhere she made her debut at the Canadian Opera Company as Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and her prestigious concerts included Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano, Vivier’s Wo du Bist du Licht with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Barbara Hannigan, Scriabin's Symphony No. 1 with The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Munich Philharmonic and Mendelssohn’s Elijah on tour with Pygmalion both with Raphaël Pichon.
Previous concerts include Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Roberto González-Monjas at the Salzburg Festival, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and Mozart’s Requiem with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Marc Minkowski, Jaquet de la Guerre’s Céphale et Procris on tour with Reinoud van Mechelen and Nocte Temporis in Versailles, Namur and Brussels, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Munchener Rundfunkorchester and Howard Arman, Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Adrian Partington, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Musikkollegium Winterthur and Barbara Hannigan, and Ravel’s Chansons Madecasses with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and George Benjamin.
An internationally celebrated recitalist, in the 23/24 season her partners included Martha Argerich, Andras Shiff, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and guitarist, Sean Shibe in concerts throughout Europe and her debut recital tour of North America, including her debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall. At Wigmore Hall, where she is a regular favourite, she was an artist in residence, performing five diverse programmes across the season. Elsewhere, Ema has performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and at the Schubertíada Vilabertran, Verbier, Heidelberg, Gstaad, Aldeburgh, Leeds Lieder and Toronto Summer Music Festivals, collaborating with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Andras Schiff, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, Kunal Lahiry amongst others.
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Yann Brecy
Yann Brecy is a French computer music designer, who graduated in Fine arts and sound engineering. His creations blend both artistic and technical practices. Through installations, kinetic sculptures, and sound creations, he explores sound, its uses, and its relation with the listener. He works as a sound designer at Ircam.
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Luca Bagnoli
Luca Bagnoli studied Electronic music at the Conservatory of Firenze (Italy) and Sound engineering at the National Film Academy in Bologna (Italy). After several work experiences, he became a sound engineer and composer at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe (Germany). He moved to Paris in 2012 to join INA-GRM, before entering Ircam as a sound engineer. His main interests are related to live sound engineering, audio recording, modular synthesis and sound re-recording mixing for cinema.
Pierre Boulez
Sonatine, for flute and piano
Incises, for piano
Dialogue de l’ombre double, for clarinet solo and electronics
— Intermission of 20 min. —Pierre Boulez
Le Marteau sans maître, for alto voice and six instruments
Total approximate duration: 110 min.
Formed by Pierre Boulez in 1976, the Ensemble intercontemporain was created to dedicate itself to music written in the 20th century, later broadening its focus to modern-day music. In 2025, the centenary of its founder’s birth, the collective will be performing a tribute tour to Boulez, playing some of his most important works. Among them is the First Piano Sonata, imagined as two contrasting overlapping movements, a perfect example of a method of composition that Boulez called “organised delirium”.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.
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