Ensemble Modern

Together with the SWR Vokalensemble, the Ensemble Modern is bringing works by renowned composers to the stage that deal with contemporary issues in very different ways. ‘HWANGTO / Yellow Earth’, based on poems by Kim Chiha by South Korean-German composer Younghi PaghPaan, deals with the loss of identity as a result of displacement and rural exodus. ‘Possible Cities’ by Norwegian composer Eivind Buene invites you to listen to soundscapes in which stories appear and disappear out of nowhere. In Johannes Maria Staud's a cappella piece ‘Der Gesang der Weiden’, based on a text by Durs Grünbein, the unease at the increasing hate rhetoric in our society can be felt in every single note. A sound experiment of a completely different kind is the composition ‘Oddity Effect’, based on a text by Paul Griffiths, by British composer Christian Mason, whose new work is based on the swarming behaviour of fish and fuses vocal and instrumental sounds.