Boulez Ensemble

Founded by Daniel Barenboim, the Boulez Ensemble has its artistic home in the Pierre Boulez Saal at the Barenboim-Said Akademie, where it made its first appearance in June 2015 as part of the topping-out ceremony of the academy building. Its international debut followed in January 2017 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York as part of a memorial concert for Pierre Boulez. Since the opening of the Pierre Boulez Saal in March 2017, the ensemble has been presenting its own concert series, which has included collaborations with artists such as Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, François-Xavier Roth, Jörg Widmann, Emmanuel Pahud, Christiane Karg, and Magdalena Kožená, among many others. As a flexible group not bound by a permanent roster of performers, the Boulez Ensemble brings together musicians primarily drawn from the ranks of the Staatskapelle Berlin and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, as well as faculty and students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie and international guest artists for each individual project. The ensemble’s artistic identity is expressed in its concert programs, which combine works of the Classical and Romantic repertoire with masterpieces of the 20th century and works by contemporary composers, including commissions and world premieres, and juxtapose solo and duo works with compositions for larger ensemble. The result is an exciting combination of styles, in which every piece throws a new light on the rest of the program—facilitating musical discovery and artistic dialogue that pay tribute to the spirit and memory of composer, conductor, and visionary Pierre Boulez.

As of August 2018