BOULEZ 100

Ensemble intercontemporain / IRCAM

2024/25 DTzM Große Stücke Musik
Photo: Philippe Gontier

In 1976, Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain with the support of the then French Minister of Culture Michel Guy, which is now considered one of the most important international ensembles for contemporary music. The ensemble, which has its home at the Philharmonie de Paris and is funded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the City of Paris, regularly performs new works and commissions new compositions. The ensemble’s 31 soloists work closely with the commissioned composers, exploring new techniques and developing projects that combine music, dance, theater, film, video and visual arts. In collaboration with the IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), which was also founded by Boulez, the ensemble is also active in the field of synthetic sound production.

After Ensemble intercontemporain opens the 2025 anniversary year for Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday at the Paris Philharmonie and continues with concerts in Tokyo, the next stop on the program is the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik with a selection of solo works by Pierre Boulez for piano, clarinet or violin. The works cover a large part of Boulez’s oeuvre and lead us into his unique world of musical imagination, in which the composition is constantly renewing itself without ever losing any of its rigor and sensuality. One of these works is “Dialogue de l’ombre double”, a major work in the contemporary clarinet repertoire – a theatrical and musical piece in which solo clarinet playing alternates with the spatial transmission of electro-acoustic transitions. The musician sits in the dark, moves and reappears unexpectedly in a different place.

The BOULEZ 100 anniversary concert is not only the first guest performance by Ensemble intercontemporain in Dresden, but also another exciting collaboration between IRCAM and the Dresden Days of Contemporary Music following the successful joint world premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s “Poetica” in 2024.

Program:
„Anthèmes 2“ for Soloviolin and Electronic
„Douze Notations“ for Piano
„Incises“ for Piano
„Dialogue de l’ombre double“ for Soloclarinet and Live-Electronic

Duration: ca. 1 h 10 min
Little dialog
19:00 Audience discussion with HELLERAU resident artist ShaSha Chen and others

*The BOULEZ 100 anniversary concert is a cooperation between Ensemble intercontemporain, IRCAM and the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik.

More about DTzM

Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain in 1976 with the support of Culture Minister Michel Guy and Nicholas Snowman. The 31 permanent soloists are dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries and work closely with composers under the artistic direction of Pierre Bleuse. In addition to concerts, they explore new instrumental techniques and develop interdisciplinary projects with dance, theater, film and visual arts. In collaboration with IRCAM, the ensemble is also involved in synthetic sound production and regularly commissions new works. Another focus is music education through children’s concerts, workshops and educational programs. The ensemble is based at the Philharmonie de Paris, performs at festivals worldwide and receives funding from the French Ministry of Culture and the City of Paris. In 2022, it was awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize.

Website

IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), under the direction of Frank Madlener, is one of the world’s largest research centers for music and acoustics. With over 160 employees, it combines artistic creativity with scientific and technological innovation. Its three main areas – creation, research and communication – are reflected in concerts, international productions and the annual ManiFeste festival. Founded in 1977 by Pierre Boulez, IRCAM is associated with the Centre Pompidou and is supported by the French Ministry of Culture. The STMS research laboratory also benefits from collaboration with CNRS and the Sorbonne. In 2020, IRCAM founded the spin-off Ircam Amplify to market its audio technologies globally.

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Jérôme Comte studied clarinet in Geneva and Paris with renowned teachers such as Thomas Friedli, Pascal Moragues and Michel Arrignon. He won several international competitions and received scholarships from the Meyer Foundation and the Fondation d’entreprise Banque Populaire. In 2003, he was the first young musician to be sponsored by the Académie Charles Cros, which awarded him the Grand Prix du Disque in 2017 for his recording of Brahms’ and Berg’s works with Denis Pascal. As a chamber musician, he has performed worldwide with renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble intercontemporain, which he joined in 2005. He has worked with Pierre Boulez and Matthias Pintscher and performed works by Carter, Boulez, Chin and Henze. In 2018, he took on the world premiere of Philippe Hurel’s clarinet concerto in Cottbus, followed by four new solo works in the Écho project in Paris in 2023. In addition to his concert activities, he teaches at the CNSM in Paris and gives masterclasses worldwide.

Diégo Tosi joined the Ensemble intercontemporain as a violinist in 2006 and performs worldwide as a soloist with a varied repertoire. He has recorded numerous CDs on the “Solstice” label, including works by Ravel, Scelsi, Berio and Boulez, which have won several awards. He has also recorded the complete works of Pablo de Sarasate and received the Del Duca Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Enesco Prize of the SACEM. In 2021 he participated in Matthias Pintscher’s monographic double album, followed in 2023 by a recording of Ligeti’s trio for violin, horn and piano. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Jean Lenert and continued his training in Bloomington (USA). As a winner of major competitions such as Paganini (Genoa) and Rodrigo (Madrid), he has won numerous international awards. He directed the Tautavel Festival from 2010 to 2020 and has been teaching at the Conservatoire de Gennevilliers since 2022.

Dimitri Vassilakis, born in Athens in 1967, studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Gérard Frémy, where he won first prize for piano, chamber music and accompaniment. He has been a soloist with the Ensemble intercontemporain since 1992 and has worked with composers such as Xenakis, Berio, Stockhausen and Kurtág. His recording Le Scorpion with the Percussions de Strasbourg won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros in 2004. He has performed at festivals such as Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne and the London Proms and has played in renowned concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic and the Suisse-Romande. His repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary music, including the complete works for piano by Boulez and Xenakis. His albums include Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Ligeti and Panisello Etudes as well as Boulez’ Incises, which he premiered.