About

Ensemble Resilience is an eclectic collective of six musicians active in the contemporary field: four performers and two composers specialised in computer music design. We are connected by the common interest in diverse and innovative approaches to musical creation, formats of presentation and new repertoire of the 21st Century. Our formation aims to bring a new concept of sound to the contemporary art music world. The uniqueness of our sound lies in the synergy of three of the most elegant and expressive acoustic instruments—violin, clarinet and piano—and new technologies, such as MPE controllers and original hybrid percussion instruments developed in-house that allow electronic manipulation with the allure of the sounds being created by the musicians’ hands on stage. Juxtaposing the seemingly contrasting elements of the acoustic trio and such new technologies, Ensemble Resilience brings together the sonic worlds of classical and electronic music. At times the acoustic instruments are lightly amplified and merged with the digital sound and at others they diverge. Several speakers surround the audience and move the sound source from a dispersed presence in the ambient to a focused point on the stage. Playing with this unexpected displacement of sounds is the strength of the ensemble’s show, which aims to immerse the audience in a three-dimensional and ever-transforming sound sculpture.

Besides performing music expressly composed for us, the ensemble enjoys a fertile mix of composers and improvisers. Each member has a strong professional presence in both Western Classical and Contemporary Music fields; this translates into a sensitivity which promotes music-making respectful of historical skills and, at the same time, eager to broaden the horizons of new techniques.

Since its foundation in 2019, Resilience has been featured in prestigious festivals such as Gaudeamus (Utrecht), Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ (Amsterdam), Dag in de Branding (The Hague), Club Fluxus Series (Utrecht), International Music Festival of Canary Islands, and has held a virtual artist residency at Stanford University in 2020. It has premiered more than 20 new works by young composers from different backgrounds such as Jasna Velicǩ ović (Serbia), William Dougherty (USA), Utku Asuroglu (Turkey), Francisco Uberto (Argentina), Boris Bezemer (Netherlands), Javier Munoz Bravo (Chile), Julie Zhu (USA/China), and Yang Song (China) among others.

In early 2022, Ensemble Resilience presented a collaboration with London-based composer Rubens Askenar, in the field of ‘improvised composition concerts’. Together with Askenar, we have developed an interface that allows multiple composers to send out notated scores and graphics, all manipulated in real time. The musicians on stage sight-read and interpret the visual input in a continuous feedback between the composers and the players, and intertwining the two roles creatively. In May 2023 the whole ensemble will premiere a new piece by Askenar, performing as group soloists accompanied by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Fabio Panisiello. New collaborations for 2024 include premieres of pieces by German-based composers Michael Maierhof and Ying Wang.