Festival Ensemble(s) Berlin 2026

Festival Ensemble(s) — from the Paris Model to Berlin

Festival Ensemble(s) was founded in Paris as a contemporary music festival with a clear focus on the ensemble-based character of new music. The focus is not on individual soloists or large orchestras, but on the chamber ensemble formations typical of new music, with 8 to 20 players — a setup that is the most important structural basis for contemporary composition in France and Germany. For 2026, the festival is expanding its model to a binational format with a first Berlin edition.

Four Berlin Ensembles on One Stage

The Berlin premiere on September 16, 2026, brings together four of the prominent Berlin new music ensembles:

• Zafraan Ensemble — founded in 2009, focus on current and experimental music, international premieres
• ensemble mosaik — founded in 1997, one of the most established German new music ensembles, regular collaboration with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann and Beat Furrer
• Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik — young Berlin ensemble focusing on sound research and unusual instrumentations
• Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin — KNM, founded in 1988, one of the longest-standing East Berlin new music ensembles, broad repertoire

Premieres — Mondon and Amargianaki

The programmatic highlight is two premieres that connect Paris and Berlin in a joint opening concert:

• A composition by Nicolas Mondon (France) — commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
• A composition by Irini Amargianaki (Greek composer, lives in Berlin) — also commissioned by the foundation

Both works will be performed in Paris and Berlin by mixed German-French ensembles — a deliberate statement by the festival organizers about the European networking of the new music scene across national borders.

silent green Kulturquartier — Wedding as the Venue

The main venue for the Berlin edition is the silent green Kulturquartier at Gerichtstraße 35 in the Wedding district (Mitte borough). silent green moved into the premises of a former crematorium in 2013 — a historic brick building from 1909–1912 with a large domed hall, complemented by contemporary converted studios and an underground concrete bunker. The venue represents Berlin's experimental cultural landscape and is a regular venue for the initiative neue musik berlin.

Funding and Context

The Berlin edition is supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung — the most important private funding institution for contemporary music in the German-speaking world — as well as by the initiative neue musik berlin e.V. (inm), the central Berlin association for new music. The Paris edition runs from September 9 to 13, 2026, at the Théâtre l'Echangeur, and the Berlin edition on September 16 at silent green.