Biography
 The
Ives Ensemble was founded in 1986 by the Dutch pianist John Snijders
and consists of a steady pool of 14 musicians. The ensemble concentrates
on performances of non-conducted 20th century chamber music, in
which, ever since the founding of the ensemble, the music of Charles
Ives, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Stefan Wolpe has been serving
as its base.
Various composers have written especially for the Ives Ensemble,
such as John Cage, Aldo Clementi, Walter Zimmermann, Gerald Barry,
Andrew Culver, Christopher Fox, Fabio Nieder, Ron Ford, Jan van
de Putte, James Rolfe, Ivo van Emmerik, Allison Cameron, Richard
Rijnvos, Richard Ayres, Micha Hamel, Magnus Robb and Michel van
der Aa.
The Ives Ensemble performed during several international festivals,
such as the Gaudeamus Music Week, the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik,
the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the Biennale Zagreb,
the Aterforum Festival Ferrara, Evenings of New Music (Bratislava),
Klang-Aktionen '95 (München), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,
Festival d'Automne (Paris), Festival Spaziomusica (Cagliari) and
Holland Festival. It also presented programmes in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Bratislava, Prague,
Gütersloh, Köln, Essen and Berlin.
Milestones:
- John Cage Anarchic Harmony Festival (Frankfurt, Sept. 1992)
- For Philip Guston by Morton Feldman (Febr. 1993) a one-movement
piece for flute, percussion and piano lasting 4 1/2 hours
- Festival Pontino di Musica (Sermoneta, Italy, June 1995) concerts
celebrating Aldo Clementi's seventieth birthday
- the music theatre production Cahier du Soir by Luc Ferrari (Oct.
1995)
- Morton Feldman retrospective by the Ives Ensemble (Jan./Febr.
1997) with the first Dutch spoken performance of Words and Music
by Samuel Beckett/Morton Feldman
- music theatre production Quelli che restano by Jan van de Putte
(Febr. 1999)
- first integral performance of the cycle Block Beuys by Richard
Rijnvos (May 2000)
- fmsbwtözäu - twelve Dada-acts (October 2000)
- Morton Feldman's 5 hour String Quartet (II) (Oct./Nov. 2001)
- ‘Infinite Things’, Music theatre by Gerald Barry and Salvatore Sciarrino (March 2002)
- ‘John Cage: PURE CHANCE ’, a festival in ten thunderclaps (14 t/m 16 February 2003)
- Cornelius Cardew - The Great Learning, first Dutch complete performance of this seven hour piece for choir, organ and ensemble, visualized by Wim T. Schippers (April 2006)
- Untrodden Paths - Ives Ensemble 20 years, with new works by Christopher Fox & Fabio Nieder, work by
Luc Ferrari and a festive speech with (April 2007)
- The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit - first Dutch performance of the opera by Gerald Barry in the
Zaterdagmatinee, Concertgebouw Amsterdam (2 June 2007)
- Morton Feldman Festival - a four day festival around the work of American composer Morton Feldman in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam (February 2008)
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