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Ensemble MidtVest

ensemble
2002
© Caroline Bittencourt

Ensemble MidtVest understands classical music as a living tradition, rooted in the past, but as relevant today as it has been for centuries, and therefore strive to make the most beautiful music of the past 500 years accessible to the 21st century audience. In order to achieve this goal, the ensemble is not only presenting classical chamber music repertoire, but also free improvisation, as well as baroque and early classical works.

Founded in 2002, Ensemble MidtVest consists of a string quartet, a wind quintet and a ­pianist. Performing more than 100 concerts a year both in Denmark and abroad, the ensemble has been invited to such venues as the Carnegie Hall, New York, Kings’ Place, London, and to festivals as the Musikfestspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rio International ­Chamber Music Week, ULTIMA Festival, Oslo, the Vale of Glamorgan Festival; and the Mantova ­Chamber Music Festival.

The ensemble has collaborated with renowned musicians, as Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Martin Fröst, Charles Neidich and Johannes Peitz (clarinet), Torleif Thedéen and Christoph Richter (violoncello), Alexander Lonquich, Christina Bjørkøe and Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), Per Arne Glorvigen and Paolo Russo (bandoneon), Christina Landshamer (soprano), Bo Skovhus (baritone), the Danish String Quartet and the Alcan String Quartet.

Ensemble MidtVest has recorded more than twenty CDs, its recording of piano quartets by Mozart and Brahms was awarded with the P2 prize of the DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), and the 10 Preludes · Six Pieces release of works by Hans Abrahamsen was nominated in the year of 2018.

From 2014 to 2019, the highly-acclaimed bassoon player Sergio Azzolini was associated as an artistic advisor to the Ensemble MidtVest, focusing particularly on baroque and early classical music. World-renowned jazz pianist Carsten Dahl was artistic advisor between 2007 and 2017; with him the ensemble has created its own sound and musical language through classical improvisation, expanding the performers’ musical intuition and individuality.

The ensemble resides at HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, an extraordinary venue designed by the American architect Steven Holl, where both rehearsal rooms and a chamber music hall can be found.

  • Per Nørgård

    Whirl's World

  • Hans Abrahamsen

    10 Preludes, Six Pieces, Transcriptions of Satie & Nielsen

  • Peter Bruun

    The Green Groves

  • Hans Abrahamsen

    Works for Wind Quintet

  • Jørgen Jersild

    Chamber Music

  • Vagn Holmboe

    Chamber Music (II)

  • Vagn Holmboe

    Chamber Music (I)

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