Guest Appearance

From 2025 to 2027, Ensemble Modern has a three-year residency at the TIMF Academy – the Academy of the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea. While the Ensemble travels to the southernmost part of Korea, home to the ›UNESCO Creative City of Music‹, every autumn to support young Korean instrumentalists, conductors and composers in their development together with members of the TIMF Ensemble, a one-week residency at the Festival itself will take place in March 2026. It includes two programmes to be performed at the Tongyeong Concert Hall, with some of the featured pieces also including Korean musicians. Works by two composers of the young generation will have their world premieres: one is by the Korean composer Younje Cho, who works with electroacoustic elements, and the other by the Chinese composer Yiqing Zhu, whose music combines modern, traditional, electronic and vocal elements. Furthermore, the programmes include works by Sir George Benjamin, who is Composer in Residence at the festival, and ›City Life‹ by Steve Reich. Using samplers, Reich’s work integrates urban noises – for example brake noises, car horns or public announcements – thereby creating a vibrant sonic panorama of a metropolis. Ensemble Modern will also perform ›Graffiti‹ by Unsuk Chin, the artistic director of the Academy and Festival. Toby Thatcher will conduct; the soloists are Jennifer France (soprano) and Fleur Barron (alto).