Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (KNM Berlin)

The need to interact with the music of the immediate present was the impulse for the foundation of the KNM Berlin at the end of the 1980s by students of the Hanns Eisler College of Music in Berlin.

In addition to the traditional concert form, the chamber ensemble that comprises 11 members—an ensemble that also collaborates with guest musicians and conductors from all over the world for larger projects—devotes itself to experimental and scene music, as well as music theater. In this process, the interaction with the composer and his/her work goes beyond the mere musical interpretation of the piece: it provides a dialogue of different temporal, spatial, and cultural contexts and provides retrospective impulses for the work of the composers.

Making use of the “open” music concepts of the 1960s, the KNM consciously integrates these in its exciting interrelationship with current music-making trends. The constant extension of its own musical possibilities—by means, for example, of the addition of electronic media—is also an important aspect for the musicians of the KNM Berlin.

Projects in the areas of installation and performance continue to be a fixed part of the work.

KNM Ganesha was founded in 2002. The traditional wind-instrument trio within this chamber music formation was supplemented by the tuba in order to experiment with this unusual combination. In 2004 the second chamber music formation was founded: the KNM Quartet, which performs as a string quartet.

Now the KNM Berlin is a leading ensemble for contemporary music, with its own concert series at the Academy of Arts, concerts at home and abroad, opera productions, and guest performances at the most important European festivals and concerts venues, including those in Belgrade, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dresden, Leipzig, London, Marseille, Moscow, Munich, Paris, St. Petersburg, Rome, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Turin, and Vienna.