Ensemble Alternance is a chamber ensemble of soloists devoted to the performance of contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

. The ensemble was founded in 1983 by the flautist Jean-Luc Menet with intention of "developing, integrating and exploiting the chock of temporal passages as well as cultural and new instrumental rotations in the vast expanse of music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 of our time. And then to confront these with works from the distant and near past."

The ensemble is particularly well known for its performances of Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

, Roberto Carnevale

Roberto Carnevale

Roberto Carnevale is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Biography and career :Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena...

, György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

, George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, Giacinto Scelsi

Giacinto Scelsi

Giacinto Scelsi , Count of Ayala Valva was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French....

, de Pablo, and Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...

. Priority is given to premiering works by composers whom they consider to be true creators, such as the composers Philippe Hersant, Philippe Schoeller, Bruno Mantovani

Bruno Mantovani

Bruno Mantovani is a French composer. He has been awarded first prizes from the Paris Conservatory which he joined in 1993...

, Fabien Levy

Fabien Lévy

-Biography:Lévy was born in Paris, France. After having been a jazz pianist, he studied composition with Gérard Grisey, orchestration with Marc-André Dalbavie and ethnomusicology with Gilles Leothaud at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1996 to 2000. In 2001, he went to Berlin on the DAAD Artist...

, Mark Andre

Mark Andre

Mark Andre is a French composer living in Germany. The Guardian said of him, "though Manchester festival director Alex Poots's claim that Mark Andre is "one of Europe's leading composers" is far-fetched, there is no doubt that Andre's music remains virtually unknown in the UK...

and the like.