Thallein Ensemble is a new 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:...

 student group set up in the early 1990s with graduates from the Birmingham Conservatoire. Principal founders were Alistair Zaldua (composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

/conductor), Mark Gasser

Mark Gasser

-Career:Gasser is a fellow of the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music. He studied with John Humphreys at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music...

 (pianist), John Webb

John Webb (composer)

-Biography:He was educated in Essex where he started playing the piano and viola. He began to compose at 14, and two years later attended Colchester Institute. Here he studied piano with Frank Wibaut and composition with John Joubert at the Birmingham Conservatoire....

  (composer) and John Meadows (clarinet). The name 'Thallein' — an ancient Greek word meaning "to sprout" or "to shoot forth" — was taken from the composition of the same name by Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

. Within new music circles (in the UK and Scandinavia in particular) they made a name for themselves in performances of Varèse

Edgard Varèse

Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....

, Xenakis, British 'complex'

New Complexity

In music, the New Complexity is a term dating from the 1980s, principally applied to composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered interplay of evolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within every dimension of the musical material" ....

 music (Michael Finnissy

Michael Finnissy

Michael Finnissy is an English composer and pianist. His music is characterised by the range of extremes often found in his work; opposing binary structures are found commonly, often seen as juxtaposing textures, register and tempi...

, James Dillon

James Dillon (composer)

James Dillon, born October 29, 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland, is a Scottish composer often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. Dillon studied art and design, linguistics, piano, acoustics, Indian rhythm, mathematics and computer music, but is self-taught in composition.Honors include...

, Mike Vaughan, Richard Barrett

Richard Barrett (composer)

Richard Barrett is a British composer.-Biography:Barrett began to study music seriously only after graduating in genetics and microbiology at University College London in 1980 . From then until 1983 he took private lessons with Peter Wiegold...

) as well as modernist Italian composers (Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...

, Aldo Clementi

Aldo Clementi

-Life:Aldo Clementi was born in Catania, Italy. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946. His studies in composition began in 1941, and his teachers included Alfredo Sangiorgi and Goffredo Petrassi. After receiving his diploma in 1954, he attended the Darmstadt summer courses from 1955 to 1962...

 and Luigi Dallapiccola

Luigi Dallapiccola

Luigi Dallapiccola was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions.-Biography:Dallapiccola was born at Pisino d'Istria , to Italian parents....

. Varying in size from 8 to 130 players, the ensemble has, to date, given over 60 world premières

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

 across Europe.

The ensemble once gave an open-air performance of 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...

's Concerto for Prepared Piano

Prepared piano

A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers....

 (with Mark Gasser as soloist) during the signing of the Maastricht Treaty

Maastricht Treaty

The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty...

, in front of international heads of state. Due to the "sheer volume" and "disruption to the traffic and security" surrounding the signing of the Treaty, the performance was stopped.

External links

• http://www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk/profiles/lamberto-coccioli (Current organiser of the Ensemble)