The National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata is an orchestra where every musician is a virtuoso and a soloist. The collective’s mission is to promote Ukrainian music in all its various styles, movements, and schools of composition. The orchestra’s repertoire is constantly updated and covers a wide range of music from the ancient music of baroque masters to the works of modern composers.

In 1977, conductor Valerii Matiukhin established the Chamber Music Ensemble as a combination company of the Union of Composers of Ukraine. In 1993, after the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the company gained its artistic autonomy with the assigned status of a state ensemble, which marked a new stage of its development. In recognition of their outstanding contributions to the field, the orchestra was granted National status in 2000, firmly establishing its position among the most esteemed orchestras in Ukraine. 

Among the Ukrainian authors who collaborated and wrote for the ensemble are both classics of modern music and emerging composers: Valentyn Sylvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Ivan Karabyts, Oleh Kiva, Vitalii Hubarenko, Yurii Ishchenko, Levko Kolodub, Leonid Hrabovskyi, Volodymyr Zubytskyi, Lesia Dychko, Hanna Havrylets, Zoltan Almashi, Yuliia Homelska, Karmella Tsepkolenko, and many others.

The geography of Kyiv Camerata’s tours includes Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Armenia, Croatia, Georgia, the USA, Kuwait and other countries.

kyivcamerata.org

Ensemble KNM Berlin — since its foundation in 1988 — has presented programs across the world that reflect a curiosity to explore the unknown and the willingness to confront the most pressing themes of our times. The ensemble presents compositions, concert installations, and concert projects created in close cooperation with composers, authors, conductors, artists, and stage directors from around the world. Since 2016, KNM Berlin has been increasingly committed to musical, multi-perspective networking with intercultural collaborations worldwide. Whether in Argentina, India, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Mexico, or Taiwan — the musicians of Ensemble KNM confront the pressing questions of globalization with surprising concepts and intercultural collaborations. 

KNM Berlin has earned an international reputation with repeated guest appearances at important music festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, MaerzMusik in Berlin, ars musica in Brussels, Festival d’Automne in Paris, and Wien Modern in Vienna, as well as with its own productions such as HouseMusik or KNM New Music Spa. Concert tours have taken the ensemble to the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. 

KNM’s discography comprises more than 18 CDs to date; the KNM was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award in 2021, 2009, and 2010 for its collaboration with the composer Beat Furrer. 

kammerensemble.de

Author: Renata Sokachyk

for children aged 7–11 and ensemble

In the Musical Kingdom, where music goes beyond traditional sonorities, live the Guardians of Music and Harmony (professional ensemble musicians). They are responsible for preserving all kinds of musical expressions and together create a rich and diverse soundscape.

Chaosmonster and Mirage of Silence (invisible characters), symbols of excessive dissonance and lack of sound respectively, begin to threaten the kingdom’s balanced musical diversity. They try to shift the balance, focusing only on their extremes.

A group of children known as the Sonic Defenders, with their unique noise instruments, are the key to restoring balance. They learn to use dissonance as a means to create new, richer harmonies. Under the guidance of the Guardians (professional musicians, composers, and mentors present), children expand their understanding of music, learning the interaction between dissonance and harmony. They are preparing for a great battle (the final performance of the piece) where every dissonance and silence will be used to create a new musical whole.

In battle, the Sonic Defenders and the Guardians face Chaosmonster and Mirage of Silence. They demonstrate how dissonance and silence can coexist with harmony, restoring musical diversity. After a successful battle, the Musical Kingdom celebrates a new level of musical understanding. Sound defenders are honored as modern heroes who have contributed to enriching the cultural musical heritage.

Author: Yana Shliabanska

for teenagers aged 12–17 and ensemble

The piece is a game, an interactive environment in which music will “most probably” appear.

We are all familiar with board games where we roll the dice and then move the figure the number of times we got. Game participants will be asked to follow a route in space, on which various sound tasks will occur. Each move will correspond to a random value — the dice, chance, and the player’s “lucky hand” will determine the change in the soundscape around.

The game creates more immediate conditions for listening and interaction than a concert. The players also become performers and join the ensemble; everyone is in the same space without the distinction between musicians and listeners or the stage and the audience. Moreover, the game participants have the opportunity to explore the sound of the ensemble from different points in space.

There is neither a single nor a correct version of the work (almost like in life, right?). Instead, we have different options for the development of events, which are determined by a number of conditions and probabilities.