Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen has long been established as a leading Danish Chamber ensemble and the nation’s foremost new music ensemble. Concert series, participation in operas and festivals, international tours, numerous CD recordings and imaginative concert programming has made Athelas a remarkable institution.

Nevertheless Athelas is changing, having recently established a new artistic triumvirate leadership, including two of Denmark’s youngest and most profiled composers. Their ambition is to direct the repertoire towards a sharper, contemporary profile – and to work more radically with the concert formats.

One focus will be the “through-composed” concerts where videos, happenings and staging effects bind the music pieces together to one artistic event.

Another focus will be to open up the concerts by rethinking them as social events that embraces and includes the audience. As artistic co-director Christian Winther Christensen says: “We all know that when we go out for a concert it’s not only because we want to hear particular pieces of music. We also go to socialize, have a good time, enjoy ourselves, and to experience an event!”

The concerts by Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen resulted in the following resources:

Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen integrated their experimental concert format Brand New Tuesdays as a part of the avant-garde music festival KLANG. The vision behind Brand New Tuesdays is to create a direct dialogue with the audience in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. After the concert the ensemble invited the audience to stay for a drink and an informal chat about the works. Athelas conducted a focus group interview with members of the audience, and shares the findings in this evaluation report.

Brand new music at a rock venue

Athelas Sinfonietta played a new music concert at a typical rock music venue. The concert was part of their experimental concert series Brand New Tuesdays. With these concerts Athelas focus on opening up the concerts by rethinking them as social events that embraces and includes the audience. This document in brief describes the concept.

Brand new music at the office

Athelas Sinfonietta focused on setting the scene for socialising, when they played a concert at a shared creative office space. Athelas aims at making concerts where videos, happenings and staging effects bind the music pieces together to one artistic event. In this case there was a new music video battle before the concert started, and free drinks afterwards. This document in brief describes the concept.