Ensemble New Babylon’s debut concert was in November 2012 under the patronage of the mayor of Bremen. Their aim was to reintroduce contemporary music to the cultural life of Bremen. Since its foundation, the ensemble has performed over 80 world premieres. An integral part of the ensemble’s concept is dealing with specific themes performed in unusual venues. As a result the ensemble has received numerous awards from the “Deutscher Musikrat” (German Music Council):
– in 2013 for the ensemble’s collaboration with the funk group Watson’s Mother, which included a performance at the Breminale Music Festival
– in 2016 for the 48-hour non-stop spectacle “The show must go on” at the Theater Bremen. This show was conceived to reflect current means of self-representation such as Facebook, WhatsApp and blogs.
– in 2017 for the collaboration with TanzKollektivBremen (the Bremen Dance Collective) where they performed the musical dance piece “ResonanzKörper” (“Resonance Body”) at TANZ Bremen (International festival for contemporary dance).
The ensemble has so far produced two CD recordings: “9”, recorded in 2015 on the STARFISH MUSIC label with pieces by 9 Bremen composers, and a portrait CD of the Spanish composer Benet Casablanca (2017), recorded on the NAXOS label.
Since its founding in 2012, New Babylon works on two basic fundamentals: firstly, the performance of contemporary music, tackling varied and challenging concepts and secondly, encouraging through the power of music, tolerance of the unknown/the foreign including the cultural, peaceful exchange of all nations, which the international ensemble has made its identifying feature from the very beginning. There were concert programs and tours focusing on Greece (2014), Poland (2015), Israel (2016), Argentina/Chile (2017), Iceland (2018), South Korea (2019) and Spain/Portugal (2022).
New Babylon has performed at the following festivals and concert series:
REMFESTIVAL – Rapid Ear Movement 2013 (Bremen, Germany)
Nova Sendesaal – Tage für Neue Musik 2014 (Bremen, Germany)
Festival soundscape 2014 (Athen, Greece)
Reihe Neue Kammermusik 2015 (Fulda, Germany)
OaarWurm 2015 – das etwas andere Berliner Tonkunstfestival (Berlin, Germany)
TANZ Bremen 2017 – Internationales Festival für zeitgenössischen Tanz (Bremen, Germany)
Festival Internacional Muchas Músicas (fimm) 2017 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
20. Biennale Aktueller Musik (pgnm-festival) 2018 (Bremen, Germany)
69. Fall Recital of the Korean Society of Women Composers 2019 (Seoul, South Korea)
2. Jeju International Contemporary Music Festival 2019 (Jeju, South Korea)