Grappa musikkforlag BIT20 Ensemble

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BIT20 Ensemble

Biography

BIT20 Ensemble was founded in Bergen, Norway in 1989. Consisting of 15 musicians, BIT20 is regarded as one of the foremost Nordic contemporary music ensembles.

Baldur Brönnimann is Artistic Director and the main conductor of the ensemble since January 2011.

The ensemble has performed at many major international venues for contemporary music, including Festival Agora (IRCAM Centre Pompidou, France), Festival Précences (Radio France), Soundstreams (Canada), Transart (Italy), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, at the Barbican Centre (England), and in Moscow and St Petersburg (Russia). BIT20 has also appeared at major Norwegian festivals - Ultima, Borealis, Ilios and the Bergen International Festival.

BIT20 Ensemble is involved in concerts, educational work, radio productions, CD recordings, international tours and modern opera. It has commissioned and premiered nearly 100 works and released 23 albums. On a daily basis the ensemble is located in the Grieghall, Bergen. A Majority of the BIT20 musicians hold positions of Solo and alt. Solo in the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

The ensemble is recognised for its flexibility. Its repertoire ranges from pieces written for single musicians to works for full sinfonietta. The ensemble includes three permanent chamber groups: BIT20 Jugband, BIT20 Duo and BIT20 Percussion.

October 2011

BIT20 Ensemble

Discography

Gamelan Terrains

20.01.2012

The name and music of Ruben Sverre Gjertsen surfaced internationally in 2006 when his work 'Circles' was commissioned and performed by Pierre Boulez and the Luzern Festival Academy. Gjertsen's beautiful scores have now inspired BIT20 Ensemble and conductor Pierre-André Valade to record seven of his pieces for this highly virtuosic CD release.
Henrik Hellstenius: Readings of Mr. G

25.02.2008

In later years Hellstenius has worked very much in a "process-orientated" fashion together with musicians when writing his music, resulting in a number of highly fascinating works recorded for this release. Henrik Hellstenius" music is lively and animated, with an interaction between musical elements creating a superior dramaturgy - perhaps a reflection of the fact that Hellstenius has worked a lot with music for theatre and dance. The listener experiences an immediate sense of an underlying melodic, even lyrical, sensitivity, either directly or indirectly present.