ensemble garage (DE)

The Ensemble Garage was founded in 2009 by composer Brigitta Muntendorf. Its members are on a quest for answers on artistic, social and aesthetic issues that define our time. In doing so, the Ensemble is exploring methods and means to create fields (ways, spheres, realms?) of expression through contemporary composition.

Since its foundation the ensemble yields innovative artistic impulses, shifting the focus on the reflection of the (post)-internet-society with its digital-medial manifestations, shaping the development in new music towards trans-medial, theatrical and performative forms of production.

An important part of the ensemble’s work is the collaboration and exchange with other artists, particularly
composers of the younger generation. Therefore Ensemble Garage has organized and curated numerous
exchange-concerts with young composers from Germany, Poland, the USA, Finland, Turkey and France,
among others. Further more, the ensemble regularly collaborates with guest curators and artists from various fields such as video (e.g. Warped Type) and dance (e.g. Mouvoir / Stephanie Thiersch). In doing so it implements the “Community of Practice” – an artistic work method in which members of diverse artistic domains collaboratively explore their respective practice, which may result into a concrete artistic work. Since fall 2019 the Ensemble Garage hosts its own concert series entitled Acts ‘n Sounds several times per year, presenting diverse programmatic concepts with varying topics at different venues in Cologne. It also partners with the concert series FRAU MUSICA NOVA, developing trans-medial concerts, which transgress boundaries of club-culture, experimental music theatre and performance, especially supporting the artistic work of women.

As invited guest, the ensemble regularly performs at renowned festivals in Germany and abroad, such as Acht Brücken Festival Cologne, Eclat Stuttgart, Ruhrtriennale, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Kunstfestpiele Herrenhausen, SPOR Festival Aarhus (Denmark), GAIDA Festival Vilnius (Lithuania) and Mixtur Barcelona (Spain), among others. The Ensemble Garage is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.