Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen was formed in 1990 by a group of young Copenhagen musicians and composers. They took their name from Tolkien’s tale of The Lord of the Rings, where athelas is the name of a healing plant effective against all kinds of ailments. ATHELAS has long since found a place in the front rank of Danish chamber music as the leading ensemble in the field of contemporary composition music. Concert series, performances in opera productions and at festivals, international tours, CD recordings of contemporary music from Denmark and abroad, and imaginative programming have all made ATHELAS a striking institution in Danish musical life. Time and time again a unanimous press has emphasized the high artistic standard of the ensemble. Another expression of this is the appointment of the ensemble as the Danish National Ensemble in 2000-2003. The ensemble’s repertoire reflects the musical idioms of the century across the board, from modern classics through newly composed works to experiments in the borderlands between musical styles and genres. ATHELAS has an unbroken tradition of collaboration with living composers, for example in the form of commissioned works, and to date the ensemble has ‘christened’ more than fifty new musical works. In 2001 ATHELAS will be premiering a work commissioned from the world-famous British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In the period 1997-1999 ATHELAS was "ensemble-in-residence" at the Danish broadcasting corporation Danmarks Radio. This collaboration as well as informative activities like open rehearsals and lectures, where the public is involved in the artistic work of the ensemble, have helped to increase interest in contemporary music. And ATHELAS Sinfonietta Copenhagen has at the same time demonstrated how important it is to the understanding of new music that it is presented in performances that are a match for those given the old classical works.
The principal conductor of the ensemble until 2001 is the young recently-appointed musical director of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Giordano Bellincampi, who has headed most of the major orchestras in Scandinavia. ATHELAS also works closely with a number of the most important Danish conductors and soloists, and has appeared with international names like Jan Latham-Koenig, Reinbert De Leeuw, Jean Thorel, Christian Eggen, Rolf Hind, Christian Lindberg and Rebecca Hirsh. ATHELAS Sinfonietta Copenhagen has prominent Danish composers as its artistic director. In 1997 Karl Aage Rasmussen followed Poul Ruders in the post, and since 1999 the composer Bent Sørensen has been chairman of the board of the ensemble.
Musicians:
Mads Johansen, flute
Svend Buller, oboe
Anna Klett, clarinet
Signe Haugland, bassoon
Preben Iwan, French horn
Thomas Ekman, French horn
Kjell-Åke Andersson, trumpet
Jesper Juul Sørensen, trombone
Anne Marie Fjord Abildskov, piano
Mette Franck, harp
Thomas Sandberg, percussion
Lars Skov, percussion
Curt Kollavik, guitar
Anne Søe Iwan, violin
Ida Speyer Grøn, viola
Hege Waldeland, cello
Morten Olsen, bass
Giordano Bellincampi, principal conductor since 1997
www: Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen