Founded in 2003 at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, Modelo62 consists of an international body of adventurous young performers, hailing from Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain, and the US, who bear the common objective of communicating contemporary music at the highest level of performance. Embracing the highly volatile nature of the new music landscape, the ensemble remains open and flexible in its ability to interpret works of myriad aesthetic tendencies, genres, and instrumentation/media from a fresh and unique point of view. Works commissioned by younger, emerging composers are juxtaposed to those of an older, more established generation, thereby stimulating a dialogue across conventional cultural, temporal, and aesthetic boundaries.
International festival engagements over the past several years have included performances at the November Music Festival Den Bosch (2008), Amsterdam Fringe Festival (2007), the May Festival Den Haag (2006), the Yo! Opera Festival (2005), the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (2005), the Robert Ashley festival (2004), and Faces and Places (2003 and 2004). Furthermore, the ensemble has received critical acclaim for its involvement in several major opera, theatre, film, and recording projects, ranging from the world première of the opera Iqbal (2006), a collaborative composition by Coen Schenck, Yuval Halpern and Zbigniew Wolny, to recording original soundtracks to the Mexican film Clasificados (music by Emmanuel Flores), and the Argentinian film El desierto negro (music by Ezequiel Menalled), to a performance and commercial recording of the chamber-orchestra version of Schönberg's Erwartung, featuring soprano Roswitha Bergmann.
Within the Netherlands, Modelo62 has performed in such venues as De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam), Lantaren/Fenster (Rotterdam), Scheltema Complex (Leiden), De Toonzaal (Den Bosch), Theater Kikker (Utrecht), Korzo Theater, and <>TAG (Den Haag). Previous seasons have included premières of a contrabass concerto by Larry Sitsky, Sensitive Spot, a performance-installation by Australian composer Kate Moore, and numerous works of young composers. The ensemble's programme for 2007-2008 included premieres of commissioned works by Angel Arranz, Joanna Bailie, and Alexander Sigman, among others, and a studio recording of Varèse's Déserts (under the aegis of composer and former Varèse assistant Chou Wen-Chung), which will appear in a new film by celebrated Dutch director Frank Scheffer, to be premiered during the Holland Festival in 2009.
The current season features performances of Richard Rijnvos' large-scale music-theatre work Mappamondo, Grisey's masterful Quatre Chants pour Franchir le Seuil, and the premiere of a commissioned work by Michael Finnissy. Committed to serving as a pedagogical resource, as well as a cultural role, the ensemble has established a series of workshops and concerts for young composers and Sonology students at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. It is intended during the next few years to extend such offerings to other conservatories across the Netherlands, as well as to institutions across the UK, Germany, and North America.
