Ensemble ö!

The Swiss based ensemble ö! was founded in 2002, and from its inception has focused on the performance of contemporary music. There are currently has 13 members, supplemented by additional players as required. The ensemble’s principal conductor is Francesc Prat, but many programs are performed without a conductor.

ensemble ö! has strong associations with the Swiss canton of Graubünden and its historic capital Chur, and today, more than 20 years after the ensemble was founded, contemporary music has become a significant part of the cultural life of the region. In 2019 ensemble ö! founded the biennial festival “tuns contemporans”, which it runs in association with the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden, the region’s professional orchestra. ensemble ö! is also an integral part of the wider Swiss new music scene and, thanks to its venues in Chur, Basel and Zurich, is regularly accessible to an extensive audience. A portrait of the ensemble was broadcast on Swiss national radio, SRF 2, in November 2020.

Beyond its regular venues, ensemble ö! has been invited to the London Ear Festival, the Festival Archipel in Geneva, the Tingueley Museum in Basel, the Musikpodium Zurich, the Muskhochschule in Saarbrücken, as well as many other venues in Switzerland and beyond, regularly cooperating with museums and galleries.

In 2023, ensemble ö! now has a repertoire of 422 works by 162 composers, 62 of which were premieres. The revival of repertoire works is also a priority, allowing the interpretation to gain in maturity and depth, and whenever possible the ensemble engages in intensive collaboration with composers. Programmes are carefully designed, often with an extra-musical theme, to form a cohesive whole, effectively creating a concert-length composition out of the individual works. The ensemble’s Board of Trustees includes experts in the fields music, literature, the humanities and the sciences, and contributes to the development of ideas leading to the presentation of concerts in wider, non-musical contexts.

Ensemble ö!
Francesc Prat (Conductor)
Riccarda Caflisch (flute)
Manfred Spitaler (clarinet)
David Sontòn Caflisch (violin)
Sofiia Suldina (violin)
Maria Kropotkina (viola)
Christian Hieronymi (violoncello)
Asia Ahmetjanova (piano)