Jérôme Combier

Every year, the Contemporary and Present-Day Music Workgroup (WHAM) at the Antwerp Royal Conservatory puts together its own ensemble which operates under the name Ensemble XXI. In this group about twenty students learn a selection of present-day compositions. They examine the performance practice and style and afterwards perform the scores. Smaller chamber music formations are sometimes organised to work on a particular theme or composer. This is all accompanied by talks, workshops and master-classes. The purpose is to give concrete form to the interrelation between research (lecturers) and performance practice (students). The main composer for the 2009-2010 academic year is the Frenchman Jérôme Combier. He is the founder of Ensemble Cairn, which will open Ars Musica in Antwerp on 10th March 2010. At 6 pm on the same day, Ensemble XXI will play the works from Combier's repertoire that they have learnt. In the talk he is giving on 27th October, Combier will talk about his compositions, Ensemble Cairn and the quest for the perfect collaboration between composers and players.