We Explore, Create, and Curate the Music of Today.
The Chamber Orchestra Elbe is an international and dynamic group of highly skilled creative musicians, composers, and researchers, with extensive knowledge and experience in the performance of a broad spectrum of contemporary music as soloists and members of some of Europe’s leading ensembles and orchestras.
Debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Intertwined Distances · 12 December 2023 · Recital Hall (Kleiner Saal)
On this evening the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Elbe made its debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, following the harpsichord on its journey into the music of today: Takuya Imahori’s De Avibus Dialogum, Manuel de Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord, Anahita Abbasi’s Intertwined Distances for harpsichord and electronics, Farzia Fallah’s This Burning Mass – A Feast of Colour and Gary Carpenter’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Six Players – with the award-winning harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani as soloist and Yalda Zamani conducting. Supported by the Musikstadtfonds of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
What the press said
Ein starkes Debütkonzert für das Kammerorchester Elbe und seine Dirigentin.
Marcus Stäbler · Hamburger Abendblatt, 13 December 2023An appreciative audience of some 200 people … was treated to a performance on an enviably high level of virtuosity.
Slippedisc, 13 December 2023The enterprising exiled conductor Yalda Zamani has just formed a new chamber orchestra in Hamburg … Catch that concert if you can.
Norman Lebrecht · Slippedisc, 5 December 2023Impressions from the Elbphilharmonie debut
12 December 2023 · Recital Hall (Kleiner Saal) · Photos © Claudia Höhne
Concert-Series
at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
As one of its main missions, Chamber Orchestra Elbe aims at performing electro-acoustic masterpieces of western contemporary classical repertoire for large ensembles/chamber orchestras of 20th and 21st century and newly commissioned works by well-established living composers alongside works by less represented or non-European contemporary classical composers.
The Goat Song Project
opus glitch_ · ORF musikprotokoll 2022 · Dom im Berg, Graz · 9 October 2022
A non-stop electro-acoustic “sketch” by opus glitch_, the orchestra’s performance-research lab: a 20th/21st-century composition as the backbone, transformed live with turntables, modular synthesizer, digitised smart instruments and live coding into a new sonic and visual experience for clubs and alternative venues. Commissioned by the ORF musikprotokoll festival and premiered on 9 October 2022 at Dom im Berg, Graz.
Watch the full performance
Nimikry (Alessandro Baticci, Rafał Zalech) · bass flute, violin, digitised smart instruments — Jorge Sánchez-Chiong · turntables — Rojin Sharafi · modular synthesizer — John Eckhardt · electric bass — Shiva Feshareki · ambisonics turntables — Yalda Zamani · concept, coordination, live coding — Siavash Talebi · video production — ORF Radio Österreich 1 · audio production.
Multiverse Symphony – World Premiere
Eduardo R. Miranda · 3 May 2023 · Inauguration of the ligeti center, Hamburg
Composed with quantum computers and performed in live interaction with quantum hardware via the Internet, Eduardo R. Miranda’s Multiverse Symphony was premiered by opus glitch_ – the performance-research lab of the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Elbe – under Yalda Zamani at the opening of the ligeti center during the Ligeti Festival of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, in partnership with the quantum technology and arts company Moth.
opus glitch_
A Performance-Research Experimental Lab
From exploring the potentials of implementing human-computer interactive systems in designing innovative concert formats to the realisation of multidisciplinary projects that involve machine learning and artificial intelligence, computational creativity, motion sensor technology, and live coding environments among other latest artistic-scientific developments, opus glitch_, a group of 10 instrumentalists from the Chamber Orchestra Elbe, aims at creating innovative projects to engage a diverse audience of contemporary music enthusiasts, as well as those interested in the intersection of art and science.
“Spiel es ein!”
Collaboration with the Music and Theater University in Hamburg (HfMT)
In close collaboration with HfMT Hamburg, as one of its main focuses, the Chamber Orchestra Elbe aims at creating training programs for students in composition, conducting and instrumental departments, and developing artistic-scientific research projects that interweave music, science, and technology. Our first collaboration project in 2023 will be announced soon.
The first edition took place in 2023: “Spiel es ein!” Part I – Trumpet & Double Bass, an experimental ensemble workshop for students of instrumental music and composition with Rike Huy (trumpet) and John Eckhardt (double bass), led by Yalda Zamani – two online composition workshops in May and June, a rehearsal and workshop day with the students, and a concert in the JazzHall of the HfMT Hamburg on 10 July 2023.
CO-Elbe strives to establish collaborations with organisations, academic institutions, composers, researchers, artists, and festivals that share the values of inclusion, diversity, and pluralism, have a similar focus, profile, and prioritisation, aiming to contribute positively in terms of presenting high-quality contemporary music beyond hierarchies as well as create premises for freedom, fairness, and social uplift through music.
Milestones
June 2022 · The Creative AI Symposium, co-curated with ARIC Hamburg
9 October 2022 · The Goat Song Project #1 – ORF musikprotokoll, Dom im Berg, Graz
3 May 2023 · Multiverse Symphony by Eduardo R. Miranda – world premiere at the inauguration of the ligeti center, Hamburg
May – July 2023 · “Spiel es ein!” Part I – workshops and concert with students of the HfMT Hamburg
12 December 2023 · Debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – Intertwined Distances with Mahan Esfahani