Nederlands Blazers Ensemble

Summary

Biography

“Playful, perfection-minded, flexible, industrious, slightly hip, often aiming for visual or theatrical surprises, the NBE stands out for versatility”. (Roland de Beer, de Volkskrant) The NBE plays music of all sorts, proportions and periods that stimulates the senses and imagination, and its presentations exude energy. The programmes tend to be ...
Full biography

---

Members

Barbara Deleu   fluit
Jeannette Landré   fluit
Bart Schneemann   hobo
Justine Gerretsen   hobo
Harmen de Boer   klarinet
Els Vreugdenhil   klarinet
Gerrit Boonstra   klarinet
Frank van de Brink   klarinet
Dorian Cooke   fagot
Marieke Stordiau   fagot
Ron Schaaper   hoorn
Dick Verhoef   hoorn
Mirjam Steinman   hoorn
Kirsten Jeurissen   hoorn
André Heuvelman   trompet
Brandt Attema   trombone
Alexander Verbeek   trombone
Johan van der Linden   saxofoon
Willem van Merwijk   saxofoon
Wilmar de Visser   contrabas
Erik Olsman   contrabas
Peter Prommel   percussie
Richard Jansen (2)   percussie
Margarita Kourtparasidou   percussie
Full list... Summarized list

---

Biography

“Playful, perfection-minded, flexible, industrious, slightly hip, often aiming for visual or theatrical surprises, the NBE stands out for versatility”. (Roland de Beer, de Volkskrant) The NBE plays music of all sorts, proportions and periods that stimulates the senses and imagination, and its presentations exude energy. The programmes tend to be groundbreaking and interdisciplinary and often have a theatrical element. The ensemble commissioned much of its contemporary repertoire. In addition to its own concert series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, the NBE, in coordination with the VARA broadcasting company, presents an annual New Year's concert that is broadcast on radio and television. The twenty or so players are among the best from the Netherlands and perform about sixty times per year. They tour, at times with guest musicians from a variety of places and cultures, from Amsterdam to large and small concert venues in the Netherlands and abroad. Among the international cities the NBE visits on foreign tours are Prague, Cologne, Beirut and Paris. The ensemble often participates in special initiatives, such as the reconstruction of the conservatory in Sarajevo. Together with Musicians Without Borders, the NBE has reinforced the curriculum with master classes, workshops and concerts. It has performed during Dutch state visits to India, Thailand and Turkey and was a guest at the celebrated BBC Proms series at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The NBE has a history of involvement with young people (including schoolchildren), amateurs and young composers. With its composition competition “On the Way to the New Year's Concert!”, family concerts, and educational project “The Half Hour”, the NBE opens the stage to talented musicians of the younger generation. “JongNBE” offers top students and recent graduates of Dutch conservatories work experience and is the ensemble's rearing pond. Its concerts rarely follow standard practice. There is almost always an introduction, never an intermission, and after the conclusion the NBE and guest musicians mill informally in the public foyer for the “Afterconcert”.

---

1959

Thom de Klerk, a Concertgebouw Orchestra bassoonist, expands an existing wind quintet into a wind octet to perform wind serenades.

---

1961

The Netherlands Wind Ensemble gives its first performance on January 10 in the building of the Speeltuin Gaaspstraat [Gaaspstraat Playground] in Amsterdam. Musicians are added to the octet when the repertoire calls for it.

---

1962

Edo de Waart (oboe) leaves the ensemble to focus on conducting.

---

1966

Thom de Klerk dies. De Waart returns as artistic director.

---

1967

On April 14 the ensemble performs in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw's Recital Hall. It makes various recordings and expands its repertoire with new works by composers writing specially for the group.

---

1969

The NBE receives an Edison award for its first LP, with music by Antonin Dvořák, Charles Gounod, and Franz Schubert.

---

1970 - 1971

The ensemble gives its first night concert at the Carré theatre in Amsterdam. this is followed by night concerts in various cities.

---

1972

On January 1 the NBE gives its first New Year's Concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

---

1973

First performance in Paradiso in Amsterdam.

---

1974

First tour to the United States. The oboist Han de Vries and conductor De Waart leave the ensemble.

---

1977

In March the ensemble organizes open rehearsals of music by Mozart with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

---

1980

The NBE tours Australia.

---

1983

The NBE tours Japan.

---

1988

In January the NBE makes a transition to a new formation, an ensemble with young musicians. Bart Schneemann becomes artistic director.

---

1999

Under the motto “For those who were there or had wanted to be”, The NBE starts its own CD label, NBELive. The label issues two to three recordings of special projects per year.

---

2005

For the second time, the ensemble records the work for wind ensemble, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Gran Partita, and it arranges his operas into a chamber opera.

---

2007

The Catalonian viola da gamba player and early music specialist Jordi Savall plays with the NBE in the production Danza del Viento [Dance of the Wind]. The CD of the Gran Partita is awarded the Edison Public Prize.

---

2009

The NBE performs De Staat [The Republic] by Louis Andriessen at a BBC Proms concert in London's Royal Albert Hall. With the Ashton Brothers, it makes new music theatre in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn. The NBELive label has its tenth anniversary. In collaboration with De Volkskrant and the editor Roland de Beer, a box set of seven CDs and a DVD is issued.

---

2011

The 50-year jubilee concert takes place on January 10 at Paradiso in Amsterdam. Saskia Törnqvist writes for this occasion the chronicle 'Luchtfietsers en wegbereiders'. The NBE tours in Jordan at the invitation of the Dutch embassy. Afterwards the ensemble goes to the Westbank for concerts, workshops and master classes in cooperation with 'Musicians without Borders' and 'Holy Land Trust'. The ensemble is awarded the Radio 4 Prijs 2011.

---

Discography

In the discography you will find all recordings that have been released listed chronologically. We restrict ourselves to the title, the type of audio, year of publication or recording, label, list of guest musicians, plus any comments on the issue.

---

Photos

---

Audio/Video

---

Video

---