The LOOS Ensemble is the leading formation of the LOOS Foundation under the direction of composer and multiinstrumentalist Peter van Bergen. Since the late 1980’s this exceptional and highly specialised group initiated, generated and developed an extensive and impressive repertoire of contemporary music. In 2000 The LOOS Ensemble received the prestigious GeNeCoPrize 2000 (Dutch Composers Prize) because of ” exceptional merits in Contemporary Music of The Netherlands”.
Characteristic for the performance style of the LOOS Ensemble is a flinty, granite and confrontationally precise percussive sound. A greater part of the group’s repertoire, is comprised of pieces which go under the name of Factorseries - a steadily growing series of compositions and ?gamestructures? composed by Peter van Bergen, in which music is brought back to it’s essence â013 a trinity made up of chords silences and improvisation with a sound aesthetic all of it’s own. For the reason of these aesthetics and performing style, as well as the specific qualities of the individual members , various composers, among whom Louis Andriessen, Cornelis de Bondt, Huib Emmer, Gilius van Bergeijk, Guus Janssen, Martijn Padding , Yannis Kyriakides, Paul Termos, Edwin van der Heide, Gerard Brophy, Hikari Kyama and many more, have written extraordinary compositions for the ensemble in close collaboration with the group. The musicians of the ensemble have an enormous experience in the performance of all kinds of contemporary composed music, played in all the major ensembles of The Netherlands, and been closely involved in the development of the famous The Hague School, a very specific direction in Dutch contemporary composed
music.
The incorporation of live electronics ( analogue,digital, or computer controlled ) and confrontation with other disciplines in art make that the LOOS Ensemble is adding a new dimension to the compositional results of the The Hague School of the past. Many of the works generated by the LOOS Ensemble have become repertoire performed by ensembles all over the world (f.i. The Bang on a Can all stars, Musikfabrik) . And a lot of these works are so specific that until now only LOOS could do it.
Alongside appearances on many international, festivals, Dutch Culture presentations, radio and television programmes, the LOOS Ensemble and its members have over the last years performed concerts, cooperated with a great variety of artists and institutes, given lectures and workshops throughout the whole of Europe and different parts in the world, like USA, Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, Russia.
The LOOS Ensemble is part of The LOOS Foundation. The activities of the LOOS Foundation have since 1997 been made possible by means of a four-yearly structural subsidy provided by the Ministry of O.C.&W.( Education,Culture and Science) and since 2005 the City of The Hague.
The LOOS Ensemble line up for the performance in Budapest:
Peter van Bergen (NL) - woodwinds
Gerard Bouwhuis (NL) - grand piano, keyboards
Johan Faber (NL) - percussion, mallets
magyar