Biography
Founded in 1996, the Brighton based Tacet Ensemble was created due to the demand for a professional contemporary ensemble in the South East and in particular to showcase new works by British composers. They have a flexible instrumentation, based around a core of six players (flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, piano, percussion) with conductor.
As well as giving conventional performances they have designed programmes to explore specific ideas such as improvisation or minimalism, and organised themed concert series including Integrated Circuits and JUNCTIONS: English Music Breaking Formation.
Repertoire covers a wide range of music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Highlights have included:
- giving the world premiere of John Mayer's Sangit Sadharan Ki Liye, a recorder concerto for soloist Piers Adams (2003)
- working with film-maker Ian Helliwell on the Integrated Circuits series of electro-acoustic concerts (2000 - present), including a massed performance of Terry Riley's In C
- recording the music for Red, a ballet for children by Alison Kay (2003)
- giving a concert in memoriam Luciano Berio with guests including Heather Cairncross and Stephen Gutman (2004)
- collaborating with the Copper Family and with the English Acoustic Collective to explore links between contemporary composition and traditional English folk music in the concert series JUNCTIONS: English Music Breaking Formation (2005)
- working closely with composers including Martin Butler, Michael Finnissy, Peter Wiegold and Simon Emmerson
The Ensemble has a strong commitment to education and has been involved with composition workshops at levels ranging from GCSE to postgraduate under the direction of composers including Martin Butler, Michael Finnissy and John Alexander. They are currently Ensemble in residence at the University of Sussex.
It has long been the ethos of the Tacet Ensemble to break from the stereotype of classical performance and this has led them to play modern classical music in pubs, clubs, cinemas and at rock gigs as well as in more conventional concert halls.
The Ensemble are continuing their distinctive approach to programming into 2009 with a new series of Junctions concerts, this time collaborating with the multi-award winning folk duo Spiers and Boden and composers Alison Kay and Ed Hughes.
Why "Tacet Ensemble"?
In music notation "tacet" is an instruction not to play, and we are sometimes asked why we use it as a name.
When we formed, we decided to follow the tradition of taking the ensemble name from the first piece played. In our case, it was to be John Cage's beautiful but infamous 4' 33", which consists of the instruction not to play for the allotted time - "Tacet".
The piece grew out of Cage's belief in the vital importance of listening without preconceptions, and his dedication to pure sound and live performance. These are all values we respect, and we are proud to take our inspiration from him.
In the end 4' 33" was performed in our second concert, but the name stuck.
