Ensemble Contrechamps

The Ensemble Contrechamps is a Swiss ensemble for new music based in Geneva at the Radio Studio Ernest-Ansermet. The group's artistic director is the composer Brice Pauset.

The ensemble has premiered works by George Benjamin, Unsuk Chin, Hugues Dufourt, Beat Furrer, Stefano Gervasoni, Heinz Holliger, Michael Jarrell, György Kurtág, Jimmie LeBlanc, Martin Matalon, Tristan Murail, Isabel Mundry and Rebecca Saunders, amongst others. Conductors and artists associated with the ensemble include Peter Eötvös, Stefan Asbury, Pascal Rophé, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Michael Wendeberg, Jurjen Hempel, Clement Power, and Peter Hirsch.

The Ensemble Contrechamps is regularly invited abroad for concerts and takes part in numerous festivals such as Musica (Strasbourg), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Voix nouvelles (Royaumont), Ars Musica (Bruxelles), Ankara Festival, Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Salzburg Festival, Music Biennale in Venice, Wien Modern, DeSingel (Anvers), Akiyoshidai Festival (Yamaguchi, Japan), Barossa Music Festival (Adelaide), Festival International de Musique (Besançon), Märzmusik Berlin, Tage für Neue Musik (Zürich), Lucerne Festival, Festival Amadeus, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemässer Musik (Austria), New Music Week of Shanghaï, etc.

In Geneva it collaborates regularly with the Centre de Musique Electroacoustique de la Haute Ecole de Musique, the Grand Théâtre, the Museum of Art and History and the Comédie. The Ensemble Contrechamps also offers numerous educational activities for school-age public in organising workshops, commented dress-rehearsals as well as concerts for children in collaboration with the theatre company Am Stram Gram.