Since it was created 46 years ago, the Ensems festival has been a space for exhibition, reflection, musical performance and creation that has become essential in today’s panorama of contemporary music, both in academic and artistic contexts. Ensems is the most experienced festival for recently created music in Spain and over time it has deservedly become one of the exemplary gatherings for contemporary music in the country, as well as a festival that is an international point of reference within the new panorama of musical and sound creation.

Over its nearly five decades of history, its commitment to creative music and its response to such music’s idiosyncrasies and complexity have been the driving force and raison d’être for the festival, as well as the desire to make Valencia the capital of contemporary music and Ensems the common point of reference for performers, composers, conductors and fans from all over the world. Concerts, dialogues, composition encounters and other parallel activities are at the core of the programme for a festival that is essential to feel the sector’s pulse and delve into its peculiarities without losing sight of reaching out to new audiences.

We never wanted the theme of this year’s Ensems to be war. And so it has been: the theme is not war. However, there are events today that affect us so directly and intensely that any form of art, whether performance or not, cannot remain impassive in the face of the reality of the times we are living through, because that is what contemporary music is about: current and human affairs, communication, and our gestures, words and sounds. And it is also about our silences.

That is why this 46^th Ensems International Festival of Contemporary Music is concentrating its theme not on war itself, but on how contemporary music addresses war, because our music speaks about us: it feels, suffers and becomes human. Music always reflects society. The term “contemporary music” should not be associated with terms such as “difficult”, “minority” or “academic”, even though the definition is imperfect, polysemic and often wavers between these adjectives. Contemporary music is the kind that speaks about our present from a different perspective than usual, always looking back to glimpse our nearest future via sound.

Hence, Ensems relies on some of the fundamental pillars of this reflection through sound on war, violence and the relationship between contemporary music and society. Notable amongst these there is the performance of one of the most interesting and demanding works by the German composer and theatre director Heiner Goebbels. Based on a text by the North American writer Gertrude Stein from her last book Wars I Have Seen (1945), the musical theatre piece that lends its title to this year’s Ensems festival is Songs of wars I have seen. This is a kind of music that not only speaks of war, but of the songs that remain in our memory, fragments of lives torn away and transformed into sounds, into music, sung and narrated here by the women from the ensembles Harmonia del Parnàs and Grup Instrumental de València under the musical direction of the young conductor Chloe Rooke. The ancient and the modern: it is all music.

The festival also aims to reflect on war and violence, especially towards women, based on the African opera The Golden Stool, by Gorges Ocloo and Josse de Pauw, in a co-production of the LOD Muziektheater & Toneelhuis with the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen & O. Festival Rotterdam, the Palau de Les Arts and the Institut Valencià de Cultura, with the support of ENOA.

In any case, Ensems is much more than just a festival: it is a meeting point for composers, musicians, sound artists, the general public, and ideas via new sounds and unexpected sound spaces. It is an opportunity to enjoy the best Spanish soloists and ensembles, offering unique, transformative artistic experiences that seek to reach the widest possible audience. Furthermore, Ensems is establishing itself as a national and international platform for new music and contemporary art forms in Spain. With a daring, diverse programme, the festival aims to engage its regular audience while attracting new audiences, offering creative, innovative opportunities for everyone and actively participating in the cultural life of our society.

Ensems is also commemorating and paying tribute to figures such as Arnold Schönberg on the 150^th anniversary of his birth, and the sincere tribute to the recently deceased Valencian-Canadian composer José Evangelista, closely linked to this festival. This year we will also be paying special tribute to the Arditti Quartet, an example to follow in the sector that is celebrating 50 years of commitment to new-wave music and its composers. Furthermore, Ensems is becoming a host venue for other events dedicated to contemporary music such as Volumens, the Festival of Digital Art, Music, Science and Technology, and giving a sneak preview of the Polirritmia Festival, which this year is broadening its content to include percussion and the rhythms of contemporary music.

With a greatly varied programme over seven days, Ensems will be providing over 40 activities including concerts, operas, theatre, sound installations, conferences, conversations, commissioned compositions, world premières and encounters with composers. Ensems continues to deliver the music of its time, and has been an essential meeting point for contemporary Spanish and international music for 46 years.