Dmitri Ensemble

Britain's Dmitri Ensemble is organized around the idea of a core string ensemble that brings on other musicians as needed according to the repertory being performed. The group is closely identified with contemporary music and has given many world premieres. The Dmitri Ensemble was formed in Cambridge, England, in 2004. The members first performed together in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the program's finale was the string arrangement, known as the Chamber Symphony, of Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, by Rudolf Barshai. The group then took its name in honor of Shostakovich. The group's founder was conductor Graham Ross, who remained in that post as of the early 2020s. In general, the Dmitri Ensemble comprises a central string group that is temporarily augmented by other players and singers. The resulting flexibility of forces is especially suited to contemporary works, and the ensemble has focused on those and on neglected works from past repertories. The Dmitri Ensemble is especially well known for its recordings, the first of which was made in 2009 for the Naxos label and featured James MacMillan's cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross. For that recording, the ensemble added singers to the group rather than collaborating with an outside choir. The Dmitri Ensemble has performed various world premieres, including an album of Ralph Vaughan Williams' never-before-recorded Folk Songs of the Four Seasons (2010), with the Clare College Choir, Cambridge. The ensemble made several more albums with that choir, including one of choral works by Imogen Holst (2012). That album marked the Dmitri Ensemble's debut on the Harmonia Mundi label, where the group has continued to record. It returned to Shostakovich with an album of three chamber symphonies, including the Barshai arrangement, in 2015. In 2020, the Dmitri Ensemble recorded the album Stabat, featuring music by Arvo Pärt, Peteris Vasks, and MacMillan. The group returned in 2022 with Ice Land: The Eternal Music, a program of contemporary Icelandic music recorded with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge.
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