©Photo: Annelies van der Vegt

LUDWIG

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LUDWIG’s programming is as thoroughly thought out as it is adventurous

LUDWIG’s programming is as thoroughly thought out as it is adventurous. Artistic director Peppie Wiersma effortlessly brings together composers from different time periods, styles, and backgrounds. The musicians perform the greatest music to the highest possible standard but free from the organisational and management norms of conventional ensembles and orchestras. And distinctive it certainly is: the musicians often interact directly with their audience, play from memory, experiment with different forms of presentation and collaborate with makers in other disciplines in order to change the way people experience a concert, and have staged a number of legendary appearances with leading soloists.

LUDWIG maintains a close collaboration with the innovative conductor/singer Barbara Hannigan. In 2017, after an extensive tour of Europe, they recorded their first album ‘Crazy Girl Crazy’, which was awarded a Grammy in January 2018. In 2020 followed the second album ‘La Passione,’ winner of the Record Academy Award in the Contemporary Music category. In spring 2019 Barbara Hannigan and LUDWIG toured with nine different programmes, among which Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress, which was performed in venues including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Paris, Aldeburgh Festival (UK) and Ojai Festival (California).

In July 2015 LUDWIG received a grant from the prestigious governmental funding program The Art of Impact for their pioneering research project LUDWIG and the Brain, exploring the impact of music. In LUDWIG and the Brain, LUDWIG develops innovative implementations for music that have a positive effect on the wellbeing and education of specific target groups in cooperation with leading scientists. As of 2016 LUDWIG introduced a series of so-called Brainwaves: multidisciplinairy events revealing the latest developments in different fields of music-related brainresearch. Brainwave #1 Music and Identity toured the Netherlands in 2016, in 2017 Music as Medicinewas presented and in 2018 Music and the Future will research the transition into the new era of infinite possibilities that digitalisation has created.

In 2016 Barbara Hannigan joined LUDWIG as an associate member of the collective and in September 2017 their first CD was released to great acclaim: Crazy Girl Crazy. Barbara and LUDWIG have toured Europe in December 2017.