Luxembourg Sinfonietta

The Luxembourg Sinfonietta is an orchestral ensemble for contemporary music in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Initially it consisted of ten to fifteen instruments, including tuba, accordion, mandolin and harpsichord, but now typically extends to clarinet, clarinet bass, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, horn, trumpets, tenor trombone, tuba, violins, viola, violoncello, piano, mandolin, accordion and percussion.
History.
Founded in 1999 by the Luxembourg composer Marcel Wengler, it strives to make contemporary music more generally accessible while promoting Luxembourg composers, especially to foreign audiences. Key events here have been performances at the ISCM "World Music Days 2000" in Luxembourg and at Expo 2000 in Hanover. The Sinfonietta not only gives first time performances of contemporary works but also plays classics from the past century as well as its own orchestrations of existing works. As its repertoire covers all the most significant contemporary composers, the orchestra has been invited to a number of international festivals and has played in Germany, France, Switzerland, Romania and the Czech Republic. It also participated in the "World Music Days 2007" in Hong Kong and travelled to Beijing and Chengdu during its China tour in 2008.
International composition competition.
Since 2001, the Sinfonietta has arranged an annual international composition which has done much to establish Luxembourg as a European centre for musical innovation. Composers from all over the world are invited to compose new works for the Sinfonietta. Typically, some 150 composers from more than 40 countries take part each year. In this context, over 950 works have now been specially composed for the Luxembourg Sinfonietta.
The prizewinners have been: