hand werk, ensemble for contemporary music, was founded in 2011 and has since been championing new works at a high artistic level, with a focus on the “sustainability” and “reusability” of the works they commission. They dedicate themselves to working on, refining, and keeping alive new compositions which are otherwise often played once and then forgotten in our fast-paced society. “handwerk” means craft, and the ensemble places their craft, as well as care for the composition and quality of the interpretation in the foreground of their work. In this way, ensemble hand werk serves the long-term maintenance of contemporary music.

The Pierrot plus percussion instrumentation of the ensemble is often augmented by everyday objects, self-made or electronic, enabling the six musicians to perform a wide range of compositions, from the standard contemporary repertoire to new creations, experimental interdisciplinary projects, and music theatre.

hand werk has been heard at renowned festivals such as the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Festspiele Bayreuth, Ultraschall Berlin, the Ruhrtriennale, NOW! Festival, the Münchener Biennale, Acht Brücken in Cologne, Muzički Biennale Zagreb, Crossroads Salzburg, dem Transart Festival Bolzano, China Shanghai International Arts Festival, impuls Festival in Graz, Gaudeamus in Utrecht and Warsaw Autumn and has recorded several CDs and been featured on numerous radio broadcasts: Timothy McCormack: Apparatus / Myunghoon Park: Seeds (Wittener Tage Für Neue Kammermusik, Kulturforum Witten 2012), kurzwelle (ON – Neue Musik Köln, 2017), Lisa Streich: Pietà (Wergo, 2018) and Sergej Maingardt: Rush (Wergo, 2021) with SMOG. Their performances have taken the ensemble to the US, Australia, Israel, and many cities in Asia and Europe. Since its inception, hand werk has been working intensively on developing new concert experiences, such as their home concert series in Cologne: hwXXc_.