Each year, tens of thousands of new compositions see the light. In this mass, there are very good, excellent, and congenial works. The New Music Orchestra (Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej, OMN), founded in 1996 by Aleksander Lasoń, has explored this area for over a decade, looking for compositions that are meaningful for culture as a whole, engaging for listeners, forward-looking, perhaps unjustly neglected, worth reviving and presenting in public and recording. The fruits of this activity include over 100 first performances at Polish and international music festivals, a number of concert and studio recordings as well as broadcasts. Many of these have been published on CD, garnering top international accolades: the Danish Radio P2-Prize also known as the “Danish Grammy” (2012), Pizzicato Supersonic Award (Luxembourg), UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (Paris and Amsterdam) as well as a nomination to the Fryderyk Award in Poland (2003).
The performing abilities of the OMN are highly valued by composers, festival organisers, promoters of modern music, and record publishers. These competences spring from a cooperation with leading conductors, soloists and sound engineers, and a courage in undertaking artistic challenges, including the presentation of Boulez’s Répons and Dérive 2, as well as first performances of works often considered unperformable and rejected by other musicians.
The OMN also inspires and organises many artistic events including the recording and publication of new CDs, the organisation of new music festivals, promotional concerts, and interdisciplinary projects with the participation of dancers, multimedia and computer technologies, performed outside traditional concert stages in atypical venues such as postindustrial buildings. The OMN has for many years participated in international artistic projects, cooperating with the leading ensembles of new music as well as institutions promoting modern music in Europe, Asia, and the United States. During these projects, the OMN has commissioned and premiered works by Eastern European composers, within the Förderpreis für Polen programme of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (2001–6). It has also exchanged repertoire with the leading European ensembles of new music (RE:NEW MUSIC, 2009–10, within the 2007–13 Cultural Programme). Moreover, in 2010 and 2011 the ensemble has participated in the Adam Mickiewicz Institute’s Asia Project, with the aim of increasing Polish cultural presence in Asia.
Currently the OMN takes part in the NEW MUSIC: NEW AUDIENCES project (2007–13 Cultural Programme), with the aim of sharing experiences with other European ensembles and promoters of modern music and build a strategy to find new audiences for new music.
