ARS NOVA Copenhagen is a Danish-based, international vocal ensemble of 12 members specializing in renaissance polyphonic choral music and new vocal music, which is performed with precision and verve, and with a sound that attracts attention all over the world.

The ensemble has long since established itself as one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles and has toured in more than 40 countries on five continents. With concerts in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark and several annual tours worldwide, the group is today more in demand th

an ever. Upcoming tours include Scotland, Belgium Sweden, Germany and Spain.

Over the years, Ars Nova has had close collaborations with a large number of both international and Danish composers, including Pelle Gudmundsens-Holmgreen, Per Nørgård and Avo Pärt. Most recently, the ensemble premiered works by Bent Sørensen, Signe Lykke, Caroline Shaw and Galina Grigorjeva.

Ars Nova has recorded a number of award-winning albums; including a Grammy for The Little Match Girl Passion with music by David Lang (with Theatre of Voices at Harmonia Mundi). The ensemble’s latest releases are “…and…” (Naxos) featuring  works by Arvo Pärt, Julia Wolfe and Caroline Shaw as well as Italian medieval songs from Laudario di Cortona, which was nominated as release of the year at the P2 Prize 2022, and Crossing Borders (Dacapo) with music by Carl Nielsen, Niels W. Gade, Vagn Holmboe, Wilhelm Stenhammer and Line Tjørnhøj. Both releases have received top reviews in the press. In March 2025 the group released a recording of Caroline Shaw’s How to fold the wind(Cantaloupe) commissioned by Ars Nova in 2020.

Other releases include Creator Spiritus with music by Arvo Pärt and The Christmas Story (Harmonia Mundi), Gallos Y Huesos | Notker with music by the Argentinian composer Pablo Ortiz (Orchid Classics) and The Golden Age of Danish Partsongs (Dacapo) with music by prominent Danish vocal composers from the past 200 years. 

Ars Nova was founded in 1979 and until 1995 was led by the Danish conductor and composer Bo Holten, whose pioneering ideas about a repertoire encompassing both early and new music helped establishing the ensemble’s position both in Denmark and internationally.

Tamás Vetö, who succeeded Holten in 1995, conducted a.o.. a long series of highly praised concert performances and recordings of Danish contemporary music.

From the beginning of this century until 2023, the ensemble was led by Paul Hillier, who with his clear artistic vision  took Ars Nova Copenhagen to the high level characterizing the group’s work today. In 2023 Paul Hillier was appointed honorary conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen.

In 2024 Swedish/French Sofi Jeannin took over as the ensemble’s new chief conductor. JIn addition to holding the positions as chief conductor of the BBC Singers and Maitrise de Radio France, Jeannin regularly appears as guest conductor of a large number of leading European choirs and vocal ensembles. Ars Nova has thus once again succeeded in attracting an international conductor from the top shelf.

Ars Nova is part of Tenso – The European network for professional chamber choirs.

Valdemar Wenzel Mest (b. 2005) is a Danish pianist acclaimed for his expressive interpretations and technical mastery. Born into a musical family in Nyborg, Denmark, he began piano studies at the age of four and later expanded his musical pursuits to include cello and vocal performance. As a cellist, he played in the youth orchestra Zapolski Strings, and as a vocalist, he was a soloist in the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, touring Europe and performing in Mozart’s Tryllefløjten at the Royal Danish Opera. 

Valdemar’s primary focus has always been the piano. He has studied under Professor Bella Zapolski at Copenhagen Music School since 2014 and has participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Ewa Pobłocka, Péter Nagy, Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist, Aristo Sham, Mirosław Herbowski, and Per Tengstrand. 

His talent has been recognized in several prestigious competitions. He won First Prize at the Steinway Festival Piano Competition, representing Denmark at the international Steinway Festival 2023 in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. He also secured Second Prize at the Nordic Junior Piano Competition and the Aarhus International Piano Competition 2023, where he additionally received the Carl Nielsen Prize. 

Valdemar has performed as a soloist with orchestras, including the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, where he played the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He is scheduled to perform this piece again with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and South Denmark Philharmonic. 

In addition to his solo performances, Valdemar is an active chamber musician. He has performed Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor with cellist Andreas Brantelid. 

I øjeblikket forfiner Valdemar sin kunst i Berlin under vejledning af den anerkendte pianist og pædagog Kirill Gerstein. Dette samarbejde har yderligere udviklet hans fortolkningsmæssige dybde og musikalske indsigt.

Med en voksende tilstedeværelse på den internationale klassiske musikscene fortsætter Valdemar Wenzel Most med at betage publikum med sine nuancerede optrædener og dedikation til sit håndværk.

Jonas Egholm (b. 1998) is one of Denmark’s most remarkable young classical guitarists. Growing up in Børkop near Vejle, he has quickly established himself on the international stage, winning multiple prizes, including the 1st Prize at the prestigious International Guitar Festival José Tomás Villa de Petrer in Spain.

In 2023, Jonas was named P2 Talent of the Year by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR P2), a distinction that recognizes not only his exceptional technical mastery and musicality but also his passion for new music and artistic innovation. Throughout 2023, he has performed widely, with several of his concerts broadcast live on DR P2. He is also scheduled to premiere a new work composed for him by Sandra Boss, developed in collaboration with the Danish Composers’ Society and the Esbjerg Ensemble.

Jonas is currently completing his studies in the Soloist Class at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen under Jesper Sivebæk and will make his official debut in September 2023. His first solo album, featuring music by Sergio Assad, Joaquín Rodrigo, and others, was released in 2022 and selected as Album of the Week by DR P2.

Jonas er kendt for sin kunstneriske nysgerrighed, disciplin og engagement i både traditionelt og nutidigt repertoire, og han er aktivt involveret i projekter, der bringer nykomponeret musik ud til et yngre publikum, herunder hans indspilninger for Educate-Set dansk initiativ til fremme af ny musik for børn og unge.

Med sin dynamiske tilstedeværelse og dybe musikalske indsigt er Jonas Egholm klar til at blive en ledende figur på den internationale guitarscene.

Praised by critics as “a musician whose finesse, intelligence and sensitivity blend harmoniously” (Diapason) and who creates moments of “pure beauty” (Bachtrack), Dominic Chamot is emerging as “one of the new musical stars of the international piano scene” (Fono Forum).

Born in Cologne in 1995, he is the winner of the Viotti, Ferrol and CIPCE competitions, as well as six other competitions. He has also won 26 other prizes and awards at competitions such as Maria-Canals, Hilton Head and many more.

His career began at a young age when, at the age of 12, he was admitted to the class of Prof. Sheila Arnold at the Pre-College-Cologne of the HfMT Cologne, which provided him with crucial musical impulses. Soon after, he received international awards in Berlin, Zwickau, Enschede, Weimar, Cologne, etc., as well as performances in prestigious venues such as the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonie, the Wiener Musikverein, Palau de la Musica Catalana Barcelona, and many others.

Chamot then deepened his studies with Claudio Martinez-Mehner in Basel. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Specialised Performance (Soloist) with top grades and honors, and at the end of his pedagogy studies with Zoltan Fejervari, he also won the award for the best recital of the year at the

 Basel Music Academy. Since 2024 he receives lessons from Rena Shereshevskaya as part of the “Elite”-programme at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.

Meanwhile, his reputation as a versatile musician developed, leading to performances worldwide. He played concerts in 17 countries on 4 continents, recently performed multiple times at the Berlin Philharmonie, won some of Switzerland’s most exclusive scholarships during his studies, and was invited by the WDR Symphony Orchestra as a soloist for a concert at the Cologne Philharmonie. After these successes, further invitations followed from orchestras throughout Germany, as well as the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, ORF Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and many more. He has collaborated with conductors such as Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Cornelius Meister, Joseph Bastian, and many others. In New York, he captivated the audience with his performance at the Steinway Hall as part of the “Classical Bridge Festival.”

In 2025, highlights include recitals at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, at the Tokyo International Forum and at the Piano Festival La Roque-d’Anthéron.

He is also in high demand as a chamber musician: he is repeatedly invited to festivals (Gstaad, Davos, Schwetzingen Mozart Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival), regularly performs with musicians from Switzerland’s top orchestras (Tonhalle Zurich, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, among others), and released a duo CD with Sergio Pires, principal clarinetist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Other chamber music partners included Kian Soltani, Sirena Huang and many more.

Dominic Chamot has received scholarships from the Jürgen Ponto Stiftung, Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben, Migros-Kulturprozent, Lieven Piano Foundation, Jmanuel und Evamaria Schenk Stiftung, August-Pickhardt Stiftung, Stiftung für junge Musiktalente Meggen, and the Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung.

Dmitry Smirnov is widely regarded as one of the exceptional personalities of the young generation of violinists. The ARD prizewinner performs as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra or the Festival Strings Lucerne and in concert halls from Carnegie Hall in New York to Nikkei Hall in Tokyo. As an ‘enfant terrible’, he inspires audiences with his bold artistic vision and outstanding virtuosity, including in historically informed interpretations of traditional repertoire. As a sought-after chamber musician, he regularly performs with partners such as Sol Gabetta and Ilya Gringolts, and also acts as concertmaster and soloist for Giovanni Antonini’s ‘Haydn Project 2032’.

In the coming season, Dmitry will make his debut with orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Philharmonic and will act as concertmaster for Cappella Gabetta’s European tour. In March 2026, at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, he will present the world premiere of the violin concerto by the illustrious Russian composer Gavriil Popov, which was thought to have been lost and which he completed after months of archival and transcription work. Recording projects with the lutenist and Harnoncourt student Luca Pianca with works by Paganini as well as the collaboration with Ilya Gringolts for Vivaldi’s double concertos will enrich his discography to date, which already contains solo works from J. S. Bach to Bartók as well as various romantic violin concertos (on gut strings).

Dmitry has won prizes at numerous international competitions, including first prizes at the Moscow Oistrakh Competition (2006), the Tibor Varga Competition (2015) and the Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne (2017), second prizes at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition (2008) and the ARD Music Competition (2021), a controversial elimination in the semi-finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2024) and three prizes at the Concours international Long-Thibaud-Crespin in 2018, including the Critics’ Prize for the best interpretation of contemporary music. He is the winner of numerous scholarships and his work is supported by generous donors such as the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation.

Dmitry regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician at renowned festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, LuganoMusica, Heidelberger Frühling, Rheingau Music Festival, Davos Festival, Grafenegg Festival, Stresa Festival, Solsberg Festival, Festival delle Muse Salentine and Inverno Musicale (Brazil).

As a soloist, he has worked with conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Heinz Holliger, Philippe Herreweghe, Vladimir Spivakov, Gilbert Varga, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Philipp Chizhevsky, Delyana Lazarova and Aurel Dawidiuk and has performed with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Festival Strings Lucerne, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Kammerorchester Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Argovia Philharmonic, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie.

Dmitry was born into a musical family in St. Petersburg, where he received his first violin lessons at the age of four and continued his education at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. Subsequent studies took him to the Haute École de Musique Lausanne in the class of Pavel Vernikov followed by studies with Rainer Schmidt at the Basel Music Academy. In the context of baroque music, Dmitry also performs as a violist, cellist and harpsichordist. His main instrument is a violin by Philipp Bonhoeffer (2018).

German-British cellist Philip Skye Graham is a sought-after chamber musician and interpreter ofcontemporary music. His diverse career encompasses working with various ensembles and musical styles, solo projects, teaching activities, and collaborations with contemporary composers.
Early competition successes, numerous international scholarships, and studies with renowned professors such as Clemens Hagen (Mozarteum University Salzburg), Alexander Hülshoff (Folkwang University of the Arts), and Nicolas Altstaedt (Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin), alongside further musical guidance from eminent figures including Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Lucas Fels (Arditti Quartet), Heinrich Schiff, and Steven Isserlis, quickly led to an intense concert schedule. In 2015, he joined the Berlin-based Notos Piano Quartet.

From 2015 to 2024, Graham performed with the Notos Quartet on some of the world’s most prestigious stages across Europe, Japan, China, Australia, and North America. The quartet’s achievements include three critically acclaimed albums released by Sony Classical, numerous live recordings, radio and television features, and six first prizes at international competitions. Their excellence was further recognized with the Würth Prize of Jeunesses Musicales Germany.

Since leaving the quartet in 2024 to explore new artistic directions, Graham has pursued many different projects that span a wide range, including performances at the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, recordings of solo works by H.W. Henze and B.A. Zimmermann, collaborations with artists such as Christian Tetzlaff and Heinz Holliger as well as guest appearances with the Esbjerg Ensemble and as principal cellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

A key element of Graham’s career is collaboration with contemporary composers. Over the years, many works have been written for him and the Notos Quartet, including by distinguished composers such as Beat Furrer, Birke Bertelsmeier, David P. Graham, Jesús Torres, Bernhard Gander, Bryce Dessner, Hakan Ulus, and Elena Mendoza.

Beyond his performance career, Philip Graham is deeply committed to supporting young artists. In 2019 he co-founded the now annual Notos Chamber Music Academy in collaboration with Jeunesses Musicales Germany. He has also conducted workshops with his father, British composer David P. Graham, on teaching modern compositional techniques and interpreting new works for children and young people. Since the winter semester of 2024/25, Graham has been an adjunct faculty member at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin.

Thanks to the generous support of the Merito String Instruments Trust, Philip Graham performs on a Giovanni Battista Grancino cello from 1700. As a Pirastro Artist, he exclusively uses strings crafted by the renowned string manufacturer Pirastro GmbH.

Christian Martinez, slagtøj

Christian Martinez begyndte sine slagtøjsstudier i sin hjemby Cali i Columbia. Senere fulgte studier på Manhattan School of Music i New York og på Rogaland Musikkonservatorium i Stavanger. I 1996 dimitterede han fra Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium i København, og samme år blev han medlem af Esbjerg Ensemble.

Christian Martínez har deltaget som kammermusiker og solist ved adskillige festivaler og koncerter i Skandinavien, Europa, USA, Latinamerika og Taiwan. Senest ved Nordic Music Days Festival i 2010, Athelas New Music Festival i 2011, Percussion Plus Festival Aarhus i 2012 og Kalliokuninkala Festival i 2012 og Percussion Plusin 2014, begge i Finland. I januar 2014 samarbejdede Esbjerg Ensemble med "kongen" af barytoner, Omar Ebrahim, i den første skandinaviske opførelse af György Kurtágs "Pas a pas, nulle-part" for baryton, strygetrio og slagtøj.

I 2010 udgav Christian Martinez sin første solo-cd "Rhythmical Séance" med Per Nørgårds I Ching samt stykker af Ivar Frounberg og Ejnar Kanding. Samarbejdet med Nørgård førte til to nye værker på denne cd: en koncert for slagtøj og ensemble kaldet Three Scenes samt Arabesques I, II, III (2011) for soloslagtøj. Begge værker er dedikeret til Christian Martínez og Esbjerg Ensemble.

In the last decade Christian Ihle Hadland has established himself as a true craftsman of
the piano, a musician whose delicate, refined playing an individual touch have led him tothe most prestigious stages in the world.

Christian came to international attentionin 2011 when he began a two-year stint as a BBC New Generation Artist. As an NGA he performed with all five of the BBC’s symphony orchestras from London to Manchester and broadcast solo and chamber recitals for the corporation in London. As a finale to his tenure, Christian was the soloist in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto at the BBC Proms with the Oslo Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko; the concert was broadcast live and Christian was praised by London critics for his ‘pearly’ and ‘otherwordly’ sound.

Christian made his professional concerto debut with KORK, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, aged 15. He has since performed with all the major orchestras in Scandinavia including the Swedish Radio and Danish National Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo Philharmonics and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In the UK he has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Manchester Camerata, in addition to his work with the BBC orchestras. This season includes his debut with Orchestre National de Lyon, aside Leonard Slatkin, re-invitation to Helsinki Philharmonic with Thomas Søndergaard, as well as performances with BBC Philharmonic and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.

Christian is highly sought after as a chamber musician and has been Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, his hometown, since 2010. He is a frequent guest at The Wigmore Hall, since he gave his debut solo recital in 2013, and is a regular guest at the Bergen International Festival in Norway. He has also performed at the BBC Proms Chamber Music Series, where he collaborated with the Signum Quartet. In 2015 he gave a three-week chamber music tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and American mezzo Susan Graham. In 2006, Christian performed with soprano Renée Fleming at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo.

Christian is a respected recording artist whose disc of Mozart Piano Concertos with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for the Spellemann Prize in 2014, the highest honour for recorded music in Norway. Christian’s Holberg Variations CD, recorded with Ensemble 1B1, won the Spellemann Prize in 2015. His recording of works for cello and piano by Grieg and Granger, made with the Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid, was released on BIS in 2015 and immediately named a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His most recent album The Lark, released on Simax, was immediately nominated for Spellemann prize 2017.

Christian Ihle Hadland has played with renowned conductors at the highest level, including Sir Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt and Thomas Dausgaard.

Christian was born in Stavanger in 1983 and received his first piano lessons at the age of eight. At the age of eleven he entered the Rogaland Music Conservatory, and in 1999 began lessons with Professor Jiri Hlinka, both privately and at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.

Joke Wijma, horn

Joke Wijma har været medlem af Esbjerg Ensemble siden 2005.

"At spille Peter Maxwell Davies' "Sea Eagle" for solohorn udendørs, mens et rovfugleshow fandt sted, har været den mest bemærkelsesværdige oplevelse, jeg har haft med ensemblet."

Efter at have studeret hos Frank Brouns og Hans Dullarert på konservatoriet i Groningen fortsatte Joke Wijma sine studier på Hochschule für Musik und Theater i Hamborg, hvor den hollandske hornist Ab Koster var professor.

Efter sin eksamen i 2004 fortsatte hun sine studier hos Koster og arbejdede samtidig med Duisburger Philharmoniker som praktikant.

Ron Chen-Zion, klarinet

Ron Chen-Zion har været medlem af Esbjerg Ensemble siden 1993. Esbjerg Ensemble, Danmarks ældste professionelle internationale kammermusikensemble, er kendt for sine dynamiske optrædener og sit engagement i moderne og klassisk repertoire og bidrager væsentligt til den internationale og danske musikscene.

"Da jeg var 11 år, fik jeg tilfældigvis posten en dag og fandt blandt dem en annonce, hvor der stod: "Lær at spille et instrument på kun tre måneder".

Da jeg efterfølgende mødte op på musikskolen, havde de kun ét instrument til udlån: klarinetten. Vi var to elever, der måtte dele instrumentet, og fordi vi havde klarinetundervisning om torsdagen, havde den anden elev og jeg hver vores klarinet tre dage om ugen." Ron Chen-Zion begyndte sine studier med Richard Lesser fra det israelske filharmoniske orkester.

I 1986 flyttede han til USA, hvor han fortsatte sine studier og dimitterede fra New England Conservatory.

I 1990 blev Ron Chen-Zion udnævnt til soloklarinettist i The State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Som kammermusiker er han ofte blevet inviteret til Rudolf Serkins Marlboro Music Festival i USA og har optrådt i det meste af Europa, Israel og Nord- og Sydamerika. Ron Chen-Zion har indspillet flere cd'er, bl.a. en meget rost gengivelse af Max Regers' stykker for klarinet og klaver.