[1][2][3][4] Having worked in the field of new music for almost four decades, it had to came to a halt at the end of 2019.
The ensemble was founded in 1980 in Amsterdam and it had a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as mandolin, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion.
[citation needed][5] The Nieuw Ensemble had dedicated programmes to the works of a single composer, such as Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Mauricio Kagel, Ton de Leeuw, György Kurtág, Theo Loevendie and Luigi Nono.
Since 1991, programmes featuring new works written especially for the ensemble by Chinese composers such as Tan Dun, Qu Xiao-Song, Xu Shuya, Chen Qigang and Guo Wenjing had appeared.
In 1998 the Nieuw Ensemble and Joël Bons were awarded the prestigious Prince Bernhard Fund Music Prize for the ‘markedly lively and adventurous programming that could be described as crossing borders, both in the literal and figurative sense'.