“It was really a great concert with an uncommon program, new and interesting discoverings and everything played in the highest level.”
Olaf Wegener, Project leader of the Support Program of Contemporary Music (German Musical Council)
“I welcome the foundation of this ensemble since people who are working in early and contemporary music look further, beyond conventions and the norm. At the end our hearing is expanded.”
Alberto Bernal, composer and sound artist
“They are a unique ensemble. Their career must be followed, it is really promising.”
Sergio Blardony, composer
Poetry of Extremes
About Us
Continuum XXI consists of baroque violin, recorder, viola da gamba and harpsichord and is one of the few groups in Europe focused on both early and contemporary repertoire, therefore a pioneer and original project. In our experience we have worked with current composers who have written and dedicated pieces to our ensemble, including a number of world premieres by Alberto Bernal and Sergio Blardony; they constitute, together with José Mª Sánchez-Verdú, the corpus of the current repertoire performed by Continuum XXI.
On the other hand, key pieces of the classical-contemporary literature, such as Gesti by Luciano Berio and Continuum by György Ligeti, are a proof of our commitment to the music of the XX and XXI centuries. The constellation of contemporary works, of markedly different aesthetical languages, makes our ensemble especially versatile in our search for new forms of musical expression, timbres recovered from historical instruments, dialogue with new media, conceptual and theatrical tendencies and ultimately, the possibility of showing the whole potential of our group while confronting contemporary repertoire.
In any of its duration and scoring, our ensemble has the experience and capacity to build a program of quality and adapt it to different festivals and concert formats. Since 2018 Continuum XXI is part of the “Förderprojekte Zeitgenössische Musik“ (Support Program of Contemporary Music) as innovative and young initiative and counts on the support of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Musical Council), which refers to our project Poetry of Extremes in these terms: “It was really a great concert with an uncommon program, new and interesting discovering and everything in the highest level.”
Interview in the online magazine SulPonticello | Continuum XXI: feedback between past and present (Spanish).
Interview in the Spanish radio show Música viva (RNE): Classical music vs contemporary music (Spanish).
Members
Adrián Pineda
Baroque violin
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My reference pieces are:
Early Music: Sonate in D Major K.511 para Clave by Scarlatti.
Contemporary Music: Melancholia for baroque violin by José M. Sánchez-Verdú.
My motivation in CXXI:
My goal is to have a broad perspective of what music is as a whole, thus achieving an inclusive vision of all the possibilities that we have available to be contemporary musicians with all the baggage of history in our favour.
Moisés Maroto
Recorder
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My reference pieces are:
Early Music: Overture-Suite TWV 55:a2 by G. P. Telemann for recorder and orchestra.
Contemporary Music: Gesti by L. Berio.
My motivation in CXXI:
My purpose with Continuum XXI is double: on the one hand my personal wish is that the recorder gains importance and perspective in the future as an instrument, that is, that its importance and versatility are shown as they were during its golden age; their technical possibilities in favor of the contemporary composition that the instrument has and that is how it consolidates more in the present. The second thing that motivates me is to show a musical idea of a project that is so different, beautiful and functional, as well as breaking stereotypes and pigeonholing of historical instruments.
Calia Álvarez
Viola da gamba
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My reference pieces are:
Early Music: Pièces de Viole by A. Forqueray.
Contemporary Music: Folias americanas by C. Álvarez.
My motivation in CXXI:
I seek to show the wide range of expressive possibilities of the viola da gamba both as a soloist and in chamber groups. On the other hand, I am especially motivated to expand the current repertoire written for this instrument that, in my view, is of great versatility and richness. It can navigate from the most brutal to the most delicate, it is capable of changing from the role of accompanist to soloist with ease and its particular timbre is especially attractive. I think I should have much more presence in concerts of Ancient and Contemporary Music.
Sara Johnson
Harpsichord
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My reference pieces are:
Early Music: Partita n.6 for harpsichord by J.S. Bach.
Contemporary Music: Hungarian Rock by G. Ligeti.
My motivation in CXXI:
To disseminate the current relevance of our historical instruments (with their infinite sound possibilities yet to be explored) as well as the Baroque repertoire, whose music is today still close and ‘fresh’ to the modern human being despite of the temporal distance.
Alberto Arroyo
Artistic director
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My reference pieces are:
Early Music: Trio Sonata HWV 392 by G.F. Händel.
Contemporary Music: Continuum, by G. Ligeti
My motivation in CXXI:
I wish that Continuum XXI establishes its scoring as standard instrumentation and breaks the historical discontinuity that exists in the repertoire written for historical instruments. That in the future to compose for recorder or harpsichord is as common as to do it for modern flute and piano. Or flute and video. To search beyond conventions and offer new expressive possibilities to current composers.
Constellations
From its initial core, the CXXI scoring expands and collaborates with musicians and artists from other disciplines: on our horizon there are concerts that include baroque percussion, voice, dancers, etc. This is the case of Paula Piñero, Zinnia Nomura, Mikkel Alexander Tøttrup, Sandra Lanuza or Joan Gómez Alemany, among others.
Sandra Lanuza
Electronics
Joan Gómez Alemany
Visual Artist & Composer
Paula Pinero
Percussion
Zinnia Nomura
Dance
Mikkel A. Tøttrup
Dance
Media
Poetry of Extremes
Interview in the Spanish radio show “Música viva (RNE): Classical music vs contemporary music (Spanish)”. More info on Música Viva’s website.
