The Diamond Ensemble: a historical overview

The Diamond Ensemble – the first classical ensemble in Denmark based mainly on a private sponsor – gives eight concert performances each year. The idea of establishing the ensemble arose when professor and solo oboist Max Artved, with a number of wind and string friends, had given a couple of concerts in The Queen’s Hall back in 2002:
“We had such incredible fun with those concerts. And it suddenly occurred to me – why does The Royal Library not have its own chamber ensemble, when The Diamond has got this quite unique concert hall”, says Max Artved who immediately approached The Royal Library with this question.

The institution’s music producer and the program committee approved the idea. However, everyone realized that a Diamond Ensemble was not economically viable unless a private sponsor could be found. As the high-tech company Siemens had previously sponsored The Danish National Symphony Orchestras performance at the Salzburg Festival, The Royal Library decided to approach Siemens. A meeting was arranged in autumn 2003 where the idea was introduced to Siemens.

Over the following months negotiations got under way. Max Artved could get the musicians together, The Royal Library would provide all the facilities, and Siemens accepted the sponsorship.

Since the first official concert in 2004 the ensemble has played an immense number of highly acclaimed concerts. A great number of internationally known soloists have visited the ensemble through the years – among these are Alexander Kobrin, Bo Skovhus, András Schiff, Jens Elvekjær, Olli Mustonen, Marianna Shirinyan, Andreas Brantelid, Nikolai Znaider, Lise de la Salle, Leif Ove Andsnes, Saleem Abboud Ashkar and Olga Kern.

The 10 musicians in the ensemble are all known from other musical contexts in Europe, such as The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonics, The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra among others.

The Diamond Ensemble is located at the waterfront in Copenhagen in the unique and praised concert hall The Queens Hall in The Black Diamond. The result of picking out 10 of the best musicians from the big orchestras and put them in a smaller context is undoubtedly a greater nuance and intimacy. It is this feeling, combined with a high musical level, which makes The Diamond Ensemble something special.

From the very first concert, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation has been a strong and generous media partner for the ensemble; a number of concerts from The Queen’s Hall have been broadcast on European radio stations connected to EBU. And the BBC has several times selected concert recordings with The Diamond Ensemble as being particularly worth hearing.

Through the years several other foundations has supported the soloist performances. Among these are Knud Højgaard’s Foundation, The Beckett Foundation, The Nordea Foundation and The Oticon Foundation.