Biography

Calefax Reed Quintet

Calefax, established 25 years ago, are now in great demand worldwide, not least because of their unique instrumentation. The quintet performs standing up and always introduces itself and the program to the audience. Most importantly, the five musicians arrange, recompose and interpret music from eight centuries to suit their unique constellation: from early music to classical and jazz to world premières; in the hands of Calefax it all sounds fresh and new.
The Amsterdam based ensemble has won a number of prestigious prizes and can be heard frequently throughout Europe and further afield in Russia, China, India, Turkey, Japan and the USA.
The Times: “Calefax - five extremely gifted Dutch gents who almost made the reed quintet seem the best musical format on the planet”.

‘11/’12 season
As for previous seasons Calefax has a considerable number of interesting programs and concert tours scheduled. The ensemble can be heard in amongst others the US, Japan and South-Africa and will undertake several tours to the UK (amongst others Wigmore Hall), Germany (amongst others Wittener Tage für Neue Musik) and Belgium (amongst others Bach Academy Brugge and Antwerp/De Singel).

Season highlights are:
- Music & Image in Image & Music, a program in which the five Calefax musicians will be accompanied on stage by five movable projection screens for which video material (to be screened while the musicians play) has been specially developed
- a cooperation with the New York based composer Nico Muhly and Dutch rising star soprano Lenneke Ruiten (concerts in Nederland - Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Belgium and England - Wigmore Hall)
- the ‘Scherpdenkers’-series with Rob Riemen, director of the highly respected Nexus Institut (Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Muziekgebouw Frits Philips, Eindhoven)
- the Far East Revisited-project with jazz trio Jungle Boldie (Amsterdam/Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Leidse Jazz Week)
- a concert in the Donderdagavondserie Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam (with world premières of Works by Carola Bauckholt, Klas Torstensson and Yannis Kyriakides)

CDs
Calefax has released 16 cd’s for the reknown German label MDG as well as for their own label RIOJA Records, which without exception, applauded by the international press: "A sublime sense of timing [...]. In short: here are five souls playing as one. These are … masters!"

Recently two cd’s appeared. One with recordings of the CalefaXL(Calefax Extra Large)-project for which Calefax was extended to a formation of twelve reed players.
Dutch leading newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ on CalefaXL:
“CalefaXL juggles with notes,and keeps these in the air in a grandioso manner.” (Frits van der Waa, CD-review)
“As CalefaXL the twelve reed players shone in a sold out music centreVredenburg (Utrecht) with new compositions and inventive arrangements.’’ (Lonneke Regter, concert review)

Only months before the CalefaXL-release a cd with repertoire from the much praised family performance The Music Factory appeared. The Music Factory was premièred in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and has since been performed throughout The Netherlands and in the Philharmonie in Cologne. In coming seasons The Music Factory performances in the Luxembourg Filharmonie and the Wigmore Hall, London (tbc) are scheduled.
Dutch leading newspaper ‘NRC-Handelsblad’ on The Music Factory: .. ‘many captivating moments’ .. ‘family performance put together perfectly’..
Jochem Valkenburg, 28 December 2010)

For this season a release of Bach’s Goldberg variations is foreseen.
For an overview of the Calefax-cd’s and ordering of cd’s visit webshop.

Cooperations
Calefax enjoyed cooperations with amongst others pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, trombonist Christian Lindberg, mezzo soprano Cora Burggraaf, Jungle Boldie (formerly the Tony Overwater Trio), trumpet player Marco Blaauw, percussionist Arnold Marinissen, Zapp String Quartet, Kinan Azmeh (clarinetist Syria/US), Claude Chalhoub (violinist, Lebanon), jazz singers Denise Jannah and Astrid Seriese, and choreographer Sanne van der Put.

Edition
Members of Calefax have built a reputation with their own reed quintet arrangements. In addition to this some seventy new works written for the group complement the repertoire which spans many centuries of music history.

In 2004 Calefax started publishing (for online sale) its most successful arrangements in the CalefaxEDITION. As a result of this several reed quintets have been formed all over the world. Through masterclasses and workshops the Calefax musicians pass on their specific ways of working and musical experiences to new generations. For musicians as well as composers, for audiences and press alike, Calefax continues to be an inspiring chamber music laboratory.

Calefax consists of:
Oliver Boekhoorn - oboe
Ivar Berix - clarinet
Raaf Hekkema - saxophone
Jelte Althuis - bass clarinet
Alban Wesly - bassoon

For more information:
mail: info@calefax.nl
see:
www.myspace.com/calefax
www.youtube.com/user/CalefaxReedQuintet
www.facebook.com/calefax
or follow Calefax on twitter.com/calefax