Alban Berg Ensemble Wien
Exciting modern and topical programs, to initiate the audience unto our journeys of artistic discovery, to communicate music in an open-minded, uncompromising, yet in a poetic manner: this is the mission and the guiding principles that unite the seven musicians who constitute the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien.

This Ensemble, formed in 2016, comprises the renowned Hugo Wolf Quartet, pianist Ariane Haering as well as, flutist Silvia Careddu and clarinetist Alexander Neubauer from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The Alban Berg Foundation bestows its imprimatur as a public acknowledgement of the esteem in which these musicians are held for their artistic vision, and in recognition of their innovative path in the spirit of Alban Berg - connected to the past while committed to the future.

The Wiener Musikverein invited the ensemble to perform an annual series of concerts, since 2023 this „ABEW in Vienna“ series is held in the 18th century palace of Josephinum.

The first CD of the ABEW was released on the Deutsche Grammophone label. It features works of Mahler, Strauss and Schönberg, all written in the first years of the 20th century. The three composers all found different solutions to the musical questions of their time, and the outcome of the ABEW ́s look on their works is a „fascinating debut of rare intensity.“, „exceptional in intonational precision and clarity of texture.“

„This Deutsche Grammophon debut for Alban Berg Ensemble Wien is a winner.“

In 2022 the ABEW premiered O Lungo (D)rom by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick in the Konzerthaus Berlin. This work was written for the ABEW and follows the long road Roma and Sinti people had to follow throughout the centuries.The ensemble is delighted that their dedication to the cause as well as their enthusiasm for contemporary music will be leading to a release of this work on the DECCA label in spring 2024.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick
is a German-American composer of Romani-Kurdish descent. His works include solo, chamber, orchestral, electro-acoustic, film and choral music, traversing a wide range of styles and often exploring aspects of his complex international heritage. His music has been commissioned and championed by a wide range of artists and organizations, attracting international acclaim from audiences and critics. In recent years his electro-acoustic work Herzliche Grüße Bruno ~ Briefe aus Stalingrad, eight-voice Missa Gentis Humanæ, song cycle Kollwitz-Konnex (…im Frieden seiner Hände), Kinderkreuzzug cantata and autobiographical string quartet Imagined Memories have exemplified his remarkably diverse output, with its frequent references to the highlights of the Western musical canon and rigorous compositional standards. Gawlick’s most recent composition, an oratorio entitled O Lungo Drom (The Long Road), was commissioned by the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien and is dedicated to Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. His music, published by several firms, has been performed internationally (in venues including Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna’s Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall) and is recorded on the Musica Omnia, Perfect Noise and Decca Eloquence labels in composer-supervised performances by the works’ dedicatees. Gawlick is currently working on Die Ursitory, an opera based on Matéo Maximoff’s novel of the same name. This opera contains many "firsts": Die Ursitory is the first novel written by a Rom, on a Romani theme, and now set to music by a Romani composer. In this way, Maximoff's seminal story receives a unique realization from within, rather than being viewed through the lens and stereotypes of non-Roma, as in all previous operas with Roma (G*psy) themes. A professor at Boston College, Ralf Gawlick lives in Newton, MA, with his wife and fellow musician, Basia.