With great sadness, Ensemble Modern announced the death of Uwe Dierksen, who passed away on February 10, 2026, after a lengthy illness. He was 66.
A member of the Frankfurt-based ensemble since 1983, Dierksen was not only its trombonist but also one of its defining artistic personalities. Over more than four decades, he helped shape the identity of one of the world’s leading formations dedicated to contemporary music. Within the democratically organised group of 18 soloists, he played a central role in artistic decisions and in the development of projects that expanded the ensemble’s aesthetic spectrum.
Colleagues described him as a “faithful companion and dear friend,” a musician whose artistic attitude and strong presence left a lasting imprint on the ensemble’s sound and thinking.
Champion of immediacy and education
Beyond his work as an instrumentalist, Dierksen was committed to making contemporary music accessible without diluting its complexity. He believed in the immediacy of musical experience and sought to transmit that intensity to audiences, whether performing as a trombonist or presenting his own compositions.
Education was particularly close to his heart. He worked extensively with children and teenagers, encouraging them to explore their own creativity and develop individual forms of expression. Among these projects was his youth opera Mina, presented at the Frankfurt Opera, where he combined pedagogical engagement with artistic ambition.
Only recently, his cinema revue Flucht ins Glück, featuring his music, premiered at the Volksbühne im Großen Hirschgraben. Further performances are scheduled for February 15 and 20, and March 15 and 28.
Facing illness with openness
Dierksen confronted his illness over many years with notable openness. In October 2025, he presented the album Hirngespinste // Pipedreams alongside his oncologist, publicly reflecting on the course of his disease with disarming honesty.
Already physically weakened, he gave his final concert with Ensemble Modern on December 2, 2025, during a celebration of Helmut Lachenmann’s 90th birthday in the long-running “Happy New Ears” series at the Frankfurt Opera — a fitting farewell within a project that has long stood at the centre of the ensemble’s engagement with living composers.
Ensemble Modern: a global reference for new music
Founded in 1980 and based in Frankfurt am Main, Ensemble Modern has become one of the most influential ensembles devoted to contemporary music worldwide. Its members — drawn from across Europe, Asia and the United States — collectively determine artistic and financial decisions, maintaining a self-managed structure that has become a model within the field.
The ensemble performs regularly at major international festivals, including the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Donaueschingen Festival and Wien Modern, and appears at venues such as Berlin’s Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Each year it rehearses and performs around 70 new works, including approximately 20 world premieres.
In 2024, Ensemble Modern was awarded the Silver Lion at the Biennale Musica di Venezia, further confirming its status as a key reference point in the international new music scene.
With Dierksen’s death, the ensemble loses one of the figures who helped build and sustain this legacy. As his colleagues noted, his influence will endure — in their shared sound, their artistic thinking and their memories.
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