ABOUT US

Our history in brief:

Kiev Percussion Ensemble ARS NOVA was founded in 1989. Its founder and later art director is an Honoured artist of Ukraine, laureate of international competitions, professor George Chernenko.
One of the main ideas of the ARS NOVA /The New Art/ - is the creation of the incompatible synthesis. It is expressed in the ensemble's creativity, in the harmony and combination tools, which don't seem to be melodious sounding ones: various subjects, so-called percussion instruments.
Within the period of ensemble's existence plenty of various music ideas, projects and experiments were incarnated.
From time to time the members of the ensemble were changing. At its sources were George Chernenko, Sergey Khmelyov, Genadiy Khlopotov and Dmitriy Ulyanov. They all are professional musicians, laureates of the international competitions and graduates of the Kiev Chaykovsky Conservatory (percussion class).
At first, due to the upbringing and education of the musicians, the reference point to the classical music was chosen. It was being expressed through the sounding of melodious percussion instruments such as marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, bells, bluebells and many other clamour and sound percussion instruments. As a result, the program of works by Bah, Mozart, Handel, Svelink, Bortnyansky, Lyatoshinsky and many other composers was created. The arrangements to the compositions were made by the members of the ensemble. Also such original compositions as "Bonita Bayda", "Ivory Coast" and many others were created.
During this period ARS NOVA has found its unique and unlike others sounding. Its essence is in the use of the soft sticks /for kettle-drum/ for marimba. People, who heard that sound, could hardly imagine that percussion instruments could sound like that. One of the subsequent findings was the combination of ARS NOVA and children boys' chorus, which really impressed the audience. It is hard to describe in words, it is worth seeing.
In the period till 1991 the ensemble took an active part in various festivals of the modern classic music; successful performances of ARS NOVA took place in France.
Along with a classic program, ARS NOVA keeps on experimenting with sounds and timbers. It is always in the permanent search for something new and interesting. One of the results of such searching was a new orchestral drum sounding. The drums were hung at the human height level. The musicians had to stand during the play with their hands up. This helped to reproduce the variety of the timbers to the audience and to show a lot more abilities of the new performance technique. Later on, Tom-toms and many other percussion instruments were added to the big orchestral drums. There were also much Latin American percussion and as a result, an entirely new program appeared, the new conception of the ensemble.

What we did, what we do: